My Straw (Perlatus) baby thread

[Curlz]

may it will help you find out larvae stages. Here is the link to my latest experiment. Larvae Project No. 7
https://picasaweb.google.com/1120608556 ... directlink

I have tried to wrote down which Zoea stage they are. The pictures are sorted by date. In the second last video you can see a transmorph from zoea to megalopa. (Sorry for bad quality. Tthe water is not changed and tank not cleaned at this time. Because of this amazing moment I bumped the table where the Kreisel stands... the water swamped and all eggs and food floating through the water.)

[kuza]

oh wow that video of morphing into megalopa is great! And so what do you do now with that guy, just wait until he takes a shell, then move him and the shell to the transition tank?

I have not had time to take many pictures or video, I have hard enough time just taking 2-3 hours a day to change water and do feeding. I would love to setup a real tank like yours and have an auto feeder but I just don't have the time right now. You have to build it yourself right?

And how are you cleaning out the old brine shrimp, I have so much trouble separating the zoea from the brine shrimp, they both head to the light!! lol

And I have real trouble seeing them close, my camera can't seem to focus on them, I need a better camera

I assume they are in stage 2 from what I can see, but is it possible they skip a stage into stage 3?

And do you continue to feed the brine shrimp right until Megapola stage?

PS. I had my first heavy losses today/yesterday I think I lost about 5-10 in each jar. I know losing 20-30 doesn't seem like much out of hundreds but for me seeing even a few dead ones floating around is tough since this is my first time.

[Curlz]

We were adviced to us a kreisel tank. We checked the internet and the german marine breeder forum and planned an own one. (a closed one, as I already explained)
It was not that expensive. We bought a plexiglas tube with diameter of 7,88" (at ebay). We used that to build a passage from one terrarium to the second one. And with the rest we build that Kreisel. Out of plexiglas we cut two slices, which fits in the kreisel diameter. With aquarium silicone we sealed both sides. At least we carefully cut out the opening. It was not that hard, but it took time to saw the plexiglas. A special saw is needed.

May you can usa such a Jelly Kreisel tank (expensive) and make it larvae save. But I do not know if this is possible.

And how are you cleaning out the old brine shrimp, I have so much trouble separating the zoea from the brine shrimp, they both head to the light!! lol

oh yes this is not easy.
I shut down the lights and the shutter (jalousie). Then I use my smartphone (mobile with flashlight app) flashlight. Alle swimm to the light, that's right. But the larvae flip away when the plastic dropper comes near them. The artemia stay at the light, so I can carefully draw the artemia nauplia. I put them in a glass to check if I draw a larvae.
while doing water change with the tube and mesh we draw in some artemia nauplia too.

if there are some artemia in the water I leave them. When they are growing they are easier to catch with the dropper-

I assume they are in stage 2 from what I can see, but is it possible they skip a stage into stage 3?

how old are they now?
up to day 8-10 they could be zoea 3

I assume they are in stage 2 from what I can see, but is it possible they skip a stage into stage 3?

I think they can't. In some cases the larvae gets fast into next stages. Depends on the species. In some cases it only took two days to reach the next stage. But I can't really answer this question. I only have to guess

And do you continue to feed the brine shrimp right until Megapola stage?

there are still larvae swimming around, so I leave the artemia feeding as it is.
But additionally I feed frozen krill (little pieces)

if all are megalopa we stop feeding artemia and only feed krill and shrimps.

And so what do you do now with that guy, just wait until he takes a shell, then move him and the shell to the transition tank?

At the moment 6 are transmorphed. The next days the other larvae will get to megalopa. Then it will take some days the megalopa starts looking for shells.
At day 27 they will search and test shells. So in a few days we put in more tiny tiny shells into the Kreisel.

