My Straw (Perlatus) baby thread

[kuza]

Today I put about 30 megalopa into my second attempt at a megalopa tank. And I still have maybe 20-30 in the jars and still maybe 20-30 zoea. This is an estimate since it's too hard to count, I will be posting video's in a few minutes.

[wolfnipplechips]

Woo woo!! GO KUZA!! Crab daddy extraordinaire.

[Bean2011]

Go Kuza! Rooting for you in Maryland!

[kuza]

Here's the new megalopa tank (beta TV), and they are doing well after a few hours so it's looking hopeful. They are eating the shrimp I fed them, it's fun to watch them do corkscrews with food in their hands;



Here's some megalopa swimming a I do my water changes last night, boy can they swim!;



There's more new video's of the jars in my album.

Here's my current shells, I have tiny ones but I still feel like I don't have small enough ones cause when I put them in the tank the shells seem too big, even if they are only a few millimeters:





Thanks for all the support and kind words!

[Auxorii]

I've had eggs before, but my female PP dropped them somewhere in the tank,
If they're grey then they will be coming off soon, when you add the Predatory mites, move your female into another tank perhaps? If she does drop the eggs when the predatory mites are in there, they might eat the eggs, it's not unlikely, but not really a possibility, sorry if I was late on this post.

Happy crabbing!

[kuza]

Ya I let the predatory mites sit in an old 10 gallon, and surprisingly they are still alive, well some are. I won't bother until she stops dropping eggs since I've been able to keep the bad mites under control with mite baths on the main infected crabs, which is mainly limited to 1 right now who's showing no more signs of mites. I think I caught them early this time.

And my straw eggs don't change color it seems, they are just opaque greyish the whole 25 or so days until she drops them.

[KittyKatt]

Yay!! I put a little star on this thread so I can get all the updates. I'm rootin for you like crazy!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[Nat_addicted to HC's]

Your shells look perfect to me! How big are the megalopa now?

[kuza]

they are maybe 5-8 mm? but I'm guessing, I haven't measured one yet. I guess I could measure a dead one.

[Nat_addicted to HC's]

Sounds like theyre very similar to variabilis at this stage. My shell openings were 1.5 - 2mm

[kuza]

most of my tiny shells are like turbos/nerite style. I don't have a lot of shells like in your pictures. I'm not even sure where to get them. I mainly shopped at craft stores for the smallest they have. To get anything like you have I have to buy puka shell mix hermit crab substrate from zoomed. And it's a real pain to go through it for those shells.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... Id=2752626

[hermilove]

I was at a Michael's Craft Store a few months ago, and there was a bag of just teeny tiny shells like that. A whole bunch of them, so they might have some if they have Michael's in Canada....I don't know if they do though

[Nat_addicted to HC's]

The best thing with these little shells is.... you will use them over & over again.

[fraksocks]

I found this on Deltona. I know it won't help for your current megalopa but maybe you could order some for the next batch if you think they are what you need.
http://deltonaseashells.com/inc/pdir/154?start=60

[aussieJJDude]

OK, I am know dieing from this thread! Such cute crabs.. Well, zoea/Megapola...