With a pretty good zoomed view at the end. They are definitely starting to get the red coloration on their tails now.
They really enjoy grooming the algae at the bottom of the container. Not sure why they keep focusing on that one side, but maybe it has something to do with how the window light hits the jar.
I haven’t yet gotten that 10L tank properly cleaned up and set up for the shrimp, but thankfully it’s not looking too crowded in the hatching container so far.
Sometimes affectionately known as the CPO or dwarf crayfish, C. patzcuarensis is a species of cambarid crayfish that occurs in several lake and spring systems in Mexico, most notably Lake Patzcuaro. Like other crayfish C. patzcuarensis is likely an omnivore and will feed on small invertebrates and plant material.
Currently C. patzcuarensis is listed as endangered and likely faces threats from over-collection for the aquarium trade and habitat loss.
The Department of Extraordinary Lobsters is putting on their Giant Lobster Claws to celebrate the discovery of this magical moon lobster, recently caught by fisherman off the coast of Maine. The pearlescent lobster, whose enchanting coloring is most likely the result of leucism, was thrown back into the sea after the fisherman discovered she was a lady lobster.
They have grown to the point that you can readily see their little forked tails, which are starting to show some pink color.
I carefully changed out around 10% of the water for dechlorinated tap water yesterday, and added a few strands of Java moss this evening. Soon they should be ready to move into the 10L tank.
Pretty good zoom view toward the end. They’re still small enough to make focusing hard.
They’re growing well, and I think they should be ready soon to start gradually adding (dechlorinated) tap water to acclimate, after hatching in Highland Spring for the low mineral content. After that, time for a move to a 10L tank.
Somehow this miniature hairy squat lobster ended up with
a near-florescent pinkish-purple hue, little yellow eyes, and a thick
golden fleece all over. And at just a few millimetres long, it’s as
compact as it is adorable.
Seriously, just stop and consider how small that
actually is – these things are smaller than your fingernail, which
explains where they got their nickname ’fairy crab’ from.
Found off the coast of Western Australia,
Indonesia, the Philippines, and Japan, the hairy squat lobster (Lauriea
siagiani) makes its home on giant barrel sponges (Xestospongia
testudinaria), where it sits and catches ocean detritus in its ‘fur’
It then uses its smaller, ’un-hairy’ legs to
collect the particles and eat them. And it looks a whole lot stranger
than it sounds…
It’s difficult to get a decent focus on the tiny critters swimming around in a jar.
This afternoon, I went ahead and gave them a first meal of a small amount of the spirulina powder food, mixed into water first and added with a pipette. They do seem to be interested in what settled to the bottom.
Enough of the babies hatched that I should probably get the planned larger tank with some plants set up soon for them.
I set some eggs to hatch on the windowsill, with some sun, at around 11 a.m.
This evening, I was surprised to see some whitish specks moving in there, and now this many have hatched after just over 12 hours. An LED lamp has been on over the jar since the daylight started fading.
The eggs came from an eBay seller who claimed there were 30 eggs per packet. It immediately looked like more, and I wish I had only used part of the packet starting out. I was already planning to move the shrimp into a larger container after they grow more, but that’s looking like an even better plan now!
These babies are showing some interesting unexpected behavior, visible here: “The baby shrimps of Redtail Fairy Shrimp swim right after hatching like other fairy shrimps, but sometimes they stop swimming and stay at one spot for 10 seconds to a few minutes in the day they hatched out. After the first day, they keep swimming but slower and calm, which is a very different behavior compared to other fairy shrimps.” (http://www.arizonafairyshrimp.com/redtailfairy.html)
The gently drifting specks were actually what caught my eye when I was setting up the lamp, and then they suddenly started swimming.
Wondered at first if they were OK, but that’s apparently normal behavior for these. Also an indication that they probably are redtails as advertised, from the sound of things.
I wasn’t expecting to be able to see any hatched for at least a couple of days. (And didn’t with the previous fairy shrimp of a different type.) These babies are definitely bigger than the newly hatched brine shrimp.
The sun this morning was what made me decide to go ahead and start the hatching, and it looks like maybe that did help speed things up. As you can see, the air bubbles from filling up the jar haven’t even settled out yet.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
You must be logged in to post a comment.