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!!
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)