Artemis, Day 14 carrying eggs

[wolfnipplechips]

Very cool! Best of luck!!

[mlakers]

I'm seeing some orange tints to their tummies, so I'm pretty confident they're eating the free swimming brine shrimp I hatched in there. Also crumbled up one of the shrimp pellets (100% fish pellets for feeding saltwater shrimp) and they grabbed the tiny crumbs as they were dropping!

[mlakers]

Here's a video link for Day Two. https://youtu.be/J8BTawBKY0I

I'm actually seeing lots of shed exos in the water today. Must be at stage two already. You can see a few in the video that are noticeably larger.

Those shed exos were super alarming. At first I thought they were masses of dead zoea. And there are plenty of dead ones, but the exos float aimlessly and they have no eyes. The dead ones all have eyes still. Their tails are much more noticeable in this stage, too--more fanned out at the end. I think it's an added lobe. It's cool because it's changed how they swim. It's a lot more purposeful. The first stage was more of a spastic jerk like mosquito larvae swim. They curl their tails more now and are a little more shrimplike.

Also, this first molt is coming sooner than I expected. I think it's a good thing. The faster they get through the stages, the sooner they get to land. I think it's because I have the water heater set at 83 degrees and other attempts with PPs that were slower to reach stage two registered tank temps at either at 78 or room temp.

I checked for water temps in the Caribbean in August and it said 83, so that's what I set mine at. Also finding that the zoea are much hardier than I thought they would be. A couple times the water got cloudy before I could change it (much faster in the jars with more zoea, which makes sense) and twice, it was so cloudy I couldn't get it clean and ended up taking the whole jar out and cleaning it, adding fresh saltwater, and putting the zoea back in, expecting a high loss rate since it was a 100% water change, but I didn't see that happen.

Absolutely, no question, the hardest part isn't all the monitoring or the water changes or the not knowing. The hardest thing is not being able to save them all. Every water change causes casualties because it's impossible to siphon up detritus without also siphoning up zoea. And you can't really pick them out of the wastewater. I try, but there are too many, and they're intermingled with the dead ones and the molts.

They're attracted to light, so I shine a high-intensity flashlight on one side of the container and some head over there. I then use a medicine dropper to save what I can, but it's so labor intensive for five different jars, and there are still hundreds in each jar. But they want to live, it's clear, and they are staying alive even when I set the water aside and wait. It just kills me to wash them down the sink. I know logically that's ridiculous. One fish in the wild could come along and snarf up a thousand with one gulp, but I keep thinking that one could be the one to survive! Or that one! Or that one!

Meanwhile hundreds still in the jars are surviving well and waiting for me to come back and feed them or change their water. I keep reciting the Star Trek mantra, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." But it is so hard!!

[mlakers]

Day Three Lesson: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. This morning one entire jar of zoea was dead. It was the most successful jar, the one I was taking the pictures of because the water was staying clear and the zoea were progressing rapidly. And for some stupid reason I thought I should turn down the bubbler overnight. Not off, but way reduced, thinking it would help them get to the bottom for the food. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

On the plus side, it is a good thing that I have them divided between five jars for just this reason. If I do something stupid, I can at least move some over from another jar and start over. The jar that died also only had perhaps 50-80 babies (probably why it was doing so well, too, less competition for resources) so it isn't a catastrophic loss.

Except for those zoea that died....sorry babies.

[mlakers]

This was sent to me by a friend who is not a crabber, but is rooting for the babies.

[Giner13]

This is so neat to follow!! Keep coming with the updates.
Go little guys go!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mlakers]

This is so neat to follow!! Keep coming with the updates.
Go little guys go!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you Giner13! It's nice to get a little feedback. I was starting to think I was shouting into the wilderness. I'm definitely more inspired to share updates when I know someone cares.

[mlakers]

Really wish I could get better pictures. They are just SO tiny and they move so fast. Really hard to focus on an individual.

Just finished a 30% water change that I started at eleven. The full deal takes about an hour. But I'm starting to hit a groove. No zoea lost in this change.

My new method: If most of the cloudiness is in the water column, I turn off the light and bubbler and the zoea sink. Then I can siphon from the top third and get floating stuff. If most of the gunk is on the bottom (exoskeleton and/or food), then I leave the lights and bubbler on and start straight from the bottom and target the piles. I do usually get some zoea with that method, but then I set the container with the wastewater down and shine a high-powered flashlight at one end and they gather there. Then I suck them up with a medicine dropper and squirt them back into the jar they came from. It's working really well.