Unfortunately we go on holiday next week.
We will put all megalopa with or without shells in the water tank in the transition terrarium. And then we carry them all to a friend of mine (naalide). She will take care of them. I only stay a week, after my holiday we will take them back home again. (some will stay at naalide )


sorry for the bigger loss. But in my opinion it is 'normal'.
If you start with sooo many larvae the day of big lost will come definitly.

my big losses starts at day 6-10. After that at day 15. And after megalopa stages a third bigger loss.
This time I start with only round about 50 and I got no big loss. Averaged 1 a day. (sometimes none sometimes 2). At the moment round about 30 are still living.

[kuza]

I think I'm on day 8 now, they molted like 2-3 days ago, so I guess they will molt again soon. And I guess I'm doing it right, I also check my dumping bowl for any zoea I pick up during water changes and put them back into the jars.

We were also supposed to go at the end of the month for 3 days to my in-laws, but there's no way I can go, I would have to give up on the whole attempt and I would possibly miss the eggs she's got now. So my wife will have to travel herself or her mother will come ride with her, I feel so bad but it's just to risky to leave. If one of my mating crabs passes away I may never get straw eggs again.

[Curlz]

yes I think you are doing it right. Go on with this


hm unlucky. But it is exceptional case. And it is a great experiment, maybe worldwide first strawberry breeding attempt! may they appreciate that exceptional case

my holidays were planned long time ago. And I did not contemplate with these larvae. But the last two times failed and we thought this will too. And if not we ask naalide to help us. She said yes and so we start this No 7

[kuza]

It's crazy you get so many eggs, are they all from the same crab? And does she drop eggs all year round?

[Curlz]

One ruggie girl was the first to drop eggs. She drop them on the moss. The water pool was not ready at this time. (The pool is like a tiny salt water aquarium and has to be handled like one. The first month the water, sand and living stones had to break in.)

I am sure that the successfull breedings are 85% from Mrs. Zoidberg. The latest are from Krusty (85% sure). The other times my both viola girls drop eggs, too.

A day before dropping the violas walked near the pool. And walked into the pool. Very often and unusually in the early evening or at day! Normally they only come out at night... most of the times, when I see one of them around the pool very often and at unusual times, we had eggs the night / next morning.
It was always a very suspicious behavior.

all other females (PPs, Es, blueberries and the ruggie girl) did not show such a suspicious behavior.

[kuza]

I noticed my straw also hanging around the water when the evening she's going to drop them and she always drops them in the early evening between 6-10. Then she goes straight to the father and does "it" all over again, they don't even wait 1 hour before mating again. lol

[Curlz]

I never saw the dropping. Not even a mating
So I don't know what the girls are doing before, while and after dropping.

[kuza]

I didn't see her enter the water dish either, just on her way out. And my water dish is very small, like 4 inches, by 4 inches and maybe 3.5 inches deep. I am just very lucky!

[deedeeiam]

Tell the inlaws that you're making history and the random group of internet stalkers will go nuts if we have to manage 3 days without an update!

[kuza]

lol I'll try that

[Rocky]

Tell the inlaws that you're making history and the random group of internet stalkers will go nuts if we have to manage 3 days without an update!

Sounds like a legitimate argument to me

[Nat_addicted to HC's]

I concur!

[kuza]

lol! My wife understands, but I'm not sure she's explaining it to them as well as I could if I spoke better french. They don't speak a word of English and my french isn't good enough to explain this well enough for them to REALLY understand.

I'll try to get some more video and pictures up but they all look the same as what I've already posted. My camera isn't good enough to see the difference between stage 1 and 2. It's going on 9 days now so I assume another stage is coming soon. I have it down to about 2 hours work a day doing a water cleaning and feeding every 12 hours. Plus maybe anohter half hour every second day making new salt water and cleaning the jars for switch out every 2-3 days.

I just finished tonight's' episode and there was only a couple dead or too weak to survive. I'm getting them down to a more manageable number I think, kind of letting them weed themselves out on their own for now. I hadn't realized before that some were getting stuck to the jar when I'd suck the water out, so now I make sure to squirt them with water quickly enough. It's could explain the few losses I've had so far. Some others I'm sure I've damaged myself with my turkey baster, but it's so hard to avoid hurting them and still clean up around them.

I do like how orange they get when they feed, they are so transparent!