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.

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.

Best pic I could get at the moment.



Between their size and the way the tank is, makes it hard for a good pic. I'll keep trying though.

Update 01-Sep-2011:

Amanos: All is well in shrimplet land. All (4) present and accounted for. Salinity check prior to today's water change was 1.009. Remaining zoea continue to be free floating. I'm contimplating doing a water change in the zoea tank being how long it's been. Not sure though considering the zoea are close to morphing. Amano lady still holding eggs. Some nice diatom growth developing in her tank. The zoea should have plenty to work on when they grow up.

Ninjas: We have a hatching! Round Two of the Ninja project has officially begun. Mom is acclimating back to the main tank. Cleared out the debris and exo from her molt and drained down the water. The zoea are currently being washed out to sea as I type. I will add a few drops of phyto cocktail just to get the phyto started in the tank.

Propinqua: No updates to report. New group has yet to arrive. Will check with supplier to get a status.

Turned lights on this morning and found one of the Amano shrimpets turning a red color. Not liking that too much. Wondering if I may have changed out too much water yesterday? Rats! Hopefully it will be ok. Will know more later today.

As expected...I lost all four Amano shrimpets. Dang! The bad part is....I knew it. I'm now wondering if I should have tried adding some salt water back to the tank to minimize the effect? I'm getting ready to get a salinity reading to see just how bad I goofed. Just goes to show you, you need to pay attention when your working with stuff like this. No sense beating myself up for it. What's done is done and I can't change it. I am going to do a water change in the zoea tank. I'll check the other tanks afterwards.

Water changes in the zoea tanks complete. It looks like I have (6) Amano zoea left. Nice hefty sized ones too. Just waiting for them to morph. I'll be feeding them a little more Spirulina and Golden Pearls this evening. Yes, I'm still kicking myself for over doing it on the shrimpets. Other Amano lady still holding eggs. I'll examine her closely tomorrow to see if I can get a feel for the anticipated hatching. I will also move another Amano lady into isolation this weekend.

Ninja zoea are now sitting at 1.018 salinity. I fed a bit more phyto this evening. Other Ninja lady is still holding her eggs. If by chance I get to work on the zoea rack this weekend, I will move another Ninja lady into isolation.

Nothing further to report on the Propinqua at this time.

No new hatchings to report. Both Ninjas and Amanos still holding eggs.

Ninja zoea are still progressing. I'm not liking how I have their tank as I'm only to view about 1/4 of it. I keep saying this but have to get the rack completed. Fair amount in there just no idear as to how many. Not sure if I mentioned it or not but with this tank, I'm using an air stone instead of the usual bubble wands I have.

Amano zoea: There are a couple that appear ready to go upstream. I still have a couple of free floaters in there. They are taking their own sweet time. I even have one zoea that is only floating on the top which I find odd. I keep thinking it has expired but everytime I take a bamboo skewer and get close to it, it zips off. Will be fishing out the shrimpets today and start the freshwater acclimation process.

And the battle begins....trying to catch the few Amano shrimpets. Oh what fun! :) I got one at the moment. Looks like two more need to be moved. Other zoeas are finally grabbing the bottom but not ready for freshwater yet. Once they are caught, they will start migrating upstream.

Ninja zoea continue to do well. They are scheduled for a water change today. Will get to that in just a bit.

Few updates today. Let's see where to start....

Propinqua: New arrivals came in today. They are acclimating to their tank as I type.

Ninja Zoea: Quite a few zoea still with me. Fed them a mix of Spriulina and Golden Pearls. I'll add a little phyto later on as well. I'm doing something a little different with these guys by attempting to offer the GPs at an earlier age. Just a small fraction so not too bad.

Amano Zoea: Captured one more shrimpet and will try to catch it up to the others that started upstream yesterday. The salinity isn't too far off but have to be very carefull about it. There is one more free floater in the tank. Once he/she morphs that will be a wrap for that test.

Now the fun stuffs...

