# Breeding Amano Shrimp .......



## Mr G (May 3, 2006)

Hi,

One of my Caridina japonica is fully laden with eggs and I'm going to try raising the young. I know they are difficult to raise, so I've been doing a bit of reading and think I've now got a fairly good idea how to go about it. But I'd still like to know my plan has at least a chance of success. So if anybody can help ........

*The Plan:*
The eggs are currently dark grey/green in colour, once they change colour and it looks like she's ready to drop them I'll transfer her to a 5Gal (freshwater) isolation tank.

Once the eggs hatch, I'll transfer the young to a couple of small tanks (I have a 1 Gal and a 2 Gal available).

I know they need brackish/salt water to survive, but have seen conflicting reports on the salinity. Some claim 17ppm (brackish) and others 30-35ppm (full marine salt).

Rather than mixing my own saltwater, I'm planning on gettings some from my LFS who keep marine tanks full of fish, coral and marine shrimp. 
I'm guessing this will already contain some plankton etc that they can feed on, but I'll also supplement this with algae/greenwater.

*Questions:*

1. What is the best salinity to use - Brackish or full marine ?

2. When moving to and from fresh to salt water. Should I increase/decrease the salinity over a period of a few days, rather than a straight swap ?

3. Am I better off mixing my own water, or using it from my LFS. I'm aware LFS water could have disease, but I'm thinking more of the plankton/food levels from the 'established' water

4. Is the above plan 'workable' or have I missed something ?

Thanks


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## erijnal (Apr 5, 2006)

No experience here, but from what I've read up on..

1. I think brackish the first day and then full marine after that

2. When you move the amano, acclimate it to brackish water. I've read that if the larvae don't have brackish/marine water on the first day, survival rate is severely lowered. After the first day, raise the salinity of the water to the suggested levels. Apparently the larvae are washed downstream into the ocean, so the gradual increase of salt should make sense.

3. Probably the LFS water would be your best bet. If they can keep sensitive marine fish alive in it, then it should be OK to use.

4. Yes, it is. Besides the salinity that you're going to keep while the shrimp are in larval stages, I think the next most critical aspect of the shrimplet's survival is the FIRST day after hatching. I'm pretty sure I read that the larvae should be in either brackish or marine on the first day. If I'm wrong, someone please correct me. Anyway, good luck man


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## Mr G (May 3, 2006)

erijnal said:


> No experience here, but from what I've read up on..
> 
> 1. I think brackish the first day and then full marine after that
> 
> ...


Many thanks for the reply.
The info about getting them into brackish on the first day is very useful. If anybody can supply a link to an article about that, i'd be very grateful. 
I've read that they can survive for upto 5 days in fresh, but I think I like idea of getting them into salt as soon as possible.

I've spoken to my LFS who have no problem in supplying the water, the guy also suggested trying *Kent Phytoplex* to feed them with. I think I'll give it a try.

Tonight I setup my isolation tank, so I can move the egg carrying female nearer the time ........ it's a good job, becuase when I checked the tank tonight I've now got 2 egg carrying females 

There is something going on in that tank that the shrimp like 

Once again ...many thanks.

.


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## Craig Tarvin (Jul 26, 2005)

I don't want to discourage you, but raising them is very, very, very difficult. Now that you have egg laden females, you will always have them, that's the easy part. When you see how small the larvae are, you will know what I mean. It's hard to tell if they have eaten, if they have enough food, etc... I have read a few reports online, most had hardly any success, if any at all. I don't think many have raised them successfully. I have heard rumors of one person in my local club that was successful just by having a large tank packed full of plants with a really high gH, so that salt water was not needed, but that may just be a rumor.

I gave it a shot the first time I saw eggs... but after a couple days I gave up. Good luck though!

BTW, I think it's best to transfer them to full salinity water right away, I didn't lose any from the initial transfer.


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## Mr G (May 3, 2006)

Many thanks Craig.

Not discouraged. I'm well aware how difficult it is to actually raise the young, but I cant resist giving it a try.

