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My new shrimpie friends

Discussion in 'Invertebrates' started by James0816, Sep 3, 2010.

  1. James0816

    James0816 Thread Starter New Member

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    Just got these in a couple days ago. They are doing wonderfully at the moment and coloring up quite nicely.

    They are Caridina cf. Propinqua (a.k.a Orange Sunkist or Mandarine Shrimp)
    newshrimp1.jpg newshrimp2.jpg
     
  2. nossie

    nossie Member

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    Oh, how cute they are! Very nice colors :)
     
  3. MasterBlue

    MasterBlue Active Member

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    Cool =D
     
  4. MOD_Dawn

    MOD_Dawn Active Member

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    They almost look like the yellows...very nice!
    (can see them against a black background, with black tahitian moon sand & a skull head decor and maybe a white led strip for night...halloween!)
     
  5. MasterBlue

    MasterBlue Active Member

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    lol. dawn =P
     
  6. James0816

    James0816 Thread Starter New Member

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    Finally getting my first zoea.

    Quick morning check of the zoea this morning and all looks well. I didn't notice any losses over night from the ones that were captured. I did find a few more floating around in the tank and went ahead and grabbed them out and placed in isolation. They will be washed out to sea today.

    I tried to get some shots last night of them and this is about the best I could get at the moment. They are so small. I'll try to snap some more before moving out to sea. You can just make them out as they almost look like arrows.

    ai735.photobucket.com_albums_ww357_James0816_caridina_20cf_20propinqua_PropinquaZoea_121410.jpg

    Second female still holding. I've observed something with these guys. When they are first carrying eggs, the eggs are green. When they are getting ready to hatch, the color fades to a grayish color.

    I'm going to estimate around 40 or so zoea in there at the moment. This morning, most of them where in the same corner as pictured above.

    Time's running out on the remaining ones in the tank. Hopefully I will be able to find alot more today and get them moved over so they at least will have a fighting chance of survival.
     
  7. James0816

    James0816 Thread Starter New Member

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    Experiments moving right along with interesting and sad results at the same time.

    The zoea do not take to sea water like other low order species such as Amano's. They all perish within minutes in the sea tank. I'm actually going to break it down and drop the salinity to the lower end of the spectrum. My low level set point is 1.005 so we'll go from there.

    The brack tank seems to be doing well. I added a ton more zoea to it and more phyto yesterday. Rotifers should be coming in any day now. I can get them started and hopefully the zoea will be ready to munch on them within a week.

    I found it real easy to catch the zoea by placing their isolation chamber in darkness. Doing this causes them to bunch up together, usually in a corner. Once the light source is added back, they start to float back up and off in the current. Very odd. It is with the darkness that I take the dropper and suck up a whole mass of them. There are only a few remaining in the isolation chamber. If they survive two more days, they will go into the low salt tank.

    Two more berried females waiting to contribute to the cause. ;)
     
  8. James0816

    James0816 Thread Starter New Member

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    There are now (3) berried ladies in the main tank. Awesomeness! Lots of zoea to play with in the future.

    Speaking of zoea ... sea tank was torn down and reset at ~ 1.005. Now I give an approximate value in that the fresh medium was made up at that level. However, my phyto cultures are at 1.026 and 1.014. I added a few tablespoons of each as well as the freshwater that the zoea came. Think I got the remaining zoea from the freshwater out. All those went into the low salt tank.

    Brank tank continues to do well. Have only seen a couple zoea that look like they didn't make it. But for the most part, all are still floating in the current.
     
  9. James0816

    James0816 Thread Starter New Member

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    And we're growing....

    ai735.photobucket.com_albums_ww357_James0816_PropinquaZoea2_122210.jpg

    ai735.photobucket.com_albums_ww357_James0816_PropinquaZoea1_122210.jpg

    Don't have to strain the eyes so much to see them now. Going to try and clean up the bottom of the tank a little bit tomorrow and add some fresh water. While not necessary, I'm going to see how they react to it. Plus add a fresh coarse of phyto.

    Over in the low salt tank, there is promise. I managed to locate (2) floaters. Definately makes me believe it was an age thing that lead to the others not making it.

    I've decided that I'm also going to create a freshwater test just to ensure they actually need the salt to survive at this stage.
     
  10. James0816

    James0816 Thread Starter New Member

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    Test #2 at low salinity level has begun. There wasn't a whole lot of zoea from this hatching so the test group will be small. I'm only going to focus on the low salinity for this group with the small size. I'll go back later this evening to try and fish out the rest of the zoea.

    Salt tanks currently sitting at 74F. I moved the light to the side of the tanks instead of hovering over top. This has seemed to put the temp right at the target level.
     
  11. James0816

    James0816 Thread Starter New Member

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    More zoea than I originally thought. Kewlness. Makes a larger testing group. No casulties witnessed in the past couple of hours. That's a better sign than last attempt. They seem to huddle in the middle of tank near the light. This is leading me to think temperature is playing a bigger role.

    Now the next question will be feeding. Right now, I have added 2 tbsp of Nanno. The water has light green tint to it. I think what I'll do this time instead of using the dropper to mix up the water, I will extend the air tube down further and use it. This would keep the same amount of current in the tank at the same time as stirring up the plankton that settles on the bottom. I have increased the air flow just a tad from last time.
     
  12. James0816

    James0816 Thread Starter New Member

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    Interesting find. The female in isolation has practically hatched out all her eggs. The odd thing, I can only find a few zoea. I'm thinking I may have had her in there too long and the water quality wasn't as good as it should have been. Grrrrr.

