Artemis, Day 14 carrying eggs

[kuza]

wash everything you put in food wise, trust me!

[mlakers]

Thank you, aprilmay! Very helpful.

[mlakers]

wash everything you put in food wise, trust me!

In fresh or saltwater?

[mlakers]

Day Sixteen.

They ate some defrosted brine shrimp but I had to do three water changes. Messy stuff, but they got their color back as you can see:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KuFIvmU1pHc

[KayedeeLove<3]

Mlakers- This truly is amazing work! If read every word in this thread! I hope this all works out!

Sent from my SM-G550T1 using Tapatalk

[mlakers]

Mlakers- This truly is amazing work! If read every word in this thread! I hope this all works out!

Sent from my SM-G550T1 using Tapatalk

Thank you, KayedeeLove! It's hard to convey how much it means to me to come in here and see that someone is following my journey and cares enough to comment. This is such a lonely, terrifying trip. I have huge doubts every day and only brief moments of confidence. Every time someone shows that they care about what I'm trying to do, it gives me a little boost and makes it that much easier to go back and do yet another water change, or mix yet more seawater, or try yet another strategy to keep them alive another day.

[mlakers]

Woke this morning to a semi-horrifying thought: if I miscounted the molts because half the babies were behind the others, it doesn't mean I'm one molt behind in my count, it means they've molted HALF as many times as I thought. If that's the case, they are only at Stage Three. I'm not sure I have it in me to keep this schedule up for 40 or more additional days.

[mlakers]

Day Seventeen.

Okay. New strategy. I have three mason jars of zoeae left and a big round goldfish bowl that holds the exact volume of three quart jars with a smaller footprint to clean. I've just finished preparing it and filling it with saltwater to warm in the freshwater bath alongside the existing jars. At noon, I'll move one jar of zoeae over and see how they do in there, then move the others over gradually if everything looks good.

That will give me just one container to monitor, which will be a huge relief, but it will also give me a 100% loss rate if I do something stupid. I'll just have to be extra careful and mindful during all the steps and hope for the best.

Guess what zoeae? It's time for the merge! (I'm a huge Survivor fan, please don't judge...I just watch it for the obligatory camera shots of hermit crabs walking on the beach. No, really.)

Cross your fingers, please!!

[aprilmay]

keeping fingers crossed for you! go little ones, go!
i've been reading naalide's thread on breeding PP. She used this really round vase with an air tube, and she was really happy with the results.


here is her documented process during her successful PP breeding experiment, you are so very close to first megalopa show up time (day 20 for her).
http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... &start=135

