Peppermint Shrimp Spawn (Lysmata boggessi)

[DeneBanger]

Quick update at 36 hours old the larvae have developed talked eyes.

[DeneBanger]

Quick update: this is now day 3...last night the larvae were swimming in erratic circles which leads me to believe that they went through some type of molting process because today they are all swimming normally again......but I am still at bench mark zoea 2. Tomorrow they should go through another major molt (zoea3) and develop tensile "fins". I have also noticed them still eating "meaty" food heartily and also grazing on the film algae on the sides of the nursery. I watched one very closely and it actually left a little "plow" mark in the algae about a 1/4 of an inch long as it gobbled away.
Since my "female" is holding a clutch again I think that I am going to concentrate on "her" diet and focus on foods with a very high DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid is an omega-3 fatty acid) rather than EPA. DHA is important in the development of the central nervous system. Drawing on my experience breeding seahorses I learned that most marine organisms have the ability to convert DHA into the necessary EPA (Eicosapentaenoic acid) that they need but they cannot convert EPA into the necessary DHA that they need in development as a result you will see premature deaths in larvae or fry that are suffering from a DHA deficiency. So let's start right at the source and "pump mama" up with a high DHA diet while she is carrying the eggs.

[asylumdown]

This is one of the coolest threads I've seen in a while. Consider me subscribed.

[mark]

tagging along as well

[DeneBanger]

thanks.
So this afternoon stopped by the fresh fish counter at the local grocery store and picked up some ingredients for "mama's" diet:

1- small fresh squid $1.39
2- oysters on sale for 0.99 ea $1.98
1- large scallop $3.00
1- small piece of marlin steak $1.64 (I talked nice to the girl on the counter and told her what I was doing...she giggled and cut me a corner off the steak, I think I would have preferred some fresh mackerel but they were fresh out...anyway the marlin is a more coarse meat and that is what I was looking for.
1- bag of dried red seaweed $3.99

(and of course a box of medium sized ziplock top freezer bags and a handful of hot peperroni sticks to eat on the way home )

Once home, out came the blender and in went the squid, scallop, oysters, marlin and a small chunk of red seaweed (just enough to turn the whole batch a purple/grey colour once blended). Hit the blender button and let it blend away until it looked and smelt like a stinky thick milkshake. From there it was a matter of spooning it into the freezer bag, squeezing the air out and letting it lie flat in the freezer until fully frozen. Then I can break off a chunk or shave off slices for the Peppermints (mamas and pappas) and figure I have enough for about 3 months maybe. (The larvae I am going to keep on shaved FW cyclops...store bought BTW)

I was so pleased with my gourmet, I put a bit on the end of my finger and introduced it to the broodstock....man, they almost lept out of the tank at it,....fought over it and then each went its way with a nice little glob of seafood goo! Nothing better than when you've spent all day in the kitchen and the guests love the meal! Didn't hear a burp tho.

So today I measured the flow through on the nursery....3 gallons an hour... this gives me approximately a tank turnover of filtered water from the sump every two hours. (In other words it's a constant 100% water change in the nursery every two hours and its easier than maintaining a reef tank....that's for sure..life is good!)

Also did a 5-gallon water change on the system....that took less time than a cup of tea.

So all in all the system is working perfectly for Peppermints and their larvae,...next week I'm going to introduce a few snails into the nursery to help eat left over food....haven't decided which yet but I'm certain that I can co-breed snails along with the Peppermints (well we'll see) if not I'll set up another breeding chamber and toss them in that (the system is totally modular and I can pretty well add or subtract breeding chambers and broodstock tank set-ups in a few minutes).

[DeneBanger]

Okay so it's now day 4, although I don't have the ability to accurately measure the length of the larvae at the moment, they look to be about 2-3 mm long now. No other major changes at the moment...their just doing what larvae do...eat and swim, but I have noticed that they aren't attaching themselves to the sides of the nursery as often as what they did the first day. I guess that would be because they can handle the meaty foods now and aren't interested in the film algae as much any more. Gearing up for the next major molt which will bring me to zoea 3, things seem to be moving along well because I can see that their tails are less heart shaped now and broadening out with slight notches. So things are still looking pretty good at the moment.
Now, the way that the broodstock have been gobbling down the "new" food and the amounts of it that I can see in their digestive tract leads me to believe that I must have been starving these before hand and they certainly weren't getting enough (I had them on the FW cyclops as well up until yesterday's creation of the new food). Okay, I'm guilty...and I'm certain that this first group of larvae were probably not of the highest quality. Not only because of a "poor" diet in mama but this was her first batch as well. The broodstock were all very small and couldn't have been more than a few months old from post larvae.
Now, let's take a look at the losses so far....after the first night I lost most of the larvae but that has more to do with me experimenting with this system and I most certainly had the re-circulation PF (power-filter) far too high (there is no chance for the larvae to be sucked into this PF because this PF draws water in from an outer chamber). The second day the PF was still too high and finally had to be turned off all together with just the input water turned on at a rate of 3 gals/hour to give the breeding chamber a constant water change. As the larvae get larger I'll experiment with turning the PF back on...what I might have to do is add a very small recirculation pump to the water jacket between the inner and outer chambers...we'll see maybe next batch, I don't want to introduce too many variables at this point (this is were I think we as hobbyists make alot of our breeding mistakes..we panic make a million changes and then lose track of what has been done and loose sight of all the causes/effects. The inner chamber of the breeding unit holds all the larvae and none can pass through to any of the filtration equipment or return water, here I am not using any type of a screen but rather a natural barrier. So, right now it looks as though I have somewhere around 10-15 larvae left give or take a few (for now I am okay with that number since the goal of the first batch was to prove out the slight system modifications necessary when adopting my system from nudibranches to crustaceans....this passed with flying colours, so a little pat on the back for me, and the first major goal is a complete success). This frees me up to concentrate and spend my efforts on dietary needs. Really looking forward to the next batch because of the major diet change for mama and it'll be round two for her. On batch two we won't make any other changes to the diet, the broodstaock on the new food and the larvae on shaved frozen FW cyclops....but that for batch two.
Alright then...patiently waiting for the next major molt to occur and then we'll be at zoea 3.

[DeneBanger]

Well speaking about the success of the breeding system, we have had intermitten power outages all day, this last one was about 1 1/2 hours...during such events the breeding chambers all become independent and hold water with no adverse effects on the larvae or broodstock (however, this is dependent on ambient temperature).

A few random thoughts...if I have to add a small pump in the water jacket between the inner/outer chambers of the breeding chamber.....what I might do is add a small 9-watt submersible UV I'll hold that thought. Also, the inner chamber design could also be incorporated right into the design of a sump or if there is already room in an existing sump an inner chamber could easily be added (whereby the sump itself would become the outer chamber of the breeding chamber). This would make a breeding set-up possible for any and every hobbyist around the globe to incorporate into their reef or salt water set-ups. How is that for a home aquaculture explosion....maybe even a movement of truly conscientious aquarists! By doing incorporating an inner chamber to every sump....well, it would take no time and very little effort to toss in a few snails or what have you...makes a lot of sense to me.