Category: Blog

Not much to report today. Did a full clean of the kreisels, always time consuming for me and stressful for the zoeae, but the tanks had gotten filthy, so it was time. Lots of big zoeae that MUST be stage five. Zipping around, doing loop-de-loops, generally being difficult as I try to pipette them up…

I spent about an hour trying to get this last megalopa to take a shell. He stubbornly refused to shove his butt anywhere productive. Perhaps tomorrow. This one has a really dark body. Much darker than the others (who tended more toward orange). It’s mostly the gut track, so I’m not really sure what he’s eating…

What a difference a day makes! Yesterday I was completely worn out and ready to quit. Today I confirmed that I have two surviving on land and moved them into the hex tank (which still had survivors that I moved over to the kreisels) set up as a slightly larger mini tank. Just like adult…

This is how “green” I’m keeping the water in the kreisels now. Adding extra nannochloropsis is helping SO much!! Each of the 2 1/2 gallon kreisels is able to carry a much heavier biological load without crashing. As a result, I’m seeing minimal losses and lots of well-fed, fast growing survivors. I also lowered the…

Here’s a little video to give you some perspective on their size. I’m feeling pretty good about this little one’s chances. He’s feisty and busy.

I think this is the streaker from yesterday, finally back in a shell. I moved him to the mini tank where there’s food, saltwater and fresh water, and a miniature shell shop. The other one who came on land a few days ago ditched his shell overnight (I think he got stuck?) and died. 😢 So this…

Exhausting and frustrating day, but I got a great video out of it at least. I spend two hours trying to convince this little stinker to take a shell. He kept hanging out at the water’s edge and doing handstands (to dry his butt?? Who knows.) so I put a ton of baby shells around…

Video of the third Megalopa to exit the water. I turn my phone sideways to video. Not sure why it insists on keeping it narrow down the center, but the image is much sharper on Vimeo than on YouTube. This is Brave Soul #3, exiting the water in a shell. I offered him a tiny…

Day 39 megalopa from Mary Akers on Vimeo. Made time for a seven mile hike in the woods today. My son was home and fed them halfway through the time I was gone. After getting home, I was reminded how important those little trips away are for me. Not only so I don’t spend all…

Still deciding what to do with the new spawn. Put a few in the kreisels, but the majority are still in the 2 1/2 gallon tank and doing okay. I spent most of my efforts on updating the transition tank. I knew it wasn’t working. There should have been 22 megalopa in there and I…