    I have another female who is just days away so I will clean out the chamber and place her in there.

    Salt tanks have been prepped with fresh water and phyto. Added a bit of Micro Algae grow to encourage the phyto to continue to grow with the zoea.

    New Rotifers came in today. These are live specimens instead of the dry eggs I received last time. I'll get their bottle set up in the culture station tomorrow. I also received some decapsulated brine shrimp. May give them a whirl too.
     
  13. James0816

    James0816 Thread Starter New Member

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    And the Rotifers are started. Since I couldn't find out at what SG the Rotifers were cultured at from the vendor, I am slowly drip acclimating them to 1.014. From what I have read, this is a good salinity for breeding them.

    ai735.photobucket.com_albums_ww357_James0816_OtherPictures_P1151297.jpg

    Prior to starting the drip, I feed about 4ml Nannochloropsis. I will feed some more once acclimation is complete.

    This is one culture that I have to stay on top of because they say you need to harvest about 25% of it daily since they breed so fast. I believe they last about 8-10 days according to my research.

    On the shrimp front, the next female is starting to drop larvae. Same thing as last one though in which there are only a couple in the water. I will be doing a water change today on the tank and try and determine the water quality issue. Two other females are berried and ready to go as well.

    At least the rearing tanks should be all thoroughly aged and ready. This next round of testing, I'm looking at 1.014 and 1.005 on the limits.
     
  14. James0816

    James0816 Thread Starter New Member

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    Have a lot of zoea to work with from this female. I didn't think there was going to be that many when I first noticed the hatching yesterday. Today, I noticed that they all hatched out. I went to put the female back in the tank and I obviously stirred them all up.

    I'm going to go two days with this group and then place them in the salt water. So far as it seems with this first wave of tests, the zoea that are placed in the salt tanks within the first 24 hours have been the ones to survive the longest. Keep in mind there have only been a few test groups to date and still have a long way to go.

    There will be plenty of food available from this point on. The Nannochloropsis phyto's have done really well at all salinities. I've got some Tetraselmis going at 1.014 as well. Rotifers seem to be doing well with first harvest there around Tuesday. I'm not really sure how to go about that yet though. Not sure if I just pour them into an alternate bottle or if they need to be filtered out. I believe the filtering might just be when feeding so as to not add their water to the tank.

    One of the other females has dropped her eggs and I'm sure that was my doing. When I went to put the latest female in isolation, I managed to get the wrong one. I'm sure that is the one that dropped her eggs. One other egg carrying female in line and should be going into isolation at the end of the week.
     
  15. James0816

    James0816 Thread Starter New Member

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    Morning check and zoea in both tanks have survived through the evening. Lightly stirred up the phyto sitting on the bottom of the tanks. The air bar didn't work as well as I'd hoped for so I went back to the dosing dropper but using it more gently than before. Just pushing the bulb enough to lift the phyto and let the current do the rest of the work.
     
  16. James0816

    James0816 Thread Starter New Member

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    And how about a shot from today:

    ai735.photobucket.com_albums_ww357_James0816_caridina_20cf_20propinqua_PropinquaZoea_011911.jpg

    This is at Day 3. All still looking well in both tanks. The zoea are staying bunched up. I'm flirting with cutting the lights out but since I don't have an alternate heat source, I'm a little timid.
     
  17. James0816

    James0816 Thread Starter New Member

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    I know it's still way early right now, but I definately like the way both tanks are progressing. I have not noticed any casulties at this stage yet. The minor adjustment I made to the air flow prior seems to be doing well. After stirring up the zoea, I watch them in what appears to be them actively "hunting" on the remnants that settle back down.

    I duffed on my Rotifers and have to get a new culture in. I just got busy with rescaping several tanks that I never really got them going the way they should have been done. Hopefully the new will arrive soon and the zoea will be ready for them.
     
  18. James0816

    James0816 Thread Starter New Member

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    Big test underway right now. I have decided to cut the lights for a bit. Being the only heat source at the moment, I'll keep a vigilant eye out and watch the temps. The tanks were sitting at 77 prior to cutting off the light. I won't let it get below 72 before turning it back on.

    I did a quick spot check about 30 minutes into the test by turning the light on. The zoea have moved to the front of the tank and seemed to be in a more free float state then when the light was on. With the light on, they are huddled together in specific areas.

    The zoea seem to be pretty active still. The phyto is getting the water cloudy which is what it should do. Just curious as to how green it will get. lol.

    I'm getting ready to hatch out some brine shimp and as well have new rotifers and golden pearls on the way. Even if this test group fails, I will be even more prepared for the next group.
     
  19. James0816

    James0816 Thread Starter New Member

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    Test was a failure. That was a hard pill to swallow but had to be done. Grrrrr. It wasn't a complete loss but the casulties were pretty high. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the drop in temperature as it was only 5 degrees. Plenty of current to keep the zoea moving along.

    I'm still very curious about this though. Prior to moving the zoea to the salt tanks, the lights go out as that tank has a 10hr photo period. There are no casulties when I collect and move them. Maybe heat is playing more of a factor then I originally believed. May need to bump the heat to around 80 and let it ride from there.
     
  20. James0816

    James0816 Thread Starter New Member

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    On a sad note....POWER FAIL!

    Woke up this morning and the power was out. My daughter said she woke up around 0200hrs and it was out then. That makes it at least four hours down time. No light, no heat and no aeration. This round of testing is done.

    Had to restart two filters on other tanks as well. Didn't have time to assess any other potential damages/casulties as I was late for work. Hopefully all will be ok.

    I'll get the salt tanks cleaned out, refilled and running for next round.