I've been reading as much as I can find and spoken to somebody who tried got them up to 2 weeks old, but she then suffered a problem with water quality and lost them all overnight. I've seen the pics of her lavae and realise they are 'microscopic'.

Thanks for the info about transferring to full salinity straight away, I think that's how I'll try it.

Cheers


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

This article (http://caridina.japonica.online.fr./English/Elevage.htm) is a *must* read for breeding Amano shrimp. I followed it almost to the 'T' and I was able to raise 8 of them to maturation on my first try. I haven't found the time to do it again, but I'm sure I could get more the next time.


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## Craig Tarvin (Jul 26, 2005)

Good link Aaron, I have never seen that one before. That's the best report I've ever heard of. I think my main problem was that I used "Golden Pearls" for food and it fouls the water.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

Mr G... Here is another good link for breeding Amano's: http://mikes-machine.mine.nu/breeding_yamato.htm


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## Mr G (May 3, 2006)

Thanks for the replies,

I'd already found both of those links whilst searching on Google and agree that they are both good articles.

Also found this one http://caridinajaponicabreeding.blogspot.com/ that has links to both of them.

I think I've got just about everything I need apart from 'greenwater' to feed them with, although I'm going to give the *Kent Phytoplex* a try.
There is another LFS close to me who may be able to help with greenwater.

Tonight I'm going to isolate the females and then its a case getting the small tanks running whilst waiting for the eggs to drop.

Thanks

Edit:
Just adding this link http://www.aquariumadvice.com/profiles/8_20_en.html

.


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Craig Tarvin said:


> Good link Aaron, I have never seen that one before. That's the best report I've ever heard of. I think my main problem was that I used "Golden Pearls" for food and it fouls the water.


Yes, I think that's the key...not fouling the water I mean. My phytoplankton culture got weak about 3 weeks into the zoes being transferred to it. I think if I had done a partial water change on it I would have gotten a much better yield than I did.


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## Mr G (May 3, 2006)

AaronT said:


> Yes, I think that's the key...not fouling the water I mean. My phytoplankton culture got weak about 3 weeks into the zoes being transferred to it. I think if I had done a partial water change on it I would have gotten a much better yield than I did.


AaronT,

Any suggestions on how best to get a Phytoplankton culture going, I'm looking to get one going in a day or two. I may actually get two lots on the go, so I have a backup batch if I need it in an emergency.

Also any thoughts on using Kent Phytoplex as a food source ?

Sorry to keep asking questions .... but this is known to be difficult enough, so the more info I have, the better the chances !

Thanks


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

I don't mind answering questions. 

I got my culture off of a fellow hobbyist on aquabid so I'm not sure which one to use. Just ask your LFS which one is easiest to culture. I'm not really into saltwater so it's hard for me to say.

I setup a 2 gallon tank with a limewood airstone suction cupped to the bottom. I mixed some water to full salinity ( I think 34 ppm, but don't quote me on that). I mixed up a gallon of miracle grow liquid plant food and added about 5 mls of that to the saltwater solution. Then I added the starter culture to the mixture. I kept a 13 watt screw in flourescent bulb on it 24/7 and after a couple weeks it gets a very dark green. If it starts to fade just add a couple mls more of the miracle grow. Don't add more until it's fading though because it's strong stuff. 

The other tank was the same setup only with freshwater, no light and a wad of java moss. That was the hatch out tank. Once I saw zoes (check every day when you know it's close to time) I used a Seachem dropper that comes with Flourish to extract the zoes and drop them directly into the phytoplankton culture. After about 5 weeks you will see them change color as per the articles descrition and they will be able to swim. It's easier to see if you shut the airstone off for a moment. 

I acclimated them back to freshwater just like the article said to. 

Good luck and feel free to ask more questions.


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## Mr G (May 3, 2006)

Great, thanks.

I think I've got all the info I need now.

The females go into the isolation tank tonight, I would have done it last night but my spare heater was broken, so need to pick another up on the way home from work. Once it is up to temp, I'll move them over and turn off the filter ..... I dont want the lavae to be sucked into the filter !!!
Then it's just a case of waiting. 