Summary:
Development of my larvae (trial 10):
Day 1 (06|25|2015): approximate 15.000-20.000 larvae
Day 7: high loses in the clear salt-water, still approximate 15.000 larvae, most of them in stage zoea 2
Day 10: stage zoea 2 and zoea 3, about 12.000 larvae
Day 13: stage zoea 3 and the first zoea 4, about 9.000 larvae
Day 16: first zoea 4, about 8.000 larvae
Day 18: first zoea 5, approximate 7.000 larvae
Day 20: first megalopa – unfortunately dead!
Day 21: counting the larvae of two tanks and estimated those of the other tank: still 5.000 larvae, 5 megalopas moved to the separate reef-tank.
Day 22: 13 more megalopas
Day 23: 21 more megalopas
Day 24: 40 more megalopas
Day 25: 45 more megalopas
Day 26: 63 more megalopas
Day 27: 15 more megalopas (together 202 so far), still 2058 larvae left (counted)
Day 28: Now the new megalopas stay in the Kreisel-tanks. First megalopas are interested in shells/houses.
Day 37: 3 megalopas in houses transferred to a water-land-transition-tank
Day 38: One animal seen on land! 23 more megalopas in houses transferred to the transition-tank. All megalopas from the Kreisel-tanks moved to the reef-tank.
Day 39: 12 more megalopas in houses transferred to the transition-tank.
Day 40: 3 more megalopas in houses transferred to the transition-tank.
Day 41: 8 miniature-crabs, which stayed on land, transferred to a separate small tank. 3 more megalopas in houses transferred to the transition-tank.
Day 42: 12 miniature-crabs, which stayed on land, transferred to the separate small tank. 4 more megalopas in houses transferred to the transition-tank.
Day 43: 3 megalopas more megalopas in houses transferred to the transition-tank.
Day 44: 2 miniature-crabs, which stayed on land, transferred to the separate small tank. 4 more megalopas in houses transferred to the transition-tank.
Day 45: 3 miniature-crabs, which stayed on land, transferred to the separate small tank. 1 more megalopa in a house transferred to the transition-tank.
Day 46: one miniature-crab, which stayed on land, transferred to the separate small tank.
Day 47: 3 more megalopas in houses transferred to the transition-tank.
Day 48: 4miniature-crabs, which stayed on land, transferred to the separate small tank.
Day 50: 2 more megalopas in houses transferred to the transition-tank. 2 miniature-crabs, which stayed on land, transferred to the separate small tank.
Day 52: 1 more megalopa in a house transferred to the transition-tank.
Day 54: 2 miniature-crabs, which stayed on land, transferred to the separate small tank. 1 more megalopa in a house transferred to the transition-tank.
Day 55: 3 miniature-crabs, which stayed on land, transferred to the separate small tank. 1 more megalopa in a house transferred to the transition-tank.
Day 58 (09|21|2015): One last megalopa without a house (!) transferred to the transition-tank.

None of the left megalopa made it one land, but at all together 40 did!!!
From this, I positively still have 24 little living and crawling hermits. That's what I last counted in there little tanks. But maybe there are some more, which are only hiding very well.

some explanation of her setup (based on her blog, w/ Chrome translate help).

Keisel tank, here she was doing experiment with algae water (the greenish tint). clear vase is just salt-water, no algae. light green is half salt-water, half algae, really green vase is all algae. She had much less casualty (<10%) with algae water, but the growth rate was also much much slower than clear salt-water. if i remember correctly, the algae water zoea were weeks behind the clear water vase siblings.


Reef tank(sand, shell pieces, and small shells


Transition Tank, here is where the first crawling out of water happened



Small terrarium small tank, where little crabs live

[mlakers]

Thank you!! I had read this, but it's so great to have it here--both for me to find easily and for future readers who are hitting this stage. Brilliant. I really appreciate it.

[mlakers]

Well, I did it, terrified the WHOLE time. But they are alive!! And this will make the process so much easier for me. One container to change, the equivalent of one quart jar for a 30% change, a smaller bottom to clean, and much fewer numbers getting sucked up and having to be droppered back in. I know they are getting bigger, too, because they are getting stuck at the opening of the medicine dropper. Less evaporation, more stable salinity and temp. I'm feeling good about this now. Whew. I was panicking there for a couple hours.

Oh, and I counted. I put in 185 live zoeae.

[Happyhermiehome]

Mlakers- This truly is amazing work! If read every word in this thread! I hope this all works out!

Sent from my SM-G550T1 using Tapatalk

Thank you, KayedeeLove! It's hard to convey how much it means to me to come in here and see that someone is following my journey and cares enough to comment. This is such a lonely, terrifying trip. I have huge doubts every day and only brief moments of confidence. Every time someone shows that they care about what I'm trying to do, it gives me a little boost and makes it that much easier to go back and do yet another water change, or mix yet more seawater, or try yet another strategy to keep them alive another day.

We are all rooting for u! Keep up the amazing work! You are doing fantastic!

[ROSIEonFIRE]

Grow babies grow!

[aprilmay]

glad to be of use! it is so amazing to experience this miraculous process through your writing, photo and videos!
thank you so much for sharing!

[GotButterflies]

You've got this!!!!!


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