While mixing the feed for the Ninja zoea (I use fresh salt water for this), I had to restart the syphon in the jug. When I noticed it starting to flow, I fumbled a bit in trying to shut the valve. I was doing this over the tank hold the expecting Amano female. I wound dripping about 1-2ml of salt water in her tank. I then moved the tubing and wound up putting about the same amount in the tank with the expecting Ninja mother! Drat!!!! Very, very small amount so not overly concerned with it.

Fed the Ninja zoea and immediately performed water changes on both the tanks. I'm slowly driping in new water. Just went down to check on things and the water level is perfect for Mrs. Amano and move the tube over to the Ninja lady. I then go and check the Oto tanks for few minutes. Go back to check on the Amano lady and find her water has gotten really cloudy. What in the world??? Closer exam....HATCHLINGS! We have zoea. And a ton of them to boot. Awesome deal. She still has a ton of eggs in her carriage so this is going to be a very large group to work with.

More updates to come.....

Here's a little video of today's hatching. Mama Amano will come in and you will see the white belly which is the remaining eggs.

My little snow globe. :)

Amano Shrimp Hatching 08-Sep-2011

Disaster! Went to turn out the lights and found both females dead! WOW! Unreal! Don't know what to say. Hard to believe that that little amount of salt would have caused that. I'm simply speechless at the moment.

Lights on this morn and all is well in zoea land. All of the new Amano zoea perked right up and hit the jet stream (a.k.a current via bubblers :) ). They will be washed out to sea today. Amano shrimplets doing fine so far on their journey upstream. Another salinity change in order for today.

I saw a berried Amano lady in the main tank that looks like she is close to hatching out. Not sure how I missed her. I'll try and get her moved as well...very, very carefully.

Last nights disaster has definately motivated me to push to get the rack complete. Should have and would have been prevented with better management. I'll be tied up Saturday so will really hit it hard on Sunday. I'll get the tank that had the Ninja lady in it cleaned out and move another female over. No telling how far I would be in this project if I factor out the human error piece of it. I've got some big plans that will aid in the management of these tanks which will mean less "hands on" and will greatly reduce the possibily of error.

Newest batch of Amano zoea being washed out to sea. This will be the second time I use an airstone. It is in combination with a bubbler. So far it has really kept the current nice without being rough on them. Fed about 1.5ml of phyto. Still have the one remaining free floater. I lost one of the Amano shrimpets. Seems getting them back to fresh will be just as challenging. The air is a little different in the tank so less oxygenation. May be a factor but then again, the other still looks good.

Bad news on the Propinqua front. Most of the ones I just got yesterday have already expired. So not happy with this. :( Guess the trip was hard on them only thing I can think of being that they went into a well established tank with Props already living in there.

Cleaned out the old Ninja tank and gently moved the other expecting Amano in there. She was very easy to catch. Now the question will be if she will drop any eggs from the transfer or not. Preferrably not. Not sure how far along she is but looks like they could hatch very soon.

I think the last remaining free floating Amano zoea has finally decided it's time to grow up. I noticed him as a shrimpet on Saturday and as of this morning he is doing just fine and clear color. Ready to go upstream and hopefully join the others. Speaking of which, they are doing well. Still making their journey on a different time scale. I'm going very slow this time. The salinity has only been dropped just a few points since the migration started.

New Amano zoea are still doing well. Lights on this morning and the rush was on to hit the currents. Within a few seconds, all zoea were back free floating. I fed about 1.5ml of phyto mix.

Second Amano lady has had just a few hatch out. I can see just a few zoea floating about. The rest will probably hatch any day now.

On to the Ninja's. I'm starting to question the salinity of these guys. The amount of zoea have really decreased. It's still possible that zoea syndrome has set in, however, with the amount of phyto and algae growing in their tank, the food source should be plentiful. The tank has went to the extreme green side. This may have something to do with it as well. I had this same thing with a batch of Amanos earlier and thought that there wasn't enough light penetrating through.

Propinqua udate. Only (2) remain from the ones I just got. They aren't opaque so I believe these two may just make it.