The phytoplankton will be setup as soon as I can - probably in the next 2 days. I'm going to run at least 2 batches and split the lavae between them both. That way if one goes wrong, I've still got a chance with the other batch.

Thanks again .... I'll post updates on the progress


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## Mr G (May 3, 2006)

Ok for my own sanity I've been keeping a diary of my attempt to raise young Amano shrimp from egg to adult.

Sorry for the length of this post ... it's a brain dump of everything so far !

It may still end in total disaster, in which case this diary will come to an abrupt end. I'm hoping to get at least some of them through to adult, however I start with practically no knowledge on the subject

*Background:*
During the recent spell of hot weather in the UK, my 130L Tropiquarium started to suffer from the heat and some of the plants Intook a turn for the worse and I decided to remove them. Typical water temp duing this time was about 80 degs (+/- 2 degs).

Shortly after this I noticed a female Caridina japonica (Amano) shrimp carrying what looked like a fully load of eggs.

*Links*: I've found the following links useful during this

Salinity converter (SG to PPT)
http://www.reefs.org/survey/salinity_conversion.html
Very useful for us 'non-salty' types when trying to relate Specific Gravity to Parts Per Thousand of salt.

Amano Shrimp:
http://mikes-machine.mine.nu/breeding_yamato.htm - Very good article 
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/profiles/8_20_en.html
http://caridina.japonica.online.fr/English/
http://caridinajaponicabreeding.blogspot.com/

http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=132630
This post points to a thread on TFF. I know I shouldn't really link to other forums, but this thread of Bloo's was the catalyst that encouraged me to give it a try. So deserves a mention in relation to this diary.

Comments/advice/suggestions are always welcome !

=============================================================
*Sat 29 Jul:*
Shortly after removing the plants I noticed one of the shrimp carrying a large mass of dark grey/green eggs. I've had shrimp in the tank for just over 4 months. This was the first time I've seen one of the shrimp laden with eggs.

Unclear if this was due to any or all of the following:-
> Female shrimp reaching maturity (I suspect this is the reason - but only a guess)
> Increase in water temp due to recent hot weather Or 
> Just noticed this for the first time as there are now far less plants in the tank. Maybe it's been going on before and I'd missed it !

*Sun 30 Jul:*
I already know that hatching the eggs and raising the young is not 
Easy and requires salt water fo the young to survive.
Over and above that, I know very little. 
Time to start trawling the web for some info and posting a few questions. See the links at the top of this post.

*Mon 31 Jul:*
Whilst checking on the female with eggs, I noticed I now have a Second egg carrying female - this complicates things a little, but should be able to cope with both batches as they are so close together.

I now have a better idea on how to attempt to raise these shrimp. After much reading, I've decided to go for a full marine salinity (30-35ppt) rather than brackish (17ppt).
Prepared a 5Gal isolation tank with 50% tap and 50% water from main tank. This tank is my standby hospital tank and will be used only for the females to lay the eggs.

As I dont have a marine tank or any experience/equipment for measuring the salinity I contacted a LFS that keeps marine fish. They can supply me with RO mixed salt water (for a small charge). Feeding the larvae requires phytoplankton/greenwater. 
For this I have decided to try Kent Plytoplex (
http://www.kentmarine.com/saltwater/ppx.html) it seems ideally suited to the job, but time will tell.

*Tues 01 Aug:* to *Fri 04 Aug:*
I had planned to move the shrimp to the isolation tank today, but it
seems the heater was defective. Down to the LFS for a new 25W heater, also picked up a small air pump. I'll leave the tank to get up to temp for 24 hours, the shrimp dont look like they are about to drop the eggs, I've read they can carry them for a number of weeks (4 - 6), but I don't know how long they've already carried them for.

The female shrimp were moved to the isolation tank today (02 Aug).
The tank is 5Gal, has and 11W light, has no substrate and just a small artificial rock and piece of bogwood with moss attached. They seem to have settled in OK and are acting normally

No noticeable change in females. Collected saltwater from LFS (SG 1021 / 30ppt)
Kent Phytoplex arrived (ebay).

