My Amano Project

xerxeswasachump · Post by **xerxeswasachump** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 8:52 pm

Well done man. I lost one of my female's eggs. She released them while still in the freshwater tank. So, right now i only have one egg-laden female. I think i'm going to give up on this as it really isn't worth the effort since i can buy more for $2.00 a pop.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 3:16 pm

Feb 16: I got some very poor pics of the zoes.

This first one gives you and idea of how small these guys are. My stainless steel heater is in the background for scale. They are even smaller than they look due to the way the camera works. The water color is caused by a combo of the algae and the rotifers. The rotifers are really dense so the zoes never get hungry.

This gives you an idea of how many are left. There are still a lot!

This next pic shows that articulation in the tail:

Here is the best close-up I could take:

Sorry for the quality of the pictures, but I don't have an expensive camera (yet).

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 9:49 pm

I wonder how many molts they go through before they are shrimp? I just watched a zoe move to stage 3 (hatch, 1st molt, 2nd molt). At first I thought he was hanging on to something, then POP he jumped and the old skin fell away. Very cool. I was alerted to this by the fact that about half of them were bigger than hours earlier when I was taking their baby pictures.

If they molt every 2-3 days as they have been then it could be 10-15 molts.

Post by **Mustafa** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 7:59 am

badflash wrote:I wonder how many molts they go through before they are shrimp?
If they molt every 2-3 days as they have been then it could be 10-15 molts.

According to Hayashi and Hamano (1984) the number of larval stages is 9. They report that the larvae of some other species, such as Micratya poeyi and Atya iinnocous have more.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 9:43 am

Good, the number of molts matches. Does that report describe what the changes are in each molt? I just noticed the eye stalks can be clearly seen now and they weren't before.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 10:20 am

Today I stirred up the bottom in preparation for a water change & bottom vacuuming. The little guys all grabbed a chunk of detrius and started chowing down. Pretty cool.

With just feeding live algae the water quality is staying really good. I've cut back the water changes to every 3rd day and I'm now concentrating the algae so I don't have to drain so often. I end up sucking out a few fry every time I vacuum, and I'm sure that isn't good for them. I let the water settle in a jug that I drain out, then pour the water off through a plankton screen, then put them back in the tank.

Concentrating algae is pretty easy. Just turn off the air to the jug I grow the algae in and let it settle for a day, then poor off the water. The water doesn't go to waste. I put it in my rotifer and moina tanks. There is still plenty of algae in that water to feed them.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 8:31 pm

I turned off the air for about an hour tonight to try to get a feel for how many larva are left. Once things settled down they all went up toward the light and I could see them all. Holy moley! They are doing far better than I thought. There appears to be at least 200 left in there as day 9 draws to a close. If all goes well I'm about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way to the 1st post larval shrimp. I'm not counting my shrimp before they morph, but things do seem to be going according to plan.

I need to get a good diital camera. This proscope has no depth of field at all.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 1:51 pm

My Blue Amano just molted and is now got a load of eggs on her swimmerlets. I've got my fingers crossed that I'll actually get some shrimp out of this. We'll see if the color is genetic or not.

The shrimp continue to grow. They really like it when I stir the tank bottom. Everybody grabs a chunk. Could be I don't need to feed so often now that they are bigger. I've noted no major losses sense the original thinning out.

tapmxt1 · Post by **tapmxt1** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 8:17 am

One question: do the baby shrimps eat the green algea or catch/eat the rotifiers?

I tried it once a few weeks ago with green water with no success. I moved the baby shrimps to salt water in 24 hours, fed them green water, ... all babies disappeared in 2-3 days.

A female shrimp will give birth in a week or so and I am going to try it one more time...

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:47 am

What was your salt concentration? I'm now keeping mine at 34 ppt.

I can't say what all they eat. I think they eat what ever they bump into. It may be the type of algae I am using. It is high in HUFA and is known good for feeding other larval shrimp such as mystids. Lack of HUFA is known to cause high mortality.

I know when I stir up the bottom they eat what comes up, but I can't say that is all they eat.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 8:16 pm

Another major molt is starting. They are getting more legs, getting much larger and looking more like shrimp. If I can figure out my new camera I will provide some pics. It may take a few days for me to figure out how to do a manual focus. As the old joke goes, this may foc us

tapmxt1 · Post by **tapmxt1** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 7:22 am

It was about 30ppt.

I am going to try 35ppt this time.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 5:49 pm

This molt has been especially brutal. Only about 35 shrimp remain. I'm only 1/2 way there if I'm lucky.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 7:13 pm

Argggg!
Last night we lost power for most of the night. Today I have only 2 larva left.

I have a bunch more shrimp ready to hatch any time. I'll keep trying.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 7:15 pm

An update on my Blue amano. Her eggs are blue too. This can't be dye.