On tap. Have to move the Amano shrimplet out, get that tank cleaned and then I will move over another Ninja lady. Phyto harvest needs to be done either today or tomorrow. The new phyto mix will now have (3) phytos in the cocktail as the C. Iso is now ready to be harvested. I'm questioning the Dunaliella salina at the moment and trying to find out the "real" strain that has started to grow in the bottle. I'm also wondering if I were to take a small amount of Spirulina and mix it with fresh water, would this keep long in a fridge? Normally I just do this manually everytime but if I already had it prepped, I could just use a dropper to feed to be easier and save time.

Caught the last two Amano shrimpets from the salt tank and moved them to a smaller container. I will slowly move these guys upstream. The other two still are doing ok. They are moving further along their journey to freshwater with a small water change and a feeding. Their tank was cleaned out and a Ninja lady moved in.

As for the Ninja zoea, only a few remain. I think the salinity may be the cause. Next batch of Ninja's will live in a lower salinity.

Second Amano lady is hatching out hers as I type. There are a few dozen eggs at the bottom of the tank. Not sure if those will hatch out or not but we'll see. Definately not as many as the tank next door. It's still early yet so we'll see what transpires.

Interesting addition...went down to shut off the freshwater drip to the Amano's and noticed some zoea in the Ninja tank already. Guess I pulled her out just in time.

Lights on this morning to find both ladies (Amano and Ninja) have hatched out thier eggs. Looks like the Ninja had 100% while there are still some eggs on the bottom of the tank from the Amano. They will be moved back to thier tanks today and the zoea will be washed out to sea.

Did still see a few Ninja zoea in the other Ninja tank today. No many the best I can though. I'm contimplating trying to remove them and put them in the new tank with the lower salinity since the numbers are low.

Water changes in all the zoea tanks going on right now. A group each of Amano and Ninja's being washed out to sea. The existing zoea tanks will be getting a regular change. Phyto cocktail to be added to all tanks with Spirulina only added to the oldest batch of Amano zoea. The Ninja tank is very dark green. No food source needed there.

Pretty much going to be going with all airstones for these tanks instead of the bubble wands. I think with the stones right in the middle and adjusted properly, the current is picking up everything in the tank. Which could be a good thing.

As for the shrimpets. Gonna need a little more work on this. I may be removing them too soon. I lost two more shrimpets. And the transition is very slow at that. Hmmmm. {insert puzzled look here} But, this project is all about unlocking mysteries right? I'll pay closer attention to the data and may just decide to keep them in the salt for about a week after the morph. Is kind of hard to see if there may be any signs that they are ready to go.

All the little zoea made it through the night after the water changes. Salinity still on the rise for the two fresh batches. We'll hit the target numbers today. I would love to be able to get some shots of the size differences. From the batch that is almost a week old compared to the fresh hatchlings, it's about twice the size. The Ninja's could be a bit hard to tell growth due to their overall size. As long as the tanks don't go too green on me, I'll be able to get in some good observation. The airstones are definately making a big impact. The aeration is excellent. I still have a couple of things I want to try so we'll see where it leads me. I now just have to make sure I only use these stones for salt and have another set for fresh when it's just the expecting females in the tank.

One further observation at this point concerning the zoea and survival rates up to the one week period. When I first started, I was taking them to salt a little quick. According to the reseach I've done, this should be fine as well as just dumping them straight into full sea water. While they will survive, I've noticed the casualty count is also a bit high. So far, with the slow and delibrate rise in salinity, the amount of casualties have been extremely low. This is perfect as it is the way nature intended it as they are washed out to sea. Just have to find that salinity "sweet spot" for the different species now. Oh...and of course...work on bringing them back to fresh water when they are ready.

Boy what a roller coaster ride I'm on with the Propinqua's. I just got a new replacement batch of them in yesterday. As Billy Crystal would say...."They look Mahvalis". Acclimated them to the tank just fine. Woke up this morning to a busted tank! I lost (7) of them. Worst of all....this was my Otocinclus Cocama tank and yes, I lost all of them as well. Never had to deal with something like this before. I've heard the horror stories but now I'm living it. I'll get this tank rebuilt today and start back up again.

