My Caridina cf. Propinqua Project

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Zoea from Caridina cf. Propinqua (a.k.a Sunkist Orange Shrimp)

They will be washed out to sea today (moved to their salt tank).

I tried to get some shots last night of them and this is about the best I could get at the moment. They are so small. I'll try to snap some more before moving out to sea. You can just make them out as they almost look like arrows.



I'm going to estimate around 40 or so zoea in there at the moment. This morning, most of them where in the same corner as pictured above.

Time's running out on the remaining ones in the tank. Hopefully I will be able to find alot more today and get them moved over so they at least will have a fighting chance of survival.

Morning check when the lights came on and all continues to be well. Still no Amano shrimpets as yet. The big zoea continue to drift about. I fed (or should say offered) them a small amount of Golden Pearls last night. We are at the one month mark for the initial hatching. I'm going to move another Amano female into isolation either today or tomorrow. That will fill all my rearing tanks for now. May just have to bite the bullet and go to Petsmart and buy new ones since I haven't been able to locate similar size containers elsewhere. I'll keep looking all about though.

Ninja's continue to grow. I no longer have to squint to see them drifting. They are approaching one week now. With this batch, I'm going to do water changes every (10) days as opposed to the (5) with the Amano's. With the ladies holding the eggs about as long as the Amano's, I'm expecting the same time frame for them to morph into shrimpets. I'm curious how the much smaller size of the Ninja's may play into things. One other interesting item to note with the Ninja's; I have their rearing tank located right next to the main tank. With that, the light isn't sitting directly on top of the tank as the others so this is keeping the temps lower. To be honest, I don't believe the light is at a level where it will impact the temp at all so this tank is strictly sitting at room temp which is around 68F. Much lower than I would like. I'll take a temp reading today and see where it actually is.

The Propinqua female is still holding her eggs as of this morning. Still early yet but we are in that window where they have been dropping their eggs of late.

I think this weekend I need to focus on building a new station to house the rearing tanks and phyto cultures. Will make things much easier.

Still no shrimpies yet from the Amano's. Zoea continue to float around and such. If they all morph, I believe I'm looking at around 20.

Took a peek in on the Propinqua lady and it looks like she has dropped her eggs agian. :( Very confusing. I'll verify this afternoon. I noticed yesterday that the other two ladies are berried as well. I'll run another gambit of water tests and see if anything stands out. TDS should be nice and low with the new substrate and I doubt the water went to the hard side. {scratches head}

Confirmed today that the Propinqua female did drop her eggs. Dang! Cleaned out the tank and moved the other two females in there. They were berried at the same time so if by some minor miracle their eggs hatch, they will hatch together. Quite frustrating it is. I ran the water test and all water parms are spot on. TDS is even < 100. No clue as to why this keeps happening. Maybe there is some type of stress going on. I have moved their rearing tank over to where the Amano's are so maybe that will provide a little more peace.

Man that stinks. I have had some juvenile female drop eggs their first time being berried.

Yes it does. It's very common for the them to drop the first or even second batches. Fortunately, these gals are experienced. Just hope to find a cause soon.

James0816 wrote:

Yes it does. It's very common for the them to drop the first or even second batches. Fortunately, these gals are experienced. Just hope to find a cause soon.

Maybe they are getting old LOL...

lol

Busted! The Propinqua ladies aren't dropping their eggs....They are eating them! WTH! I just sat there and was watching the two ladies I have in isolation and they are picking the eggs from their carriage. Now why in the world are they doing this?? If anyone has any clues on this, I'm all ears. Never had to deal with something like this before. I'm sure they won't have any eggs come morning.

Maybe something is wrong with the eggs... I have seen my red cherry's eat some of their eggs but not all of them...

Or they are really hungry and getting senile...

Been a few days so let's get caught up.

Amano's: I wound merging tanks today. One tank only had (2) zoea left so I moved them to the other side where there are a few more. After I moved the two, I did a minor cleaning and a water change. Fed a small amount of Spirulina and Golden Pearls. Some of these zoea are a good 3/16 or larger. Still nice and redish color. Getting pretty fast as well if I must say. I cleaned out the empty tank and moved over another expecting female.