It's pretty clear that their eyes are quite well developed already because they avoid the dropper and they are grabbing brine shrimp eggs out of the water column. That really surprised me. I thought they would only eat the hatched shrimp, but they grab the eggs with their front legs and curl their tails around the egg as if to say, "Mine!" It's adorable.

Anyway, despite the loss of this morning, today is a good day in crabby land. Feeling confident (for now). Ask me again in ten minutes.

[mjjluver]

great pictures! even if it's a little blurry, we can still see them!
can't imagine how difficult it must be to have to flush them, but stay positive! the glass is half full (of zoae, haha), and if you're able to save some of them at all, it's a win!

[GotButterflies]

I absolutely LOVE these updates!!! I know how you feel! I would want to save them all too!!! I commend you for all of your hard work!! Hey - I wish I lived near you! I would absolutely volunteer my time to help!! I'm rooting for you!!!

BTW - how do your wheels stay so clean? Mine are elevated but are constantly FILTHY!!! Even when I take them out and rinse them, they get filthy again! At least I know they are getting walked - but could you teach my crabs to be OCD too?

[daws409]

Looking forward to more updates! Keep up the hard work!!

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[mlakers]

I absolutely LOVE these updates!!! I know how you feel! I would want to save them all too!!! I commend you for all of your hard work!! Hey - I wish I lived near you! I would absolutely volunteer my time to help!! I'm rooting for you!!!

BTW - how do your wheels stay so clean? Mine are elevated but are constantly FILTHY!!! Even when I take them out and rinse them, they get filthy again! At least I know they are getting walked - but could you teach my crabs to be OCD too?

Ha! I have no idea. I do have it up really high....maybe by the time they crawl the whole way up there, they've knocked off the sand....? Or did you mean that they poo in the wheel?? I had that happen once--watched it go round, then flop, round, then flop. Actually, maybe that taught them to do it on the sub.

[mlakers]

great pictures! even if it's a little blurry, we can still see them!
can't imagine how difficult it must be to have to flush them, but stay positive! the glass is half full (of zoae, haha), and if you're able to save some of them at all, it's a win!

Thank you! Perhaps I should write that on the tank as inspiration.

[GotButterflies]

I absolutely LOVE these updates!!! I know how you feel! I would want to save them all too!!! I commend you for all of your hard work!! Hey - I wish I lived near you! I would absolutely volunteer my time to help!! I'm rooting for you!!!

BTW - how do your wheels stay so clean? Mine are elevated but are constantly FILTHY!!! Even when I take them out and rinse them, they get filthy again! At least I know they are getting walked - but could you teach my crabs to be OCD too?

Ha! I have no idea. I do have it up really high....maybe by the time they crawl the whole way up there, they've knocked off the sand....? Or did you mean that they poo in the wheel?? I had that happen once--watched it go round, then flop, round, then flop. Actually, maybe that taught them to do it on the sub.

LOL!! Luckily they are all filled with just sand..not poo!!

[mlakers]

As of today* I'm starting to establish a workable schedule.** I added some phytoplankton at 3pm and squirted the brine shrimp eggs back down using the medicine dropper (they tend to cling in a ring at the surface). It's super cloudy in the jars right now, but ammonia levels are fine so I'm going to do a 50% water change at 6pm and then toss in some of the National Geographic*** shrimp pellets (100% fish for feeding aquarium shrimp) ground up fine. Those bits sink and don't cloud the water as much. That way, when I turn off the light at 7, and the teeny zoea**** sink down, too, the pellet crumbs will be a better overnight food source than the artemia and phytoplankton which really cloud the water since they stay suspended in the water column. Those will be my daytime foods. And I add the brine shrimp first thing in the morning, giving them more hours to hatch, and added the phytoplankton at 3pm since it's so messy in the water and will only have three hours to cloud things up before the 6pm water change.*****

Whew!

*Actually, five minutes ago
**Details subject to change without prior notice
***This does not constitute an official HCA endorsement of Nat Geo shrimp pellets
****Objects in fuzzy photographs are smaller than they appear
****Some phytoplankton may have settled during siphoning and handling