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

Nothing significant has happen as the berried Amano shrimp continues to drop her eggs. We are contemplating putting her back into her secure Amano infested tank.

-5:22pm, we contemplate no more. She started flipping her walking legs at timed intervals, and you could see the larva being pushed out, one after the other. We knew it was time. So we grabbed her and put her into the 10g tank and she is slowly getting rid of all those hatching eggs. Eureka!!! That is all we are about at the moment at Shrimp Diaries.

-The real test to our project begins now as we will be monitoring those larva every hour until we start to see some miniature adults.

-Wish us luck, we will need it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S We have stopped counting because they are just too many. -

7:55pm, she is still kicking her walking legs and the Zoea are still coming out. That is rather an interesting experience. It is definitely not an instant birthing process.

We scooped 3 more Zoea again, and we are going to change the water this morning (10:50am).

-During the water change, we noticed that the berried Amano, no longer had as many eggs attached to her as before, which would imply that either the larva hatched during night and died at some point or she dropped some of those eggs, which might not have been anywhere near hatching.

-Our first count this morning produced only 5 planktonic larva including the 3 we added. Whether they are dead or not is a mystery at this point.

-We have observed that sometimes the count is small simply because of their size. They are definitely not the easiest bunch to find. At one point we counted only 3, then we continued searching and as we were about to give up, we counted up to 5. Patience is definitely golden!!

We scooped 3 more Zoea and the berried Amano shrimp seemed to be doing well. We have committed ourselves to changing water everyday in the berried Amano’s container. She seems to be doing well, despite the trickling Zoea. The numbers for the Zoea in the 5g tank are all accounted for. The berried Amano has not had any hatched larvae in big numbers instead we are seeing a very slow process. Patience is golden at this moment for the experience itself is priceless.

We did a water change in the Amano tank and our observation was that more black dots were appearing on the underbelly of the berried Amano shrimp. We opted to take her out and put her in a smaller container with a few dead leaves, Guppy Grass and Moss Balls. We used the same water from her secure environment to avoid stressing her as this could have potentially led her to start dropping the eggs like our failed project. In this case it did not happen, so we were pretty excited about that at Shrimp Diaries.

-Hours after the transfer, she started dropping hatched Amano shrimplets and we scooped 5 of them and dropped then into the saline 5g tank. Anticipation and anxiety were at an all time high as we starred at her for what seemed like an eternity for we were hoping for more hatched eggs. Unfortunately 5 is all we got on that day, but that was a good day.

-We continued to monitor both the berried Amano shrimp and her 5 shrimplets or rather tiny little creatures floating upside down with their heads. At this early stage of development they are referred to as Zoea.

We noticed that we now had 2 berried Amano shrimp. Immediately we created a 10g salinity tank with lighting minus the heater. We used a hydrometer to ensure that our tank was saline enough. We also tested the tank with saltwater snails (Periwinkle/ the winkle (Littorina littorea) to ensure that it was agreeable. They never moved that much whilst in the tank, but they did stick their heads out. During the setup process we continued to monitor the Amano shrimp and only one seemed almost ready because we could see little black dots. The Amano were still in a secure setting surrounded by other big Amano numbers.

Day and night we left the light on inside the 10g and the filter was constantly running. We had cultured our own phytoplankton and we injected some of it into the 10g. Also included in the 10g was some gravel, dead leaves and live rock.

Our adventure into a non familiar territory began when found out that we had 3 berried Amano shrimp. The egg count was infinite a stark contrast to some other dwarf shrimp whose eggs can easily be counted. The eggs of an Amano are small and many at the same time. In order to properly prepare a viable growing environment we set up the first tank and it was entirely freshwater, with the rocks, java plants, moss balls and java moss. We put two berried shrimp in there and also setup a salt water small tank. Within 2 days, the females started dropping their unhatched eggs and we immediately knew the project was an utter failure. We removed them from the isolated tanks and instead opted to put them together with our other Amano shrimp to recreate a secure setting. After about 2 weeks we noticed over a hundred hatched Amano shrimplets and it was unbelievable. The numbers were something we had never seen and the smallness of these inverts was quiet scary. We thought that they might be eaten but nothing happen. Unfortunately, the next day all hatched Amano shrimplets were dead. Our conclusion was:

• Amano shrimp can hatch their eggs in freshwater
• Hatched Amano shrimplets can survive in freshwater for a couple of hours
• Hatched Amano shrimplets CANNOT be raised in freshwater

Project Closed