A Shrimp Diary.....

[Gankutsuou]

Great idea
I didn't even consider My LFS for marine water. Thanks!!!

also, you said the amano shrimp can survive marine, but you took them out?
And - how much does green water cost? how much should i buy for one batch? Is it available at most LFS?

 

[MoreCoffee]

Great idea
I didn't even consider My LFS for marine water. Thanks!!!

I figured it was the easiest and cheapest option, as I'll only be needing salt water for a few weeks.

also, you said the amano shrimp can survive marine, but you took them out?

The adult shrimp remain in fresh water at all times.
The hatched larvae get moved over to salt water, the question seem to be when to move them ! First off I tried putting some in fresh and some in salt to see what worked the best. Early days, but so far it I seem to be seeing best results leaving them in fresh water for the first 24 hours then moving them over to salt.

And - how much does green water cost?

I dont know, I've never bought any. As mentioned I'm using kent Phytoplex added to salt water, this makes it's own 'green water'. Also how much it costs would be down to your LFS !

how much should i buy for one batch? Is it available at most LFS?

Again, I dont know as I've never actually bought any !

............. I'd struggle to off anybody 'quality advice' on raising these shrimp larvae and exactly what to do.
All I can say is what I've tried so far ..... This is my first attempt and I've only had them in salt water for 3 days and they seem to be doing OK.
I'd hate to suggest something, just to have it all go wrong the next day !

Best advice I can offer anybody is .... read as much info as you can find and make a note of everything to do. Then we can all learn from it, your attempt could be far more successful than mine.

I'll post an update later this weekend and will include my 'lessons learnt so far' !

Cheers
Al

 

[voo]

Anything happened over the weekend?

How are the shrimps doing? Anymore hatched?

 

[MoreCoffee]

Anything happened over the weekend?

How are the shrimps doing? Anymore hatched?

28 Aug Update:

I've made some changes to my setup. Basically the freshwater 5Gal tank that had the females in was too large and it was difficult to collect the larvae once hatched. The current setup looks like this ......

I have a small airpump feeding to an airstone in each of the tanks. None of the tanks have heaters in, but all remain about 72 - 74 degs.
The females are in the smaller 20cm cube, with a clump of java moss.
The other two tanks contain 1.023 SG saltwater. These have Kent Phytoplex in them as a food source for the larvae. The one on the left has been dosed with phytoplex for about 10 days longer than the one on the right.

I collect the larvae using an unused dropper from a water test kit ..... these things are so small that you can easily collect 10 or more at a time ...... The magnifying glass comes in very useful !

So far 3 females have hatched their eggs and been returned to the main tank. I've lost count of the number of larvae I've collected. On Thursday I collected a few, Friday evening I collected another 120+ and there was at least another 150 on Sunday evening ! There are some new ones ready to collect tonight or tomorrow.

Although you can't see them, there are LOTS in the tank on the left (you'll have to take my word for it), since Sunday I've been putting them all into the tank on the right .... otherwise it's almost impossible to check if they are surviving or not !

So far I've had larvae in salt water for 7 days. I think I lost most of the first batch that were moved over.
I think I moved them a couple of hour after hatching and it may have been too quick. I'm now collecting and moving them only once every 24 - 36 hours and things seems to be much better. My gut feeling is that they can handle the move from fresh to full salt without any problem (no need to gradually increase salinity) but it seems best to give them about 24 hours from hatching to moving into saltwater.

Now I've stopped adding larvae to the first tank (on the left) I'll know how they are coping within a few days ... but seems to be OK so far !

I've had got another 2 egg carrying females in the main tank (thats 9 in total). I did notice that the first female returned to the tank was 'jumped upon' by a male (I'm assuming a male) within 30 secs of being returned !

cheers
Al

 

[Bloo]

Well done ! Admit it: it's painstaking-back-breaking work to syphon out those zoes isn't it ?!

I also had mine in a 5 gallon or something like that to start off - and then further in my post said "note to self": in future put females in smaller hatching tank. 5 gallons is just way to huge to try and siphon out a zillion microspic zoes!