Setup larvae tank. 10Ltrs saltwater, airpump with tube clamped to control airflow. 
Placed in kitchen window with natural sunglight and added some Phytoplex.

*Sat 05 Aug:* to *Tues 8 Aug:*
There has been a noticeable change in one of the females. The eggs are a much lighter colour (light brown/tan)

I have enough equipment to run at least one more (maybe another 2) saltwater larvae growing tanks. I'll set the others up and split the larvae between them, then if one tank fails I still have a chance with the others

Overall I think I move the females over to the isolation tank a little early. They can carry eggs for a number of weeks. I should maybe have waited until the egg were a light colour.

Well I'll get a chance to put that theory to the test. Just noticed a third female laden with eggs. She'll remain in the main tank for now and move when the eggs change colour.

I now have 3 nano lavae tanks ready to go. 2 x 10L 1 x 8L
The eggs on one female are certainly much lighter and I can see small black dots in the middle. I'm sure this means things are getting closer. The second female's eggs also seem to be turning a lighter colour.

=============================================================

Here's a few pics until something happens.

The Eggs:









You can just see some dark dots in some of these eggs. Hard to see in the pic, but they are there ....honest !









The isolation (hatching) tank: Plain and simple to aid collecting the larvae.








The snails have now been removed !

The shrimp nursery: Ready and waiting.








The two larger (10Ltr) tanks contain saltwater and phytoplankton (Kent phytoplex). 
One a few days old (greenish) and one a new batch. The smaller tank is just saltwater.
Hopefully having plankton tanks at diffent stages will give me a little flexibility with now having 3 females carrying eggs.

*Wed 09 Aug: to Tues 15 Aug:*

No eggs hatched yet ... and trust me I'm keeping a VERY close eye on the tank. 
Females can carry eggs for a few weeks, so I could be in for a bit of a wait.

However this week I've noticed 3 more egg carrying females in the main tank, all moved to isolation tank as my male Dwarf Gourami was taking far too much of an interest in one of them ! 
However he shows no interest in the shrimp with no eggs, so best move them out for their own safety as well as that of the eggs !

That makes a total of 6 egg carrying females in the isolation tank 

Knowing that the females can carry eggs for 4 - 6 weeks I feel I may have moved them to the hatching tank a little early, but it is probably the safest thing to do. I'm fairly certain that getting the larvae tanks setup early was a good idea, it's given my time to get the plankton established (2 tanks now with a good green tint to the water) and also get the temp stabilised. With NO heaters there was a quite a bit of fluctuation between day/night temps. Thats been sorted now by moving the tanks and placing them near a portable radiator/heater.

Another update in a few days ..... unless one of these ladies actually starts dropping the eggs ! ....... So far the waiting has been the hardest part !

Any comments or suggestions very welcome !

Al


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Thanks for the update.  I'll be following this thread for sure.


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## stcyrwm (Apr 20, 2005)

Cool thread. Thanks for all the great info.

Good Luck,
Bill


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## Neon Shrimp (Apr 26, 2006)

Thank you. Many of us are interested in this subject and hope you do well


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## theteh (Jan 19, 2006)

Mr G, thanks for the detail update and information!

Me too (also in the UK), soon after the heatwave, one of my Amano laid eggs! Probably the heat triggered the reproduction?

The female has carried the eggs for 10 days now and I have noticed the change in colour from green to yellowish with a hint of eyespot.

you can see the day one eggs here in my thread:
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...quariums/29535-my-amano-laid-eggs-photos.html

I have not been able to take a good picture of the yellowish eggs as she is constantly on the move.


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## theteh (Jan 19, 2006)

forgot to add that my dwarf gourami (sparkling gourami) also attacked the female and I actually saw the fish trying to eat the eggs!! I immediately isolate the Amano to a separate breeding tank!!


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## Mr G (May 3, 2006)

theteh said:


> forgot to add that my dwarf gourami (sparkling gourami) also attacked the female and I actually saw the fish trying to eat the eggs!! I immediately isolate the Amano to a separate breeding tank!!


