Project Orange

Came home to find this:
NinjaShrimpZoea_060111.jpg


Hundreds of C. Serratirostris zoea ... and a molt. These guys are very small. Now, with this many zoea, what I thought were larger eggs, obviously was an illusion. The eggs at first glance looked to be the about the same size of C. propinqua even though the shrimp species is smaller. Very interesting. I'll try to observe the next berried lady closer. There is still one in the isolation chamber but can't get a good view of her.

So...busy night ahead. I have to fish out these zoea and get them into a rearing tank. The female will be placed back in the main tank. And we wait on the eggs of the last female to hatch.

On to the Amano zoea. I'm not happy with what I found. It appears that I had a pretty big die off today. I still see quite a few floating but no where near what was observed this morning. I am begining to think I may have introduced them either too soon or too quickly. It's about the only thing that I can think of at the moment. I haven't gotten the SG to where I want it as yet. They will continue their downstream journey today and should reach the sea by night fall. I'm also thinking that I may be adding too much phyto to begin with. I will scale down to 1 cup next time.

Which leads me back to the Ninja's as I have to get a phyto drip for them going as well as washing them out to sea. These guys are gonna be at brack instead of full sea to start with. Depending on how many hatch from the remaining female, I may put that batch at full salinity.

More pics to follow.
 
Morning check. Ninja zoea don't appear to have fared the day after the transfer. I'm kicking myself for how I did it. I only saw a few floating in the current. I'm thinking of pulling them out and putting them in with the Amano's. If I do this, then I will move the other Ninja ladies into this tank following my normal routine. This way there will be no transferring of zoea.

The Amano zoea are still doing fine. Really dark in the tank as to be expected but since there are a good amount of zoea in the tank, I can see them as they drift to the sides.

I have one Amano and two Ninja ladies that should be hatching out very soon if not last night. Lights aren't on this early in the morning to check.
 
Looks like I may be losing my Amano zoea. Temp is holding steady at 78, ton of phyto growing in the tank and the current is nice and good. Not sure what the reasoning would be. A little confusing to say the least. I never did reach the salinity that I wanted to acheive so I'm wondering if this may be a factor. I'll get a reading shortly to see. I'm really starting to doubt the light intensity while the tank is this dark with phyto. I think with the next lady, I'll try to increase the intensity.

Over in the Nina tank, those zoea are still hanging with me.
 
Last of the Ninja's hatched today. I moved the female back to the main tank. I have the zoea under light and air bubbler in their specimen container for the moment. I'll move them to salt water tomorrow in a more permanent setting.

Very hard to see how many Amano zoea are still hangin with me, but I can catch some passing by the sides from time to time. It is starting to get the same way with the first Ninja tank as it is getting darker as the phyto grows.

I'm going to go with a better lighting system which should allow more light focus/density in the individual tanks. I think this will help greatly.
 
Ok, so we are over a week into both the Amano's and Ninja's. Visibility is definately tough that's for sure. I still continue to see zoea floating by in the current so I'm pressuming all is going well. The Amano zoe has grown quite nicely. Sure would be nice to capture some pics. I occassionally shine a flashlight in there to try and get a better look into the tank. I can see some zoea floating as well as some that are "bobbing/twitching" near the bottom. The ones near the bottom are of concern even though the current remains nice in the tank.

Someone recently offered me an idea to increase the current without affecting the bubbler too much. Think I'm going to try this on one of the upcoming tanks and see where it leads me.

Two more Amano ladies are waiting to hatch their eggs. And, yesterday, I discovered a berried Ninja. These two seem to be keeping the project at full speed. I need to get a restock of the Propinqua and Red Nose. It may be the tank as the Propinqua don't seem to be actively breeding like they did at the beginning. The Red Nose are all female so there definately won't be anything going on there for now.
 
what I would really, really like to find for this project is some FIELD RESEARCH from actual invert biologists on these species' life cycles in the their native habitats. How far upstream from the ocean can these various types be found? Do they (females anyway) drift downstream while berried? At what distance from saltwater do they usually release eggs? How strong is the current in their habitat streams? The ultimate question is how long can they survive in fresh water, or what's their deadline (so to speak) to have to reach salt? How fast can they, or must they, get from full-fresh to full-salt levels? And how long do they stay in the salt before they must start moving back upstream?

I assume that in most waterways the boundary between fresh and salt is fairly sharp, although it will occur at different locations depending on tides and currents and such. The process of getting tags attached to zoea to allow them to be tracked the way salmon are done is likely to be a challenge, but surely there are grad students somewhere in need of a thesis project who could be found to carry this out. :)
 
All very good questions.

As for time to need salt...so far I'm going to say it varies between species. The Amano's have been up to around 4-5 days in pure freshwater before expiring. The Ninja's so far have shown to be less and the Propinqua have at times been longer. I'm wondering if locale may have a factor in this.

This is all early in the project of course but as more females become berried, it gives a broader amount of data to collect. Once I get things more stabilized, I will start splitting the hatchings for more detailed testing. This should provide some better insight on some of these questions. Granted, this is all done in captivity. I would ultimately like to create a small mangrove for a more natural test base but that would be a ways out.
 
Spot check of the zoea tanks.....Can't be for sure but I think all the Ninja's are lost. It was only a spot glance but didn't notice any zoea floating. Next to them are the Amano's and they are growing pretty good still. I'm going to attempt a picture or two but doubt any will turn out. They are in constant motion. I'll give the tanks a better looksee in a bit.

The other two Amano ladies are still holding there eggs. I'm anticipating a hatching there any day now. There are several Ninja ladies that are berried again as well. Good signs.

Water changes in all the regular tanks going on at the moment. Recharging some CO2 bottles as well.
 
Check of the zoea tanks today is not good. I didn't see any floaters. :o( I'll get a better look in just a bit. I thought I was closer this time judging by how big the Amano's grew to. But...that may still turn out to be a good sign. We'll see. With the other two ladies expected to hatch out any day, I'll be right back in the saddle.

Speaking of hatching, I found Ninja zoea in their tank! Yikes! Their carry time to hatching is obviously a lot shorter than I expected. I'll try to fish out as many as I can so as to not waste this cycle. There are at least (3) berried females that need to be isolated today as well just in case.

Definately like that we are ramping up progress. I'll be in better shape within a week to restock the Propinqua and Red Nose just as soon as I find a good supplier.
 
I should hire someone to be my official zoea catcher when this happens. You think .01 per zoea is good? :) . My goodness that took a long time. I know I didn't get them all but hopefully got a vast majority of them. They are being washed out to sea as I type. I'll add phyto a bit later.

Getting ready to isolate a couple of the Ninja ladies if I can get them. They do hide very, very well.

I really need to finish the rearing station. It gets a bit difficult to break down a tank while keeping the others going. I'm thinking of getting a vanity light to where I can use CFL bulbs. The question with that would be if it will generate enough heat to keep the temp up in the tanks. Time to go on a scavenger hunt.

Will be ordering fresh phyto cultures as well to replenish them. I've gotten a little be lax with it and it hasn't done as well.
 
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