Didn't have the time to check on the zoea this morning due to the cleanup. Just turned on the light and quickly glanced. It appeared to look ok. The older Amano zoea were all clumped together. Hopefully they are fine as they normally sit on the bottom at night. Temps are pretty low here now which may affect some things so I will have to keep an eye on that.

Been a bit since I've updated this. My apologies.

Had a few things happen recently. One tank busted on me resulting in losing some of my Propinqua's that I just got in. I have since rebuilt the tank and the remaining ones are doing just fine. No further signs of stress and colored up nicely.

The sole surviving Amano shrimplet is still going strong. I need to move him into a better container for air movement though. I'm not found of the small jar he is in. The Amano zoea for this round appear to be losing the battle. Salinity and feeding is spot on which is leading me to think the lower temps at night may start being a factor. I'll have to work on that. And as well, for this round of testing, I did keep the lights on 24x7 due to that fact. I'm not so confident that this is a good course to follow. All batches after this will go back to the 16x8 photo period.

Ninja zoea. These continue to be a mystery at the moment. I don't think mid level salinity is the right level. Next batch to hatch out will go to full sea water and we'll go from there. I have two females lined up. The second hatching will be at the lower end of the salt table and see what that gets us.

I lost my last Amano shrimpet. Poo. Was so close too. Back to the drawing board. I'll have to think about this one better. Guess my transition was actually too slow. I have a plan in place for the next batch.

On the Ninja front, all the zoea have been lost. One female currently in isolation waiting for hatching.

Good news on the Propinqua's. One of the original females is berried. Yay! I have moved her over and now the question is will she carry the eggs to term. I dropped in a Veggie stick for her to keep herself occupied with. Hopefully this will help.

Propinqua lady is AGAIN plucking the eggs out! Grrrrrrr! Wish I knew why they are doing this? Maybe an age thing? Frustrating to say the least. She had about half of them left when the lights came on this morning. I guess I will give myself two options here: 1) just leave the older ladies in the tank longer before trying to move them. See if they do this in their regular environment. Or 2) move in a couple of plants or something in the tank with her to see if that may help. Just so confusing as none of the other shrimpies are behaving this way. And these Prop ladies are the oldest shrimpies which makes me wonder if that may have something to do with it.

And it's official. Propinqua lady has once again devoured all her eggs. Maybe she got a taste of caviar and just can't resist it. Who knows. I'll get her moved back to her tank, clean out the rearing tank and move over another Ninja.

Amano zoeas are still doing well. The oldest group has a nice color to them and appear to be getting close to morphing. The second group still looks a bit on the smallish side. If I don't see any good growth in the next couple of days, this could be a bad sign.

Gonna be chilly the next few days. Now will be a good time to see how the room temp will change and affect things. Hopefully not at all but the temps will definately be lower in the tanks.

Been pretty much out of commission for a spell. I hate being ill. Back in the saddle now and ready to pick up where I left off. I'm sure the zoea tanks are going to be a loss. I was only in the fish room long enough to feed and that's been the extent of my fishy interactions during this time. I'll get down there this afternoon and see if by chance anything remains. The rearing tanks will need to be cleaned and more ladies moved in. I know there was at least one berried Amano ready to go and I'm sure I can move over a couple Ninja ladies as they are always carrying.


I'll be spending more time in basement now that it's getting cooler. Hopefully get things finalized with the new shelves and such. Get more organized. ;)

Found a berried Propinqua lady today. Yay! And the best part, it is one of the new females so hopefully won't have to deal with the eggs being eaten. Crosses fingers. I immediately moved her into isolation so we'll see.

Ninja lady still holding. Found several other berried ladies in their tank.

Will be moving an Amano lady into isolation this weekend. Still have a few Amano zoea's surviving. Thought for sure that I would have lost all of them during the time I was ill. Think I'm going to try and combine the two Amano zoea tanks and start fresh.