My Straw (Perlatus) baby thread

[Curlz]

The shells have to fall on the ground. (Best way: you out the tiny shells into a small jar with a little bit of saltwater. Shake them, so that the water will get into the shells.
When the shells got air in them, the swimm at the surface of the water.

And the zoae are fast enough to swimm away. The shells will not hurt them. No worries.

When you put all megalopa in one jar, the chance of cannibalism will increase, because of less space. I lost most of the megalopa because of cannibalism (I think this is the main cause). Only 4 left and it does not look good at my side...

[kuza]

oh wow that's bad news sorry!! Do they eat the zoea and the other megalopa?

And my jars flow in a way that the zoea pass across the bottom a lot, so that's why I'm worried they hit the shells on the bottom.

[Rocky]

I think Nat had less of a problem with cannibalism because they had some hiding places and fewer zoae in each jar.
But it seems like curlz and wolf have both had huge problems with cannibalism. Wolf was doing great until they reached the final stage and began eating each other

[kuza]

Oh I thought wolf had to go for a while and left someone else to take care of them and that it went south. My mistake!

[Rocky]

Her husband did have to take care of them for awhile, but she had cannibalism issues before then By the time she left, I don't think they had many or any zoae left

[Nat_addicted to HC's]

Nothing to hide in or on in my set up. I used lots of shells once they reached megalopa, once they were in a shell they were safe from cannibalism as the vulnerable part of their bodies were protected, i put way more shells in than megalopa occupying the jar. This is also when i had my biggest success with non living food once in shells they crawled about looking for food & a better shell.

[kuza]

And the water flow didn't push them around at all? My stream may be too strong since I have much smaller jars. Maybe I'll get a larger jar for the megalopa!

I have frozen baby brine, mysis and Krill. Should that be enough?

[Nat_addicted to HC's]

I backed the flow off (slowed it down) at that stage when they are megalopa. The shells wont hurt them.
But they will eat each other. This is when i happily over fed i dont know if the food you have now got on hand will be enough. You will have to go by feel like the rest of us sorry! The sinking crumb works brilliant for variabilis megalopa
The plastic tweezers come from a medical kit somewhere, i gained my pairs after slicing myself open.

[kuza]

Do you have a link to the sinking crumb? I could only find frozen stuff at the store close to me.

[Nat_addicted to HC's]

I describe it in my thread, its a betta food that is a tiny sinking crumb. Vita pet brand. Not sure if its available over there....
The smallest on the right is the crumbs & the seeds on the left are chia, alfalfa & sesame for size comparison

[kuza]

hmm ok I'll look for it. I have the decapsulated brine shrimp eggs and they sink right to the bottom and are loaded with baby brines and the yoke, I hope that works too.

[Nat_addicted to HC's]

You can see them eating the crumbs in this pic

[kuza]

awesome! I hope they eat the stuff I have for them.

[Nat_addicted to HC's]

My fingers are crossed for you! You are doing a fabulous job!!!!!
Love how the straw babies are so orange compared to my transparent/nuetral coloured variabilis!

[kuza]

Thanks, and they are getting more orange every day, now their whole body including the tail is orange.