True Peppermint Shrimp Pregnant.

[cdemeritt]

Day 28:

I have little doubt at this point that they will make it to the metamorphose stage.

I revoke this statement, immeadiately and completely. I jinkst myself by stating this, but not as badly as I had thought this morning, when I could only find 2 of the remaining larve. After a quick gentle stir of the tank, a clump of something approximating a body floated up. Luckly, I was able to confirm that 3 still remain this evening. Why the sudden loss, I don't know, but such is life.
A thought. The other day my ride to work showed up while I was preforming the morning feeding. I finished up and rushed out the door. When I got home, I found that I had left the bar of Cyclop-eeze on the bench. Luckily I had closed it so it didn't leak all over the bench, but it was cyclop-soup at that point. I put it back in the freezer, and re-froze it. Does anyone know if there is any problem with doing this?

[ChilisREasy]

sorry about the loss dude, hopefully the last 3 make it.. & DONT USE THOSE CYCLOP-EEZE !! they have fouled, it can mess up your water BIG time.

[cdemeritt]

Day 30: Woohoo 30 days and three confirmed shrimplings. However I don't know if one of them will make it to morning. It seemed to have lost the ability to float, and was sort of standing on it's head at the bottom of the tank. It was in rough shape. But when I removed it with the others so I could do another 50% water change and tank cleaning, I added some new water to the holding container, and it seemed to perk up a little, and even feed.
Cyclop-eeze is definately the way to go for food. The young shrimp definately react to it much better than the flake, and maybe not related, but I didn't have any losses during the time I was feeding it. I also remember someone else saying they had much better results when they fed copepods as well. Also the flake is making a much bigger mess of the tank.
5 days to go until the 5 week mark. will see if any make it to day 40.

[zero186]

great to hear it looks like you have done pretty well with this project

[ChilisREasy]

about how big are the shrimps now ?

[cdemeritt]

Day 31: Well, I'm not sure what it was that did it or if it was anything I did at all, but the shrimp that looked in real bad shape yesterday seemed much better today. When I put them into a holding container while cleaning the tank, I made sure there was plenty of food and they ate well. As far as size, they haven't grown much in lenght, only about 1/4" body 1/2" total length. but they have filled out a bit, and have started to take on some red color, especially in the joints.

[cdemeritt]

Day 33: Well not much new, Other than one in particular has learned to serch the bottom of the tank for food. kind of floats to the bottom, feels around, and if it finds something scoops it up and trys to float off. sometimes it float up ok, but sometimes due to the size of said food partical it doesn't float well.
One correction needs to be made to a earlier discription. I had called some elongated legs "pincers", believing that hese were the eventual claws. Well now that they are a little bigger, I can see no claw at the end of them, and that they are attached to the body behind the last set of legs. Not sure the formal name of them are, but they act as scoops, helping pull in food particals as the come in contact with them. Very interesting.
We are entering the final stages here soon. Sometime within the next 3-7 days the metamophoses should begin.

[cdemeritt]

Day 35: Week 5 begins. I guess this is showtime. Metamophosis or bust, here we come. In honor of making it to the 5th week, I've named the three remaining shrimp, based on physical apearances. I know these will change as the next few days unfold, but until then they will be known as Jumbo, Tiny, and One Arm. Jumbo is the largest of the three, but not by much. Tiny is the smallest looking almost a couple days behind the others, I wonder if it is simple genetics that make it slightly smaller, or if it didn't get quite enough food in the early days. and One Arm, almost the same size as Jumbo, but lost a "arm" the scoop thingy I mentioned in a earlier post. These differences should go away as the week progresses, so when they no longer fit, they will be known as Larry, Moe, and Curly or Hewy, Dewy, and Lewy, depending on my mood at that time.

[zero186]

lol loving the names

[cdemeritt]

Day 39: Well, I can confirm I seem to have a problem with counting. My day count was off again. I was thinking that this was day 38, but counting on the calander 6 times confirms that today was day 39. No major changes in the last few days. Tiny Gave me a scare this morning, it was acting funny and would sink like a stone to the bottom. I believe it was molting, as I found bits of a shell when I got home. but it was fine. However Jumbo has now also lost a arm, making it very difficult to know who is who. All is well so far.

[cdemeritt]

Day 40: Wow, I never thought I'd get to here. I keep looking into the tank expecting to see some major change, yet still nothing. But then again this is biology, no real set timetables. And now that I think of it, the water temp is only about 75'f, this might be slowing the development some. more excited than a kid at Christmas, not sure yet if I'll be getting great gifts or coal just yet.
I want to thank you all for following along, If it weren't for this place, I don't know what I would have done, simply because you all understand what a accomplishment this has been even if they don't make it though the next few days. I've tried to talk about it with the people at work and they have no clue, and act as everyone is doing it. I stopped talking about it weeks ago, because they simply don't get it.

[zero186]

i am more interested in your next attempt so see what you learned from this trial revise it and used it, and maybe produce a better out come

[ChilisREasy]

Originally Posted by cdemeritt

Day 40: Wow, I never thought I'd get to here. I keep looking into the tank expecting to see some major change, yet still nothing. But then again this is biology, no real set timetables. And now that I think of it, the water temp is only about 75'f, this might be slowing the development some. more excited than a kid at Christmas, not sure yet if I'll be getting great gifts or coal just yet.
I want to thank you all for following along, If it weren't for this place, I don't know what I would have done, simply because you all understand what a accomplishment this has been even if they don't make it though the next few days. I've tried to talk about it with the people at work and they have no clue, and act as everyone is doing it. I stopped talking about it weeks ago, because they simply don't get it.

Congrats on making to 40 days & counting, most people would say this would be impossible, a great accomplishment indeed.

& i know how you feel about talking to other people (off site) i cant even talk about Computors with anyone around my area,lol

[cdemeritt]

i am more interested in your next attempt so see what you learned from this trial revise it and used it, and maybe produce a better out come

Actually so am I, but I want to get though metamorphoses first.

[oltemative]

It's great that your able to raise a few of these guys. I have been silently following your progress with daily anticipation a new update from day 1.

So are they big enough now to get another set of pictures?

The author of the article you linked to on "Day 24" said that typically he had juvenile shrimp by the end of the 5th week. Is this how you would describe yours?

I had the luck to catch a live "larval" shrimp in my tank (day 3 after release), and a day later a dead one. Under the microscope, these little buggers look like the adults in almost every way except in size and undeveloped full color. They had pigment (bright red) starting to develop in the joints of the legs. The antennae and legs were both significantly disproportionately small compaired to the adults, but does that make these "larvae"? Contrast this to the larvae of a fly that metamophs from a worm looking larvae to something completely different.

I bring up this question because I am wondering what kind of major change they are expected to make. Are they simply in an "immature stage" (small, colorless to the naked eye, small legs/antenna) when released and a "mature stage" when we see them in the LFS?

Anyway, great record keeping! I can hardly wait to get to the end of the story! ;-)
Good luck!