Re: Questions On Larvae Tank
Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2018 9:29 pm
Sure I can share! (Edit: Sorry this turned into a book... got a bit out of hand)
March 26-27: Breeding followed by guarding
April 26: Eggs dropped
May 17: First megalopa
~May 26: Interest in shells. Also mama crab dropped a second batch of babies that I didn’t catch in time. Probably in my top 5 worst smells.
~May 30: Failed attempt to leave water.
Birth Pool
I was changing the water pretty much every other day, put a bubbler in it, and installed a small heat pad against the glass by the pool to get the pool temp in the low 80s in case I didn’t catch them right away. I also used an old phone and a free camera app to set up a “crab baby cam”. I judged myself at this point, unaware of how bad the crazy crab lady was actually about to get.
Raising tank
- 10 gallon tank with glass jars in it.
- Main tank: Normal tap water in the tank. Heater keeping main tank water at 81F-83F.
- Closed hood with normal aquarium light on 24 hrs.
- Jars: Instant Ocean Seasalt (package instructions) + Prime Dechlorinator (about four drops per jar) + tap water.
- Four of the jars were used for raising zoeae.
- I used a bubbler with a four-way split valve to put a bubbler line in each raising jar.
- I set this tank up about a week before the egg drop to make sure the water temp in the raising tank was staying consistent.
- I also had several additional jars that I put clean saltwater in. This allowed the new saltwater to get to the same temp as the zoeae jars before water changes.
- Water changes: Used a turkey baster to suck water into a glass cup. Used eye dropper to put any sucked up zoeae back in the jar. ~50% water change before work, sucked food out of bottom and put a couple new basters of water in after work, ~50% water change before bed. I’d highly suggest completely switching the jars every few days. My jars got so nasty that even water changes weren’t keeping them clean and I think I lost a bunch due to that. I was using a half gallon container to mix the saltwater, so I was making fresh saltwater twice a day.
- Food: Sprinkle of hatching brine shrimp about every other day. One drop of frozen baby brine shrimp (Ocean Nutrition) after each water change, sprinkle of decapsulated non-hatching brine shrimp on surface morning and night.
- I started with ~100 zoeae per jar.
- Around stage 3 or so the zoeae started having issues swimming unless the circulation was perfect in the jars. Getting the bubbler lines right at this point took a couple hours and every bit of patience I had. I think I swore off having my own human children at this point. I’d suggest sticking with mason jars for this reason (smaller, easier to circulate).
- Megalopa: They eat the remaining zoeae. They eat each other. They are merciless murder lobsters. Separate as much as possible. I followed the same cleaning schedule and mostly fed frozen krill (although I continued to feed small quantities of the other stuff). If I could do it again I would put them in the transition tank immediately instead of keeping them in the jars. They took an interest to shells within a few days of megalopa-ing.
For the transition tank I used two plastic paint roller brush trays (so I could remove the top one and clean it if needed), aquarium sealed a piece of plastic mesh down for the slope, and aquarium sealed sand on top of that. Put a long bubbler wand at the end of the slope for a current. Put shells on the slope and kept feeding krill and hatching brine shrimp.
March 26-27: Breeding followed by guarding
April 26: Eggs dropped
May 17: First megalopa
~May 26: Interest in shells. Also mama crab dropped a second batch of babies that I didn’t catch in time. Probably in my top 5 worst smells.
~May 30: Failed attempt to leave water.
Birth Pool
I was changing the water pretty much every other day, put a bubbler in it, and installed a small heat pad against the glass by the pool to get the pool temp in the low 80s in case I didn’t catch them right away. I also used an old phone and a free camera app to set up a “crab baby cam”. I judged myself at this point, unaware of how bad the crazy crab lady was actually about to get.
Raising tank
- 10 gallon tank with glass jars in it.
- Main tank: Normal tap water in the tank. Heater keeping main tank water at 81F-83F.
- Closed hood with normal aquarium light on 24 hrs.
- Jars: Instant Ocean Seasalt (package instructions) + Prime Dechlorinator (about four drops per jar) + tap water.
- Four of the jars were used for raising zoeae.
- I used a bubbler with a four-way split valve to put a bubbler line in each raising jar.
- I set this tank up about a week before the egg drop to make sure the water temp in the raising tank was staying consistent.
- I also had several additional jars that I put clean saltwater in. This allowed the new saltwater to get to the same temp as the zoeae jars before water changes.
- Water changes: Used a turkey baster to suck water into a glass cup. Used eye dropper to put any sucked up zoeae back in the jar. ~50% water change before work, sucked food out of bottom and put a couple new basters of water in after work, ~50% water change before bed. I’d highly suggest completely switching the jars every few days. My jars got so nasty that even water changes weren’t keeping them clean and I think I lost a bunch due to that. I was using a half gallon container to mix the saltwater, so I was making fresh saltwater twice a day.
- Food: Sprinkle of hatching brine shrimp about every other day. One drop of frozen baby brine shrimp (Ocean Nutrition) after each water change, sprinkle of decapsulated non-hatching brine shrimp on surface morning and night.
- I started with ~100 zoeae per jar.
- Around stage 3 or so the zoeae started having issues swimming unless the circulation was perfect in the jars. Getting the bubbler lines right at this point took a couple hours and every bit of patience I had. I think I swore off having my own human children at this point. I’d suggest sticking with mason jars for this reason (smaller, easier to circulate).
- Megalopa: They eat the remaining zoeae. They eat each other. They are merciless murder lobsters. Separate as much as possible. I followed the same cleaning schedule and mostly fed frozen krill (although I continued to feed small quantities of the other stuff). If I could do it again I would put them in the transition tank immediately instead of keeping them in the jars. They took an interest to shells within a few days of megalopa-ing.
For the transition tank I used two plastic paint roller brush trays (so I could remove the top one and clean it if needed), aquarium sealed a piece of plastic mesh down for the slope, and aquarium sealed sand on top of that. Put a long bubbler wand at the end of the slope for a current. Put shells on the slope and kept feeding krill and hatching brine shrimp.