Yup. Someone else spawned. Too exhausted to take a picture of it tonight, but I found a temporary tank to hold them until morning–when I will have to figure out what the heck to do with them–on top of all the others. We have officially reached the Be Careful What You Wish For stage. And the crazy thing is, I was just finishing up an already insane day, wondering if I even had time to make a post. I was just doing one final check of things in the crab room (what my husband calls the mad scientist room) … and …”Hmmm, that saltwater pool looks awfully grey …. what the—?”
I don’t know who spawned.There’s a slight possibility it was one of my new adopted Es. It’s doubtful, season-wise, but that E was the only one near the saltwater at the time I noticed the greyness and it was acting odd.
So, the huge quantity of Day Four zoeae all shed today (a day earlier than the first spawn did). That was a time-consuming mess. So I did a full clean of both kreisels. Plus some of the megalopa in the transition tank are now crawling onto the rock WITHOUT a shell, the little buggers. (Gently squirted them back in—rogue wave.) I added a few more megalopa to the transition tank—for a total of 21—but then removed two dead ones later, so there are (probably) 19 in there (unless some have been completely eaten).
The transition tank isn’t really working out that great. The temp and humidity are fine, but it’s down in the bottom of my 55, which makes it super hard to clean, to see, and to manage, especially when the megalopa are so microscopic. I will need to figure out something different with that soon.
In the meantime, I’m totally overwhelmed. I’m going to need more saltwater mix (very soon), more Instant Baby Brine Shrimp (soon), and more Nannochloropsis. If you’ve been meaning to get anything from my Etsy shop, now would be a good time to order. I might be a little slower filling orders, but they would really help me out with these added costs. I’ve got plenty of burning bush leaves now, plenty of deer poo, and just made a big new batch of color-enhancing mix (with a new ingredient added–dragon fruit powder). If you’ve recently ordered (and I know some have!), thank you. I appreciate the support.
Now to crawl to bed and try not to dream about baby crabs.
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