The Amano is still berried with only a few eggs still attached. The saline parameters do not seem to affect her but we are a little bit cautious about her staying there any longer than she has to. The zoeas are still alive and we are not yet sure whether the numbers have gone down since yesterday. At this moment it is difficult to gauge anything because they are substantial numbers. To ensure that they are well fed, we have been adding some fine grinded flakes and seaweed mixed with a saltwater solution. Whenever we put that solution inside the tank they seem to react to it. Whether it’s because they like the concentrated saltwater solution or the fine particles of food we are not sure yet. They are planktonic larva after all, so we cannot deduce whether they are eating or not. Their movements however are a sign that something is happening…feeding or just irritated, is anyone’s guess.

-The planktonic Amano are phototactic and they are motionless in the middle of the tank where the light is concentrated. The light will be on 24-7 and hopefully it will provide adequate heating. Shrimp prefer cooler temperatures and anything ranging around 20°C – 24°C will do the trick.

Nature is truly remarkable! The female Amano finished releasing all the eggs by 1:40pm and by 2:00pm she was molting. That is when we realized that it was too late for us to put her back in her secure Amano infested tank. For a female Amano shrimp releases pheromones before molting and this sends the males into a directionless frenzy as they swim all over the place in search of the female.  It was too late for us because she was still in the 10g saline tank full of Amano plankton with no developed sex organs. An opportunity was missed by us for had she been in the secure Amano infested tank she would have spawned with one of the males immediately after molting. But the important thing is we have got the larva to take care of.

-Our current salinity level is 22 ppt. We are slowly increasing it in order to increase the survival rate of the larva