Progress updates

[Varanus]

im gona say evolutionary sense animals are more in tune with the universe (and world) than we are.

Admittedly that depends on what senses we are talking about though. Relatively few creatures meet or exceed a human's level of visual acuity/detail for instance (though many can see colors or at light levels we can't). The supershrimp for instance I'd be surprised if (as adults at least) if they can see more than the difference between light and dark. They seem to rely mostly on scent and touch/vibration sensing, which makes sense given how much of their natural environment is subterranean.

[Varanus]

As the young shrimp continue to mature (interesting they are at times more active in the tank than the adults) at least two of the adult females are berried again. Here's hoping this next round of reproduction will prove successful as well.

Still looking like the survival rate of the larva was about 50% as I've never counted more than 15 juvenile shrimp at a time in the tank (they've gotten more visible and outgoing as they have grown, making counting easier). Course it is likely there are some hidden even at the times I counted the most, but given I had well over thirty larva that still means its likely that only about half made it past the larval stage (no juvenile/baby has shown any signs of health problems). It will be interesting to see if this pattern continues.

Course I could be very mistaken about how many hide in nooks and such at any one time, as assuming half the larva died they left no discernible remains. I wonder if the snails and shrimp could eat the dead larva completely. I would still think I would have seen it happening at some point though, as I've seen them eating their shed skins at various points.

[Varanus]

Here's a pic of one of the young shrimp with some adults.

[Mech]

great photo, gotta love shrimp-lets

[erica]

Awesome The young shrimp is so tiny!

[Varanus]

Awesome The young shrimp is so tiny!

And its actually several times bigger than when it first metamorphosed!

[Varanus]

Still looking like the survival rate of the larva was about 50% as I've never counted more than 15 juvenile shrimp at a time in the tank (they've gotten more visible and outgoing as they have grown, making counting easier). Course it is likely there are some hidden even at the times I counted the most, but given I had well over thirty larva that still means its likely that only about half made it past the larval stage (no juvenile/baby has shown any signs of health problems).

Well all the activity caused by today's feeding has led me to reassess the above conclusion. Namely I counted at least 28 babies in the tank today, so it seems the survival rate of the larva was indeed a good deal higher and I may have only lost a small number when they metamorphosed.

Three expectant mothers are still carrying eggs, one of them looks like the larva will be hatching soon.

[minishrimps]

Still looking like the survival rate of the larva was about 50% as I've never counted more than 15 juvenile shrimp at a time in the tank (they've gotten more visible and outgoing as they have grown, making counting easier). Course it is likely there are some hidden even at the times I counted the most, but given I had well over thirty larva that still means its likely that only about half made it past the larval stage (no juvenile/baby has shown any signs of health problems).

Well all the activity caused by today's feeding has led me to reassess the above conclusion. Namely I counted at least 28 babies in the tank today, so it seems the survival rate of the larva was indeed a good deal higher and I may have only lost a small number when they metamorphosed.

Three expectant mothers are still carrying eggs, one of them looks like the larva will be hatching soon.

Nice! I can't wait for this. What is your preferred brand of shrimp food?

[Varanus]

Nice! I can't wait for this. What is your preferred brand of shrimp food?

Well I'm not sure if it matters what brand of food you feed supershrimp, but since they get fed so seldom it makes me feel like they should have high quality stuff. So I give them Hikari brand shrimp cuisine. The pellets are very tiny, and at the rate I'm going the one bag I have may last for years. I give them between ten and twenty pellets per feeding.

[Varanus]

First batch of the new larva seem to be hatching just fine. Like with the first babies there was for a day or two just one, now there's at least seven.

[Varanus]

The current period of hatching seems to be done and the result is over 40 larva floating around. Here's hoping for a high survival rate like last time.

[NancyM]

Congratulations!! It's a boy, a girl, a boy......you get the picture.

[Mustafa]

If you have a cycled tank, ammonia is instantly turned into nitrites, this then gets turned into nitrates by friendly bacteria.

If you have ammonia then you have not gotten a cycled tank, if you are over feeding or something decaying and nitrates are not increasing then the nitrogen cycle isn't doing its job. You tank has either crashed and is starting to do a mini cycle again or you just didn't have a fully cycled tank in the first place.

It's not that simple. Cycling only works for a specific amount of bioload. A tank isn't just "cycled" and then you can feed arbitrarily large amounts of food (or add arbitrarily large numbers of livestock). Feeding too much overwhelms the nitrifying bacteria (for a while...then they reproduce) and you can have ammonia. The best thing with the really low levels of ammonia that usually occur in Supershrimp tanks is to simply do....nothing. The bacteria will adjust.

[Mustafa]

Still looking like the survival rate of the larva was about 50% as I've never counted more than 15 juvenile shrimp at a time in the tank (they've gotten more visible and outgoing as they have grown, making counting easier). Course it is likely there are some hidden even at the times I counted the most, but given I had well over thirty larva that still means its likely that only about half made it past the larval stage (no juvenile/baby has shown any signs of health problems). It will be interesting to see if this pattern continues.

Course I could be very mistaken about how many hide in nooks and such at any one time, as assuming half the larva died they left no discernible remains. I wonder if the snails and shrimp could eat the dead larva completely. I would still think I would have seen it happening at some point though, as I've seen them eating their shed skins at various points.

You'd be surprised how many young shrimp actually hide most of the time. I've had tanks in the past where I didn't even know any reproduction was going on...but "all of a sudden" the number of shrimp had gone up ten fold. they'll come out more eventually...once they reach a certain size. But even then, there are always more shrimp in a Supershrimp tank then visible, especially when the numbers get quite large.

[Mustafa]

Well all the activity caused by today's feeding has led me to reassess the above conclusion. Namely I counted at least 28 babies in the tank today, so it seems the survival rate of the larva was indeed a good deal higher and I may have only lost a small number when they metamorphosed.

Ok, never mind. Looks like you figured it out.