Ninja's: Still have a few zoea in their tank. Leaving it where it was obviously turned out to be a bad idea. Was not ideal conditions but tried it anyway. I did feed them a small amount of Spirulina as well.

Propinqua: Moved the one female that dropped (ate) her eggs back to the main tank. Still have one female holding. I need to clean the tank but I'm affraid if I go in there it may stress her out and she will dump the eggs.

I say clean the tank... If she hasn't dropped them by now she probably wont...

sunkenmetal wrote:

I say clean the tank... If she hasn't dropped them by now she probably wont...

Not neccessarily true unfortunately. When stressed, that's the first thing to happen with berried females. But after that quick glance this morning, I don't think it will matter so I will do a cleaning on it anyway. Hopefully she will tidy herself up and I will place her back in the main. I've got some Ninja's that are waiting on a tank. ;o)

that's cool man...

Amano's are still zoea. I would have thought from all my readings that they would have morphed by now. Still alive too in case you're wondering. They don't like touching each other. As soon as they do, it's a major "twitch" and scatter in opposite directions. :)

Only a few Zebra zoea remain. What I may do with these guys, is move them to a smaller container and see what happens. Then I will clean that one out and move over two more ladies. That rearing tank will then be located next to the others. I can officially call this test a failure.

The Propinqua female is still holding the eggs. They looked a little less "fuzzy" this morning but still abnormal to say the least. The gal I moved back to the main tank looks to be in trouble. She's trying to molt it appears but can't seem to get the exo off. This could be bad.

fuzzy eggs that's not good...

Can't get her exo off that sucks...

Came home yesterday and found the Propinqua female had expired. :( That was my first shrimp lost due to a molting issue (or lack there of). The female carrying the eggs still has them. I'm not really sure what she is going to do but need to give her a chance at either a full term or a drop. Either way, she is still doing fine.

Didn't have time to check on the zoea this morning as I had to rush into work. Only had time to turn on the lights. They were all doig fine last night. I watched a couple of them kind of settle on the bottom on some plankton/algae build up and then they jetted off again. I watched in anticipation thinking that was going to be the morph I had been waiting for. But alas...not yet.

I won't be moving any more shrimp or zoea until after our guest (Miss Irene) has left. If we lose power, I don't want to risk losing a viable female. I'd rather lose the zoea and try again later.

Water changes will be done in all tanks tomorrow.

Good Luck... Hurricanes suck

Found these little shrimp in my shrimp tank...anybody know what they might be? ;)





Not the best of pics since they are very small. I found three of them at the moment.

Oh...by the way...they are Amanos!!! WooHoo!

Just going to call it a partial success for the moment. Getting them to this stage was the hard part. Now I have to focus on getting them to the juvie stage before I declare it. Even though the numbers are pretty low, I have collected a ton of data during this round of testing.

A couple more theories have also blossomed too. First, when the zoea start losing their red coloring (as pictured in previous post), that is when they will begin their transition. I've still only noticed the three that are morphing for the moment and they are almost all clear as we know Amanos to be. There are a few free floating zoea that look like they are losing their red so I'm anticipating seeing more on the bottom in the days to come.

Another interesting note is the size of the zoea. There are the larger zoea that are a bright red color. Again, based on what we know from the adult Amanos in relation to size, I'm going to go out on a limb to say that the larger zoea will be the females. Unless they just turn out to be super Amanos.

They aren't quite ready to begin the transition to freshwater as yet. Before turning the lights off, I will find them on the bottom or sides sitting on top of a phyto/algae build up. When the lights come on in the morning, everyone is free floating again. I'm not quite certain they are strong enough to begin their migration upstream. Once I can determine that, then they are going to begin the journey. That will be a slower process than when they were introduced to salt. I have another theory on that one but won't bore you with the details.

I have plans for two more tweaks for the next round to help combat the zoea syndrome. I want to look at increased oxygenation of the water for one. I want to get a fine mist of air coming into the tank. I just have the regular bubbler wand which is keeping the current up but not sure how well it is actually oxygenating the water. I would really like to achieve something like the micro bubbles from a CO2 nano diffuser but the air pumps I have aren't rated high enough for that.

