Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

Yes, pull out some salt water and add fresh water. I use R/O water as the sea salt has all the minerals needed. I didn't want to complicate things with my hard water.

The amount you need to pull out is a simple ratio. As and example, if you have 40 ppt and you want 30 ppt take out 25% of the salt water and add that much fresh water.

Thanks badflash! I did a 40% water change on the tank, and that brought things down considerably.

Also, I went to the LPS and they had RO Right, but it was for freshwater. Is this what you used? The guy at the store (who has proven himself "in the know" with fishheeping) said that Kent Marine Osmo Prep Marine is the same thing as RO Right, but actually has more nutritive value. What do you think, badflash (or anyone else)? If this isn't going to work for what I need it for, then I can return it.

For salt water, just use the sea salt mix with distilled or R/O water. It has everything you need to make basic sea water. To grow the green water you'll need the Kent Pro-Culture as well.

I just got my Tet today. PM me with your address & I'll share.

So, do I even need this stuff that I have or the RO Right?

I am sending the PM.

wait.......crap........Then I need to drain my tank. I used water from my planted 30 gallon to make the salt water. Looks like I need to go back to that LPS again any way.

You can get distilled water at a grocery store. It's basically the same thing (H2O with a minimal amount of dissolved solids). It may or may not be cheaper.

If you have really soft water you can use it to make the seawater. hard water has minerals that may screw up the mix. Yes, distiled will work fine, but do notuse spring water.

R/O right is for freshwater to bring it up to the right hardness.

I kind of abandoned my thread.

Here's where I am now with this:

I screwed up the timing with the eggs. I only have 1 female still carrying eggs, but 1 other one has just a few eggs left in her swimmerettes. I've been trying to find zoes by shining a flash light at the top of the tank, but there's been nothing. One of the other females that is no longer carrying eggs is now saddled, so I am waiting to see if she will couple again with the male. So, in a nutshell: I screwed up, and I am hoping that I can recouperate.

I found RO/Distilled water at the LPS for 1/2 the price as the grocery store. I have the RO water treatment, and I have 3 aquariums that I can use for this rearing experiment--two 10 gallons and a 5 gallon. I also have plenty of sponge filters, airline, air pumps, and sea water mix. AND! I also have the food culture and ferts that I need (thank you badflash!!!!!!!)

Don't worry about it. You did not screw up. It comes with the territory that you are not going to be successful with such things right away. It takes time and trial and error. It can be frustrating at times but it's very rewarding once you do achieve succes. Please keep us up to date.

Hi AnneRiceBowl,

Sorry to hear about the mistiming with the eggs. It looks like you will be ready this time and the shrimp are not going to be lacking in eggs Best wishes and please keep us updated, I am following your thread with anticipation

Thank you for the encouragement Mustafa and Neonshrimp!

Oh, I just wanted to add something from what I have observed so far:

As the eggs age, they seem to change colors. If this is so, then it can be used as an indicator of when the eggs will hatch. For example, the first female started with red-orange colored eggs. As they aged/grew, they turned a sort of olive color, and then later to a very light brown-green olive color (sort of like baby diarrhea--sorry for the gross comparison, but that's the only thing I can think of right now).

It occurred to me that if one were to mail newborn zoes, they would spend about as much time in transit as they need to sit in fresh water anyway before being moved to salt. Temperatures would be the only concern, depending on time of year.

It sounds like you have some kind of magic environment for those shrimp which a lot of people can't replicate. So if you ever get tired of trying to breed them, I thought I'd mention that you can at least mail the zoes to someone who wants to take a crack at it. Better than having them die off in a tank.

There is also the stress factor of being shipped . Everytime a shrimp is shipped it goes through stress no matter how gentle and ideal the process is.

I don't know... even a little baggie is a lot of water for those guys. I don't see how it can be more violent than being swept out to sea. And they aren't at a point where they're excreting waste yet. Temperature seems like the only concern to me.

I believe that stress is still a factor in this. Like you said being swept out to see is violent for the zoe and so can the shipping process. There is a reason why there are so many eggs and zoes, it increases the odds of some of them surviving. Only a fraction of the offspring will survive in nature and that is why there are so many. In captivity we can control many of the factor that can't be controled in nature and thus increase the survival rate The trick is to find out how to do this ad I think you and the other hobbyist who are trying to do this will get it right, just look at what zax has done

Whatever the case is, I just hope we can continue to improve on the survival of these shrimp. Best wishes to you and the others working so hard to do this.

Thanks.