My Caridina cf. Propinqua Project

First topic message reminder :

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.

Huh Never heard of those, they do sound handy!

Hang on and I'll snap a pic of one of them. Thought it was posted out here before. Maybe under drip acclimation thread.

Transfer to salt is beginning. I just moved over a majority of the zoea to the brack tank...unintentionally. lol. When the lights are out, they seem to huddle in one spot. I was surprised with how many I got on the first attempt. Luckily, there is still an ample amount to transfer to the low end salt.

My only issue at this time, is that the phyto didn't really take off in the tanks as I was hoping. Might be an issue so I'll have to monitor that closely. I did add about 20ml to each tank prior to adding the zoea.

Morning check and zoea in both tanks have survived through the evening. Lightly stirred up the phyto sitting on the bottom of the tanks. The air bar didn't work as well as I'd hoped for so I went back to the dosing dropper but using it more gently than before. Just pushing the bulb enough to lift the phyto and let the current do the rest of the work.

And how about a shot from today:



This is at Day 3. All still looking well in both tanks. The zoea are staying bunched up. I'm flirting with cutting the lights out but since I don't have an alternate heat source, I'm a little timid.

wow nice James.

cool there getting big quick

That shot turned out really nice. Believe it or not, that little guy is actually no bigger than the letter " i "

I know it's still way early right now, but I definately like the way both tanks are progressing. I have not noticed any casulties at this stage yet. The minor adjustment I made to the air flow prior seems to be doing well. After stirring up the zoea, I watch them in what appears to be them actively "hunting" on the remnants that settle back down.

I duffed on my Rotifers and have to get a new culture in. I just got busy with rescaping several tanks that I never really got them going the way they should have been done. Hopefully the new will arrive soon and the zoea will be ready for them.

Sounds like you are making some very good progress!

Thx....Inching along but that's a good thing. I have some Amano's coming in shortly to add to the mix. I also ordered some Golden Pearls to attempt to feed the larvae. Hope the progress continues. Have another female in line which is carrying a boat load of eggs. Haven't seen a gal carry this many yet.

You should hit a nutrition store and get a small bottle of the spirulina capsules. I bet that powder will go a long way towards feeding those young..... or at least the critters they are eating.

Wonder if that is used in a salt environment? I do use it to make Oto feed from time to time. Think I may still have some as a matter of fact. Right now the tanks are running with phytoplankton. I'll be introducing either live foods (rotifers) or golden pearls in a few days.

Yes it is, spirulina goes in food for fresh and salt.
My main thought is it is a highly nutritious powdered algae, so it would be small enough for them to eat.

Big test underway right now. I have decided to cut the lights for a bit. Being the only heat source at the moment, I'll keep a vigilant eye out and watch the temps. The tanks were sitting at 77 prior to cutting off the light. I won't let it get below 72 before turning it back on.

I did a quick spot check about 30 minutes into the test by turning the light on. The zoea have moved to the front of the tank and seemed to be in a more free float state then when the light was on. With the light on, they are huddled together in specific areas.

The zoea seem to be pretty active still. The phyto is getting the water cloudy which is what it should do. Just curious as to how green it will get. lol.

I'm getting ready to hatch out some brine shimp and as well have new rotifers and golden pearls on the way. Even if this test group fails, I will be even more prepared for the next group.

On a sad note....POWER FAIL!

Woke up this morning and the power was out. My daughter said she woke up around 0200hrs and it was out then. That makes it at least four hours down time. No light, no heat and no aeration. This round of testing is done.

Had to restart two filters on other tanks as well. Didn't have time to assess any other potential damages/casulties as I was late for work. Hopefully all will be ok.

I'll get the salt tanks cleaned out, refilled and running for next round.

Small glimmer of hope.

So assessing the damage from this mornings power outage. Figured I would check things out just to ensure that all is lost. Started out in the higher tank. I noticed a couple of the zoea still moving around! Wow.

Needless to say, the tanks have to be reset due to the amount of casulties that are in there. So, I pulled out from the 1.014 tank that I could find that showed signs of life. I'm pretty sure I missed some, but there really wasn't much I could do about it. I moved those to a temporary container while I cleaned the old tank. Put in fresh water and phyto and then transferred them back in. All seems well at the moment.

Moved to the low salt tank. Didn't see anything moving in there. I decided to stir it up and see what happens. I found some movement! Kewlness! I picked up a couple in the dropper and transferred them into the high tank.

Here's where it got a little interesting. I would drop a zoea into the tank. It would start to twitch. Like curl up in a ball. It would do this a couple of times and then straighten out and float around. I only moved about 10 in at this time. They are hovering around in the back corner near the light source. I'll go back in a little bit and check on them and see what's going on.

I didn't reset the low tank at this time. I'm debating on if I should try to find more and transfer or just wash the tank.

Golden Pearls arrived today. I'm starting with 50-100 and 100-200 micros. I've never used this before so this should be interesting.

I put a smidgeon of an amount in water and mixed thoroughly. Wow, that little bit made quite a bit. Not sure if I can keep it for a spell or not.

There doesn't appear to be too many zoea left in both tanks but I added it anyway. I'm getting ready to go back down there and check on things.

Another impact from the power outage....female dropped her eggs. :(

Ouch sorry to hear about that!

Sorry to hear about the Egg drop! but Keep up with the great trying !

Thx guys. One can always expect little setbacks along the way. Just have to try to not get discouraged and maintain focus. The work must go on.

Hard to find any zoea that may have made it. Even the ones I thought might have had a chance. I think this round may be officially called. I'll give it another day and see if i can find anything.

A couple things to note:

- Phyto is going to get really dark in there. Maybe the addition of Rotifers will help control that a bit as they will munch on it.

- Golden Pearls seem like they might get messy after a couple of days. It appears to get clumped up after a spell. May need to feed and then try to clean the bottom after a bit.

I'm starting to rething my design too. Right now I have one air inlet into the tank. Just not sure that is providing the current I want. I'm thinking of going with two air inlets cross corner from each other. Hopefully that will reduce possible dead spots.

On a side note, Amano's came in today. Awesome addition to the project. They just finished acclimating and entered their new home. Now to see how they will do with Otos and their eggs. I put them in the holding tank since it is bigger and the plan is that they will help keep the feeding tiddied up as I know I am over feeding but have to with the amount of babes in there at the moment.

Sad note today, I lost a female Propinqua after molting. Hate when this happens. Not sure what causes it. I do feed calcium enriched feeds but might not be enough.

On a good note....BERRIES! Finally! Just now found a berried female in there. I'm sooooo relieved. Pick to follow. I do need add a few more to the tank to account for the past losses. Weather is getting just right for shipping so I should be able to restock at one time.

I'm still having a whale of time to grow rotifers, so it looks like this next round will just be phyto and golden pearls. I may try to introduce some baby brine but we'll see.

I'm rather enjoying this project I must say. Still waiting on the Ninja's to be available as well.

Chalk another one up to human error!

I just discovered that the cloudiness I was noticing was due to the filter being off. I never plugged it back in after the last water change. Unreal!

Hopefully the damage is done in that I only lost (3) shrimp; 2 females and a male. I'm down to one male now.

Dang I'm so ticked at myself.

As long as the rest of them are fine. The one berried female is still doing good so that's a small plus.

Will definately have to get a small restock for them.

All looks well after the flub up. Water is nice and clear. Shrimpies look good. Better yet, female is still berried. Approaching the one week mark so she will be going into isolation in a few days.

Salt tanks have been prepped and are running ready for their occupants.

Found a berried Amano today, so Phase II of this project is officially underway.

I put up a shot in the "Who Likes Berries" thread.