Hi,

Interesting - Lots in common here .... heatwave followed by eggs and Gourami's chasing after the egg carrying females !

certainly worth remebering, I'm sure it wouldn't only be Gourami's !

cheers
Mr G


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## Mr G (May 3, 2006)

*Mon 21 Aug: Update*

At long last I've go the first signs of eggs hatching. Last night I noticed a few shrimp larvae in the tank ...... not too many, but it's a start.

I've seen conflicting reports about how quickly they should be moved over to salt water. Some say straight away, others say after a day or two. So not wanting to put all my eggs in one basket (or hatched eggs in one tank :lol: ) I moved 2 of the larvae over to saltwater last night and the rest have remained in the fresh water.

When I got up to leave for work this morning I couldnt see either of the ones in salt water, however it was 6am and I was only half awake (not having had my caffeine hit), so I'll check again tonight.

I now have *7 shrimp carrying eggs* and as a number of them started carrying eggs about the same time (over a few days) I'm expecting a bit more action over the next week !

The larvae tanks have a nice phytoplankton 'green tint' to the water, I've got some salt water (SG 1.023 / 32ppt ) to pick up tonight so I can do some partial water changes.

On the subject of the saltwater salinity. I'm going with full marine rather than brackish. I've read that it's best to have a salinity between 30 and 35ppt. I've gone for a mid range figure to allow a bit of fluctuation, as the salinity varies depending on temp and I also imagine it will vary a little due to evaporation (?)

Salinity/temp/ppt conversion chart:http://www.reefs.org/survey/salinity_conversion.html

I'm going to try get a pic of the larvae. They are really small, but I'm managing to get shots like this of a *Cyclops* (actual size is less than 1mm) just using a normal digital camera and a jeweller's eye glass. It takes a bit of a steady hand but comes out quite good considering.

Al

P.S. these cyclops seem to have arrived in some moss and are now in the shrimp hatching tank ! They are harmless, but are soon to become 'fish food' .... or maybe a snack for the carniverous Utricularia graminifolia in my new tank. Feeding them to the plants :twisted:


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

When I tried this same thing a couple years ago I went with the approach of directly transferring the hatched zoes into the full saltwater. They all seemed to do fine with this method.

It sounds like you're doing everything most people recommend so I think you'll have some success in at least one of the rearing tanks. Are you leaving the light on 24/7? If not, I highly suggest that.

Just a side note, the Utricularia graminifolia won't be able to feed on the cyclops. As a general rule, if you see it with the naked eye it's too big. The openings of the bladders on the Utricularia are measured in microns.


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## Mr G (May 3, 2006)

AaronT said:


> When I tried this same thing a couple years ago I went with the approach of directly transferring the hatched zoes into the full saltwater. They all seemed to do fine with this method.
> 
> It sounds like you're doing everything most people recommend so I think you'll have some success in at least one of the rearing tanks. Are you leaving the light on 24/7? If not, I highly suggest that.
> 
> Just a side note, the Utricularia graminifolia won't be able to feed on the cyclops. As a general rule, if you see it with the naked eye it's too big. The openings of the bladders on the Utricularia are measured in microns.


Thanks AaronT, I'm expecting quite a few losses, but hoping to get at least a few through to adult. 
I suppose this is the time when this Amano breeding journal could come to an abrupt end if things go drastically wrong.

Time will tell !

As for the cyclops / Utricularia graminifolia ........ Damn ! 
Part of me was looking forward to giving the graminifolia some :hungry: 


It's my first attempt with the plant, so thanks for the info !


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Dont' worry about the Utric. It will eat plenty that you can't see.  You sometimes can see the little bladders full of food because they'll be dark in color.


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## zax (Aug 27, 2006)

Just stumbled across this great forum whilst trawling the net and it just so happens that I'm breeding Amanos aswell at the moment, from my oldest spawn I have 71 adults and still waiting for the rest to morph which they are doing on a daily basis. Heres some pics of the project so far;

Some zoes at 13 days old...










