Project Orange

Interesting observation just now. I went down to wrap things up for the evening and did a check in on the zoea. It appears that they are all dead! Very strange in that there has hardly been any salt added to the tank as yet. I'm a little confused at this. I'm wondering if it could have anything to do with capturing them and then transferring? Not sure what to think. I have isolated one berried female in a rearing tank so we'll see where this brood takes us.
 
Very strange in that there has hardly been any salt added to the tank as yet.
Click to expand...
Maybe that's the problem?

Do the females move to salt water or do they stay in fresh water and the zoea get washed out to salt water?
 
It is my understanding that they hatch in freshwater and then get washed down stream. The adults cannot tolerate salt conditions.
 
Check on the Amano ladies this morning....bad. They both dropped all their eggs with very few hatchings. Very odd on this one. Have to go back and review to see if I may have missed something. Could have been due to all the activity going around the tanks with constantly moving females in and out. Just a possibility. Back to the main tank and we'll wait til next time.

Ninja ladies still holding theirs. I'll move two more into the rearing tanks and see what we get.

New phyto cultures ordered to replenish the stock. Going to go back to the original (4) specimens instead of (2).
 
ooooooo....don't tempt me! lol
 
It appears that all the Amano eggs that are going to hatch have do so. I'm thinking of combining the two groups as they are not overly large in numbers. Phyto will be introduced today as they are flushed out to sea.

The Ninja's are still holding theirs.
 
There's enough zoea in both tanks to have two test groups. Looks to be a few hundred in each tank. Group A is being washed out to sea currently. Unfortunately I am only set up to drip sea water one tank at a time. Time to hit lowes for more tubing and ramp this part of the project up. Wonder how well a 4way gang valve will hold up to salt water?

Might run out of time this evening to wash the second group out. What I will do if time permits is to get it started with just the phyto cocktail. Then tomorrow I'll continue filling the tank with the full sea water.
 
Zoea doing well. I did a slight increase in the current. It doesn't look like it is throwing them around but does appear to be keeping things moving better. This round included 1 cup of phyto cocktail. The water is not as green to start with. My aim is to hit upon the right amount where the phyto will actually grow with the zoea and then taper out at the end of the zoea planktonic cycle.

I'll start trying to develop the test rearing containing using the 2liter bottles. The idea behind that is the funnel shaped bottom (inverted bottle) should keep both zoea and phyto suspended and in constant movement. I have some ideas in my head so we'll see if I can make one happen and see how it performs. Capacity wise, the amount of water will be about the same. Space will be smaller on the horizontal plane which should greatly decrease dead space.

Next Amano lady is now with eggs.
 
Zoes are doing fine at the moment. I've noticed some hanging at the bottom in the dead space. Not a good sign. I think with the smaller horizontal space, it will keep things suspended better. But...then again....it could still be my lighting not being intense enough to penetrate the phyto. I'll be evaluating the lighting more this weekend.

New phyto cultures arrived. Sterilized the bottles and tubes and have started new cultures. One a plus note....the refractometer has proven itself well. So much more accurate than a hydrometer. Mixing more salt water for storage. I'm going to use a couple of 2.5g jugs to store the water in. This should make things a little easier as I will probably be using more water with more specimens and phyto.
 
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