My Straw (Perlatus) baby thread

[naalide]

Typical side-effects by caring for larvae:
1. You become a moderator in a crab-board (if you aren't still one).
2. Complaining about bad camera-equipment.

Do you mind, if I use your data in our German forum?

[kuza]

lol! and sure, I don't mind.

[kuza]

So I'm not sure if I should separate the megalopa or not, I can't turn the bubblers down because there's still so many zoea, but that means the megalopa are always floating around grabbing the live zoea and not eating them off the bottom. I have other food floating around with them but they can't swim to it, they eat what they catch

I could use a small fish tank that has a flat bottom with only light bubbles where they could swim around and walk more, but I'm worried they would still just eat each other. They like to eat each other too much!

I need to find those sinking food crumbs.

[naalide]

How many megalopa do you have by now?

Separate some of them and wait how it works. There's no sure formula for success.

[kuza]

I have 10-12 maybe, it's hard to count, some jars have just a few and some have more.

[SoulLonely]

Wow, congrats!

[kuza]

worst day ever... I separated all the megalopa I could get (about 12-15) into their own jar since they have a different diet than the zoea and I could put in shells and turn down the bubbles in that jar. I then also tried "New Life - Spectrum Beta formula" sinking food pellets. I came back 2 hours later and they were all dead and the water was dark...

So I'm not sure if I killed them by turning the bubbler down or it was the sinking food pellets.

Good thing I have 3 jars of zoea + a few megalopa still going strong, but I'm now scared to do anything.

[fraksocks]

Oh no! I'm so sorry

[Nat_addicted to HC's]

Oh no! How much did you put in? Sounds like it polluted the water. Wish i could post some of what i use to you!!
What kind did you get?

[wodesorel]

The betta formula contains a high level of garlic to prevent parasites. I have to wonder if it was just too concentrated in the tiny jars for the little ones.

I am so so sorry.

[kuza]

Thanks for the support everyone, I am taking this pretty hard, if I didn't have more megalopa in the other jars I'd feel like giving up right now.

NAT I used this stuff; http://www.bigalspets.ca/betta-formula- ... -50-g.html

And I probably used too much, I could tell the water was "off" when I entered the room and knew something had gone horribly wrong.

In a way it's lucky I separated them into that extra jar or I may have put that food into all the jars. I know better now. I may still try the 4rth jar for megalopa but I'm going to just do a few next time around.

I probably have 5-6 more megalopa in the 3 jars still going, but I'm scared to do anything to them.

Should I still try to get a jar for just megalopa? It's such a different diet then the zoea that my water gets dirty really quick. And the water is going so hard they can't even try on the shells at the bottom and the zoea bang into the shells. Ugh!!! I think I need bigger jars!

[CrabbyMom33]

Really sorry to hear about the bad day. Hope your next try at managing the megalopa works better. Just remember that what you are doing really is an experiment and you have to try things and then adjust based on the results. Hang in there.

[kuza]

So as of tonight I have at least another 15+ megalopa, so I think by tomorrow the number will double again. Imagine I still had those first 15 alive! This does give me hope and tomorrow I may try again to make a "megalopa" jar but I'm still not sure if it's necessary, maybe it's better to just keep feeding the zoea until they morph into megalopa or get eaten and then switch to feeding just the megalopa and turning down the bubbler. I did add shells to the 3 jars tonight hoping is slows down the cannibalism.

I also got some good video of them doing loops in the water I'll try to put up tomorrow, they are really good controlled swimmers when they reach megalopa stage. Much better then they tail whip they do as zoea. I love how the swim upside down a lot of the time and you just see those little paddle feet going super fast.

I'm also glad that it was probably the food because I'm not losing any more, so it had to be that. When the new eggs drop at the end of the month I hope to have even better success to this point. Now... to get them to land! ugh!!

[hermilove]

Sorry to hear about your loss, but you figured out the problem and are getting more!!! Congrats on the little guys changing

[lefty]

this is extremely interesting and i appreciate you letting us in on all your experiences. we are cheering for you in pennsylvania! hoping for the best!