Project Orange

[James0816]

Busted! The Propinqua ladies aren't dropping their eggs....They are eating them! WTH! I just sat there and was watching the two ladies I have in isolation and they are picking the eggs from their carriage. Now why in the world are they doing this?? If anyone has any clues on this, I'm all ears. Never had to deal with something like this before. I'm sure they won't have any eggs come morning.

 

[captmicha]

I'm kind of surprised that it doesn't happen more often. Shrimp will eat anything, nature has evolved to get their young away from them as soon as possible. Still pretty gross though. Are they getting fed enough? Maybe give them something meatier that will attract their appetites better than their own eggs will. Maybe they need more protein as well. ?

 

[James0816]

Been a few days so let's get caught up.

Amano's: I wound merging tanks today. One tank only had (2) zoea left so I moved them to the other side where there are a few more. After I moved the two, I did a minor cleaning and a water change. Fed a small amount of Spirulina and Golden Pearls. Some of these zoea are a good 3/16 or larger. Still nice and redish color. Getting pretty fast as well if I must say. I cleaned out the empty tank and moved over another expecting female.

Ninja's: Still have a few zoea in their tank. Leaving it where it was obviously turned out to be a bad idea. Was not ideal conditions but tried it anyway. I did feed them a small amount of Spirulina as well.

Propinqua: Moved the one female that dropped (ate) her eggs back to the main tank. Still have one female holding. I need to clean the tank but I'm affraid if I go in there it may stress her out and she will dump the eggs.

 

[James0816]

Lights on and all is well after the water change yesterday. Found some exo's floating in the water column. Great sign. Still no shrimpets as yet. Patience is a virtue. I'm just a little excited though that I have got them this far though. I would have liked to have greater numbers, but for a first batch, I can deal with it. It just lets me know I'm on the right track.

Gotta a quick glance at the Propinqua lady. Doesn't look good. It appeared that her under carriage is fuzzy. Very bad sign. If she doesn't expel the eggs, it could be bad. After seeing that, I am starting to question the viability of the Props I have. I do have a fresh group arriving so hopefully that will get them back on the right track.

 

[James0816]

Amano's are still zoea. I would have thought from all my readings that they would have morphed by now. Still alive too in case you're wondering. They don't like touching each other. As soon as they do, it's a major "twitch" and scatter in opposite directions.

Only a few Zebra zoea remain. What I may do with these guys, is move them to a smaller container and see what happens. Then I will clean that one out and move over two more ladies. That rearing tank will then be located next to the others. I can officially call this test a failure.

The Propinqua female is still holding the eggs. They looked a little less "fuzzy" this morning but still abnormal to say the least. The gal I moved back to the main tank looks to be in trouble. She's trying to molt it appears but can't seem to get the exo off. This could be bad.

 

[James0816]

Came home yesterday and found the Propinqua female had expired. That was my first shrimp lost due to a molting issue (or lack there of). The female carrying the eggs still has them. I'm not really sure what she is going to do but need to give her a chance at either a full term or a drop. Either way, she is still doing fine.

Didn't have time to check on the zoea this morning as I had to rush into work. Only had time to turn on the lights. They were all doig fine last night. I watched a couple of them kind of settle on the bottom on some plankton/algae build up and then they jetted off again. I watched in anticipation thinking that was going to be the morph I had been waiting for. But alas...not yet.

I won't be moving any more shrimp or zoea until after our guest (Miss Irene) has left. If we lose power, I don't want to risk losing a viable female. I'd rather lose the zoea and try again later.

Water changes will be done in all tanks tomorrow.

 

[James0816]

Found these little shrimp in my shrimp tank...anybody know what they might be?

Not the best of pics since they are very small. I found three of them at the moment.

Oh...by the way...they are Amanos!!! WooHoo!

 

[M&M]

That is so cool.

How many are there? So now do you need to put them back into fresh water?

Congrats.....

 

[XanAvaloni]

M&M I always try to picture what the natural conditions are and think of ways to duplicate that. The zoea (in nature) are in the ocean not far from the mouth of the stream they migrated down after hatching. They are going to instinctively go towards areas of fresh water, but it will be a gradual transition as they move against the current. In James' experiment it would seem logical to start doing water changes with progressively less salt in the new water rather than taking them straight from where they are (full salt) to full fresh. The question of course is what time frame to use: hours? Days? As much as a week?

am not sure we know enough about their behavior in nature to say for sure. If anybody does this now it would appear to be on a commercial scale (unless all amanos, propinquas, ninjas and suchlike species are new caught in the wild? I dunno) so they have the numbers and facilities that are beyond the reach of a home experimenter. We may have to trust to luck here. And the keeping of good records. If this works James has a potential book in the making.

 

[James0816]

How many are there? So now do you need to put them back into fresh water?

Thanks. Xan pretty much summed it up. Once they are strong enough, I can begin the transition back to freshwater. This will be a bit slower process than going from fresh to salt. My thinking is that since they are still young, underdeveloped and basically not as strong, they will take "breaks" along the way during the migration upstream. Unlike the zoea which are free floating and just get washed out without second thought.

What I'm still finding is that they aren't there just quite yet. I will find them scouring the bottom (pretty much in one set location where the phyto and algae have built up) during the day. They stay there at least up until the lights go out. When I turn the lights on again in the morning, they are all free floating again. The process will repeat itself as in that at some point during the day, they settle back down on the bottom. This tells me they are still developing into the actual shrimp form and just not quite ready.

I've only spotted (3) that are morphing. The others remain free floating. I also noted the pattern. A while back, I documented that they changed colors to a brownish/redish color. This is as the zoea. When they are morphing, the red gives way to the clear color we are accustomed to (as depicted by the last pictures). Looking at the remaining zoea, I can see where the red is fading which leads me to believe that these are in transition. The largest zoea however, are still bright red which I find odd. I have an alternate theory on this one in thinking that these are the females considering the size difference.

If this works James has a potential book in the making.

Wellll....I don't know about all that, but thanks for the kind remarks.

While the numbers are low, I'm on the verge of calling this one a partial success. Reaching this stage is the toughest. Now we have to get them from here to juvie status and then we can officially call it. Whether it be one or a hundred, the goal was achieved. Now to work on future batches to increase the yields. This last round of testing netted a ton of good data.