 

[MoreCoffee]

Well done ! Admit it: it's painstaking-back-breaking work to syphon out those zoes isn't it ?!

I also had mine in a 5 gallon or something like that to start off - and then further in my post said "note to self": in future put females in smaller hatching tank. 5 gallons is just way to huge to try and siphon out a zillion microspic zoes!

Hi Bloo,

I must admit that when I read your journal, I did see the "note to self" about using a smaller hatching tank....
I must admit, I did think ...... OK, but I'm sure 5 gal will be fine, I'll get them out of there, no problems ....
I must admit, You were 100% right. 5 Gal is waaaay tooooo big

It's amazing how big 5 gal of water actually seems when you are using a 5ml dropper to capture zoes that are only about 1mm long Having the hatching tank sat on the floor didn't help either !

Even in the smaller 20cm cube, it's a time consuming task trying to suck them up one at a time ....

1, 2 ,3 ..... oops missed one ....4, 5, 6...did I get that one? ..... 6 or is it 7. After a couple of hundred, I really have no idea exactly how many I'd got out and once into the saltwater tank there is NO way to count them again ! Still they seem to be doing OK for the moment.


How to perform a water change ?
My next problem is that I want to do a bit of a water change on the older of the two saltwater tanks. Obviously I need to syphon some water out, without actually syphoning the zoes out with it.

I want to do this to prevent any problems with the quality of the saltwater. The amount of phytoplakton isn't too much of a worry. I add 2 or 3 drops of Kent Phtyoplex to the tank twice a day and they seem to be doing fine on it so far. The water keeps a 'green tint' but never gets really murky.

I think the best way to attempt this will be to syphon with a length of airline tubing placed at the bottom of the tank near the airstone. The zoes spend most of their time in the upper/middle layers and the current keeps them away from the airstone, so in theory I shouldn't get any.
I think I'll try syphoning some out into a glass and check for zoes.

Cheers
Al

 

[voo]

What about using a brine shrimp filter? Or make your own ?



Get a piece of 2 inch tubing and put some very fine net curtain over the bottom. Put it in the water and the tube will fill up without getting any zoe's in it. Then you could just syphon the water from inside the tube.

 

[MoreCoffee]

What about using a brine shrimp filter? Or make your own ?
Get a piece of 2 inch tubing and put some very fine net curtain over the bottom. Put it in the water and the tube will fill up without getting any zoe's in it. Then you could just syphon the water from inside the tube.

Thanks voo, Good idea. The zoes are very small, but I might try something along those lines

 

[MoreCoffee]

A very quick update:

Just over a week since I changed the setup and things seem to be going according to plan at the moment.
The larvae is both tanks are doing fine. Impossible to say if there have been any losses due to the number of larvae still in each saltwater tank. I'm sure there must have been some, but they must be quite limited.

They seem to be growing well ... here's a couple of recent pics taken 01/09/06.

and a group shot .....

Cheers
Al

 

[Bloo]

FANTASTIC ! Well done - really please to hear it's going so well

Ps: Great pics !

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

Wow, that is so amazing. Well done. I've been following your thread, amazed at how many females you have holding. Great work.

 

[Liam]

Great work, wow thats wonderful, keep the updates coming

 

[scubadoo]

Well done on the successes so far.

Hope it all keeps going to plan.

 

[MoreCoffee]

Hmmm .... having been away from home for a day or two, I may have had a problem with one of the tanks.

When I checked it this morning it was very hard to tell if there was anything in there.
I'll have to do a close check tonight when I get home, but I'm not too hopeful !

If that tank has gone wrong, I'll have to test the water to see if it's a problem with water quality. The phytoplankton level looks fine.

The second tank still looks fine .... this was the reason I split the batches in the first place !

A number of the females still carrying eggs are probably going to be returned to the main tank.
As they've not dropped the eggs yet and I'll be away for a week in October, so will be unable to do anything with them.

 

[three-fingers]

What happened to the tank? Shame to hear, but having two tanks has really payed off . This is continuing to be a very interesting read .