The second thing will be the feeding. Now that all four phyto cultures have gotten themselves established, the nutritional value just doubled for the zoea. Added to that will be the continued use of Spirulina. I'm also debating of adding a small amount of 50micron Golden Pearls at the 2-3week mark instead of at the end. From what I've seen, the zoea are big enough at that point to feast on them.

Now ... on to the others....

Ninja's: All zoea are lost. Tank to be cleaned and will move another female into isolation. I knew that this was going to be a failure but figured I had to at least conduct it to eliminate options.

Propinqua: The little lady is still carrying some eggs. While not as many as before, but some none the less. It does appear that she is now maintaining herself as the fuzzy area has disappeared. The question will be, will the remaining eggs be ok or will she eliminate them as well?

Amano shrimpies still looking good. All three have been accounted for. Looks like they have lost all their red now. This may be the sign I was looking for. As expected, I noticed a couple more that are in color transition and trying to grab on to the wall. Not sure exactly how many remain in here but progress is being made.

The Propinqua lady had taken care of herself. The eggs are all gone. She is acclimating back to main tank now. That tank has been cleaned up and a Ninja lady has moved in. This tank is on the shelf with the others so it can fall in line with the standard routines.

The old Ninja zoea tank was as well cleaned out and another Ninja lady moved in.

There is another Amano lady carrying but no tank space available for her at the moment. On that note, I found a place online that sells them rather cheaply. They were $4. I was able to get (4) plus shipping for the price of what three would cost me here. Kewlness. They should be in any time now.

A few Amano shrimpets moving nicely along the walls of the tank this morning when the light came on. I watched them for a few minutes before leaving. I noticed no red coloration on these guys at all and they are walking very well. I think I'm going to try and catch these three guys today and begin their transition to freshwater. Currently debating of their food during this time. Since the tank they will be going in isn't covered in algae or plankton, I will need to present them with something. I think I will add a pinch of the same powder I use for the Oto fry and maybe add a smidge of Spirulina. There will be daily water changes of around 50%.

I have temporarily met my match! This little jokers are fast! I mean lightening fast! Both Plans A and B have already been thwarted. I may have to resort to attempting to use a net. Problem with that is that I may also snag a free floater which would be bad. Hmmmmm..... More to follow.....

New tanks came in today. Awesome deal! I can now expand a bit but it won't be for another day or so. I'm thinking of moving one more Ninja and another Amano. I want to reserve a couple of tanks for the new Propinqua when they arrive.

Turkey baster has prevailed! lol

Caught all three shrimpets and moved them to a smaller tank. In that tank I added a bit of Spirulina and Golden Pearls. There is an air bubbler on it as well. I may give way to an air stone for better oxygenation. After dinner I will drain some of the water and start having them swim upstream.

Lights on this morning and all three Amano shrimpets still doing good after the first drop in salinity. I'll take a reading today before doing another water change with fresh water. I'm going to introduce a very small amount of flake food at this time.

Remaining zoea are still free floating. There were a couple that were on the wall but moved off shortly after the light came on. This is where the disadvantage of tanks v. nature comes in play and having to catch the little buggers one at a time after they morph instead of them just swimming happily upstream on their own. Would be nice to be able to migrate a whole tank to freshwater at one time.

Ninja and Amano ladies still carrying eggs. Will need to do some tank maintenance on thier tanks to clean up the poo and uneaten food.

Funny story here...As you know, last night I moved over three shrimpets into the container to migrate to freshwater. In the process of moving them over, I checked the container and only found two. This was after I "thought" I had all three moved in. cr@p! One must have escaped somehow. I checked the turkey baster and the jar, not there. Checked the container once again and only counted two. I went to check the tank and I found him on the wall. Ooooooooooook...I recaptured him and placed him back into the container.

Fast forward to today. I go to do the water change in the container. Check on the shrimpets prior to to make sure all is well. Guess what...I count (4)! LOL. Kewlness. So...there are actually (4) shrimpets swimming upstream at the moment. Check of the tank and to the best I can tell, we still have free floaters. They are spending more time on the walls but not quite ready.

Check of the salinity before the water change was 1.013 down from 1.018. There is no rhyme or reason or weighted method for the transition. I am keeping it above 50% water change for a slow migration. I'll keep testing the water each day for progress.