Caridina japonica - breeding Vol.1

Through building and maintaining beautiful nature aquaria people re-learn the intricate connections between forms of life, plants, fish, microorganism and humans. Riches and beauty come from harmony, from balance. Aquaria are great teachers of this truth. TAKASHI AMANO

6/22/2006

The END of my 1st attempt in breeding Amanos.

4 days after the 1st day of the 2nd batch the zoea were lost. I returned all the mother shrimps back to the main tank and dismantled the 10 gallon breeding aquarium. Something was not working well for the larvae. Next time I will prepare my self much better.

I hope you learned something out of my experience so far :-)

Kind regards, Dusko Bojic.

6/05/2006

1st day of the second batch !!!!

I keep 2 carrying Amano females in 10 gallon breeding tank. One of them released a few larvae last night. I can count 6 zoea swimming with head down. I introduced one liter of Green water and added 10 more tea spoons of salt. Total salt amount is 4 tea spoons per gallon.

The larvae are a bit bigger this time, around 1.5-2mm and their heads are slightly bigger. This time I can see with bear eye three parts of their body. Last time I could see only the small head and a tiny tail.

This batch moves with more energy, have to say. The water aged a bit I presume and is more stable. I am going for a 4 day trip and will leave the shrimps and the larvae to their own device with non-stop lights on.

Blue-Green algae started growing all over the Java-moss. There is lots of algae on the aquarium glass as you can see on the larvae photo above. With all that algae it is very difficult to do a decent shot. I hope this time the mortality is going to be low. Will know when I come back.

Photos by Dusko Bojic.

6/02/2006

The 5th day since the first female was introduced

Today is the 4th day since the larvae hatched and I lost them all. There is no signs of the dead ones. Sad but true.
The female No.2 didn't hatch eggs yet. I hope she is gonna do it tonight. She is in the salty breeding 10 gallon and will be returned back to the main freshwater tank when all eggs are released.
Next time I will get salinity test and raise it to 34ppm. As well as that I will get some food like Golden Pearls (100-200 micron).
I find hard to culture green water inside the tank. There is lots of lights (24/7), no CO2, NitrAte 20ppm, nitrIte 0.25ppm and water change every two days 5 liters, but no green water.

6/01/2006

The 4th day


This photo shows a 3 days old Caridina japonica larvae. The larvae is slightly bigger than 1mm. There are also some algae on the aquarium glass.

The other photo shows a worm like creature that was spotted crawling on the front glass of the tank, this morning. It is no bigger than 3 mm. It has some kind of legs on the sides. You are not able to see the "legs" with bare eyes. Whitish in color, it moves quite fast for a worm that size. I am culturing Green water in a Cola bottle that is exposed to sun light all day long. I presume I introduced it through that water, that I fed the larvae with, this morning. It looks like this Oligochaete Chaetochaster diastrophus .




Today the larvae are 3 days old. I can count only 5 larvae (will check later for more). I changed 5 liters of water, conditioned with dechlorinator Aqua Safe. I added 4 tea-spoons of salt.
The bottle, where I cultured green water turned green today, thanks to the boiled lettuce. I mixed some yeast, boiled egg yolk and some of the green water and fed the larvae.
The tank water looks very cloudy thanks to the food mix. I am not sure will the larvae get to the firs molt stage. It would be a good idea to have the salinity test and small food like the Golden Pearls (100-200 microns).

I introduced another Amano female to the breeding tank. She behaved much calmer than the first one. Probably the salt is well dissolved by now. Her eggs are getting greenish in color which indicates the hatching period is near. I am hoping that this time more zoea will survive.

Photos by Dusko Bojic.