Vibrating baby "zoes'"

[graphictart]

I have several females that regularly deposit eggs in my main tank and after the third or fourth time I decided to try to save some and grow them on. Anyway, after trawling the internet for a couple of months, looking for inspiration I found Mikes site and the French guy that appeared to be successful at this so I took their lead and purchased some essential equipment:

Red sea marine salt mixed with de-chlorinated tap water (Aqua plus) and at 30-35ppt with no water changes for the duration.
Refractometer
Liquzell
DT's Marine Phytoplankton
Small Glass tank for the Zoe’s
Air pump and stone.
60 watt bulb (desk lamp) 2ft above the tank left on 24/7

Marine water made up for a few days in advance and stored in clean plastic containers with a small amount of DT’s Marine plankton. These are shaken up to mix and aerate ever other day and left to breath for a bit before filling the glass tank. It’s quite a small “show tank“, dimensions are approx. 10”x8”
I have noticed that most successful breeders have used acrylic tanks, is there a reason for this?
Anyway I'll get straight to the point.

My first three attempts have failed; I cannot get past seven days. I feel that they must have a built in provision of food that lasts this long to allow them to find an area containing the correct nutrition and water environment they need and I'm just not providing it.
I have joined this forum for help, advice and hopefully to understand where I’m going wrong with this, I’m open to comments and suggestions as I feel I may be missing something that is more obvious to other / more experienced breeders.

On viewing the zoe’s in the tank they appear to swim around slightly bent and appear to be feeding, can someone point out the tell tale signs that they are actually feeding as I cannot get past seven days, I am unable to see any excrement hanging from the rear as shown in a photo from a German site as this happens around day10.
With an x8 magnifying glass I have also observed the zoe’s vibrating? I am unsure what this is but I would take a guess and say that this is the onset of starvation / death throw, as this happens a day or so before death.

I have checked parameters of water after each failure and everything has been ok, temperatures have fluctuated between 21 and 25 degrees (unheated).
I have given this forum a good shake down and I have tried to find anything that may assist me in the success of this breeding project but I am getting to the point of giving up, I need some assistance, maybe I’m over looking something?

If I have left out any info regarding my method that you may need to know in assisting me, please fire away and I’ll try to answer.
I really want to accomplish this as I feel that it’s a real shame that these shrimp should die needlessly and that I can do something about it.
All help appreciated
John

[Mustafa]

Hi John,

Welcome to Petshrimp.com! I would not be too worried about seeing any excrement hanging from the larvae. And no..acrylic/plastic does not have any advantages. It just happens to be what lots of small containers are made of. And that's where the problem lies...small containers/small volume of water. The larger the container, the better. Keep in mind that these larvae grow up in the ocean and estuaries where there aren't all that many variations with regards to water polution (ammonia, nitrate, phosphates, bacterial blooms etc.). If the larvae discover a polluted area in the ocean they can always swim away to less polluted areas. That's not possible in the aquarium. Pollution increases with every feeding. Changing water can help, but can also introduce more disturbance and maybe even more pollution if your water has nitrates/phosphates.

Bottom line is that these guys need larger containers and larger water volume to grow into adult shrimp on a consistent basis.

[graphictart]

Hi Mustafa,

When I posted yesterday I forgot to say hi to everyone and introduce myself, I was just too concerned about getting my issues across to the forum. So......Hi everyone and thanks for the abundance of info on everything shrimpy!

Regarding the tank size:

I will go out and purchase a 10 gallon tank asap and try again, ( I have another berried female dropping eggs) I see what you mean about water quality degrading quicker in a smaller tank. I suppose I just guessed that because these zoe's are sooooo small that it would be a suitable container to use.

Regarding the "vibrating" any thoughts on what that may be, toxic shock springs to mind then. Also the pollution would have shown up on the water test kit?

I also have a general observation that might need clarification but the baby zoes appear to be able to withstand freshwater for 11 days (so far) which is 3 more than stated on one website. I know this due to "missing" some of the zoes when siphoning them out of my tank, they are all happily swimming around and actually lasted longer than their brothers and sisters that all died after seven days in salt water.

Any thoughts on this?