27 days old...










Freshly morphed into adults, one day old...



















My project setup...










You can read more details about the project here;

http://www.petshrimp.com/discussions/viewtopic.php?t=1754&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0


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## Neon Shrimp (Apr 26, 2006)

Thank you and I hope everything continues to go well!


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Thanks for sharing your setup. It sounds like your methods have been very successful.


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## slickwillislim (Oct 11, 2005)

That looks like a cool project. I hope both of you have success. I think This would be an interesting project since you are working in a relatively unexplored area of the hobby.


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## zax (Aug 27, 2006)

Thanks guys, today is day 32 with my 3rd spawn and I caught another 52 adults. This brings my total of adults so far from this spawn to 123  .

Mr G I hope you have success to, I pretty much followed the French guys article.


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## Mr G (May 3, 2006)

Hi Zax,

Just read through your thread and watched the vid ..... great stuff, well done so far !

I now have 2 tanks with zoes in saltwater (SG 1.023) and feeding them on Kent Phytoplankton which contains both Nannochloropsis, Tetraseimis Isochrysis sp. Tahitian ranging in size from 2 to 15 microns in size. 
So far they seem to be doing OK on it.

I decided to try it as I couldn't find a decent source of phytoplankton locally and the description seemed perfect for the job. I'm adding 2 - 3 drops, twice per day to each saltwater tank and it looks fine, the water has a green 'tint' but is not thick and I've not seen any problems with surface tension, and the water quality seems to be holding quite well.
I had one of the saltwater tanks up and running 10 days before the first hatching and 'dosed' it with phytoplex to get the culture 'mature'.

Do you have any info on how many days from hatching before you started to see them morph ?

Also any further info on how long to keep them in saltwater before starting the gradual return to fresh ?

My zoes have hatched in batches, the oldest have been in saltwater for about a 8 days, they are certainly getting bigger, so the Kent Phytoplex must be working ! Some others are only a day old

I lost a few from the first batch when I moved them over, but I think I moved them too soon, it was only a couple of hours after hatching. I've had far more success leaving them in freshwater for the first 24 hours and then moving them over.

Keep up the good work ....

Here is a pic of part of my setup, there are 2 other small tanks in another room and a tank that contains a backup supply of saltwater for water changes (10 - 20% per week). 








The magnifying glass comes in very useful at times  
I get my saltwater pre-mixed from a local LFS, they mix it using RO water to whatever SG I ask for.

Cheers


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## zax (Aug 27, 2006)

Good stuff mate. Most people seem to fail through either failing to maintain the phytoplankton or poor water quality. Feed the phytoplankton and the zoes will be fine. After extensively testing the water quality I found that I needed to change 20% of the water every two days. I drip the water in slowly over a number of hours using my customised water bottles;




























Let us know how you get on, oh and dont forget the 24 hour lighting.

My zoes started to morph from day 26. Make sure they have fully morphed into the adults before "desalination" otherwise they will die. Fully morphed adults are translucent like the adults with no reddish tinge to them and they move FAST. They no longer swim vertically and prefer to make use of their new found legs.


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## Mr G (May 3, 2006)

Thanks Zax,

I'm keeping a close eye on the water quality, but it all seems OK so far.

I think feeding the phytoplex into the tanks a few drops daily helps, the plankton is a 'living organism' the same as the shrimp larvae. 

So I think limiting it to enough to feed the zoes helps with maintaining the quality, rather than competing with them !

Thanks again .


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## zax (Aug 27, 2006)

If you observe the zoes you will notice that they spend most of their time suspended in midwater feeding. They will beat their minute scilia and sometimes rotate as they are feeding. My phytoplankton grows so fast under strong light that it sinks from the surface like a green smoke and the zoes make a beeline for it. So in my opinion (though I havent tried the opposite) and experince, growing the phytoplankton in the same tank as the zoes provides them with food when ever they want. Having said that Mike Noren had success feeding at regular intervals, I think he fed his zoes 5 times a day.


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