Growing Scuds

      I purchased some scuds, probably Hyalella azteca, from John Clairmont a couple of years ago.  They went into a ten gallon tank on a bottom row, and were mostly forgotten. Sometime later, when a tank was needed for a purchase of Red Cherry shrimp, I saw no reason to continue wasting a tank on the scuds, so in went the shrimp. They have been coexisting quite well, with increasing populations of both invertebrates. And the tank is pleasingly clean versus my other tanks. Having read that scuds eat both hair algae and black beard algae, I added ten each to two quart containers with black algae problems.

      Probably 15 smaller scuds were added to this 15 gallon that contains a trio of Red Cherry shrimp. The hair algae is thick on the left side of this tank. Obviously the cherry shrimp don't eat it. It will be nice if the scuds clean it up.

Scuds added 12/25/15

Electric Blue Crayfish Growing

      Back on September 30th I wrote a post about my mother crayfish releasing her babies. You can see her in this shot above taken this morning.  Over a few days time, I had removed a total of 270 baby crays from this 30 gallon breeding tank, and spread them around to various tanks and "holding containers".  The few babies left in the tank with the mother, have turned out to be at least 30 more!  Yikes.  From the original 300, I expect I easily have 120 or more still alive.

      The larger crayfish near the top is the mother of the 300 baby spawn.  Two of the babies in this picture are about half her size at only three months.  Although the original male died, I will certainly have no problem in procuring breeding stock.

Procambarus alleni

Red Cherry Shrimp Progress

      The Red Cherry Shrimp are making progress.  The original group in the ten gallon tank in the back seems to be expanding slowly, and there is currently a good sized berried female. The three shrimp in the 15 gallon tank in back are growing, with at least one female with an egg saddle. The best progress is in the 2 1/2 gallon tank that I moved to front and center in the front room. There are six or seven shrimp in that tank, with one female berried and one in saddle (non-fertilized eggs behind head).

      In the shot above, the female with the egg saddle on her back is in the forefront. The berried female is behind her and is facing the camera.

      In this shot you can see the berried eggs that the top female is carrying under her belly. I am going to leave the berried female in the tank through release of the developed babies. The literature suggests that the babies will be fine. The egg saddle is also quite apparent in the second female.

     12/27/15 Starting to see babies in the 2 1/2 gallon tank.  Ten babies counted on 12/28/15.

     1/7/16  Netted out two berried females from the 2 1/2 gallon tank to the 10 gallon tank with annulatus next to it.  Two of the four females in the 2.5 have released their babies, and I have had a count of at least 30 babies.  That seemed like enough, hence the net and move.  Also a male left in the 2.5.

Changing Tank Day

      Yesterday was the start to a lot of fish moving.  The two male Fd misaje were moved, the older male to the lonely hearts tank, and the younger male to form a breeders trio in a 5 1/2 gallon tank in the back room.
      The five remaining Procatopus similis "Kumba" F-1 of the original seven were moved to the somewhat cleaned up 75 gallon.  Hopefully they will spawn and get surviving fry in that heavily planted and protected tank.  Will leave the 20 they vacated sit for awhile to see if I get babies pop up in that tank.

Procatopus similis "Kumba"

      The surviving lone male Aphyosemion calliurum from Tony Kline was moved to a back room 5 1/2 gallon tank with three of his mature female offspring.  Hope it works.

Red Cherry Shrimp

      For some reason, I struggle trying to keep Red Cherry Shrimp.  Gary Haas in Havre De Grace produces them by the bucketful.  I buy them, put them in my fishroom, and usually kill them. I bought another five shrimp at our September 12th, 2015 meeting in Newark. Two of those shrimp were berried and went into separate quart containers with some tank mulm and plant pieces. Both females survived and released young on about 9/25/15.  The other three adult shrimp went into a 5 gallon tank with a filter and java moss, and yes, those three died!  Go figure.
     So today, 10/2/15, I caught three of the tiny babies from one of the successful releases and transferred them to a well planted 15 gallon tank. Hope to be able to see them sometime in the tank, at which point I will transfer more.  I do have some shrimp in a ten gallon tank that have survived for months, and are producing a few babies. But not yet by the bucketful. But here is a survivor:

Her survival is a good omen

Electric Blue Crayfish, Procambarus alleni

      On September 27th, 2015, I noticed that my female Electric Blue Crayfish, Procambarus alleni, had released a batch of babies!  I had put together a pair of adults maybe six or eight weeks ago, but had never seen the female berried.   Finally took the male out as he was basking on top of a rock.  Thought he might be trying to molt, but he has returned to more normal behavior in a separate tank.
      The babies and mother are being fed a combination of sinking pellets and flake food. Remembering that the babies will be cannibalistic, I tried to catch some with a turkey baster.  No luck, the little squirts are fast. Some sinking pellets in a peanut butter jar left in the tank for a few minutes attracts some babies, which are caught by simply pulling out the jar. Now begins the process of catching babies to transfer them to multiple tanks that contain lots of protective cover.

      Here are pictures of the first six baby crays that were caught. At this point. they are just over 1/4 inch long. These six just got a 10 gallon tank of their own! But not for long, see below:
      The latest count:
         
                  Number      Total           Container
9/30/15           6               6            10 gallon tank A  - added 14, see below for 10/3, done
9/30/15          10             16           10 gallon tank B  - added 10, see below for 10/3, done
9/30/15           7              23          2.5 gallon plastic A, done
9/30/15          10             33           15 gallon tank A  - added 20, see below for 10/3, done
10/1/15           7              40           2.5 gallon plastic B, done
10/2/15          30             76            15 gallon tank B, done
10/3/15          20             96            15 gallon tank A  -  now has 30 total, done
10/3/15          10            106           10 gallon tank B  -  now has 20 total, done
10/3/15          14            120           10 gallon tank A  -  now has 20 total, done
10/3/15          20            140           10 gallon tank C, done
10/3/15          10            150             5 gallon tank A, done
10/5/15          40            190           20 gallon long A, done
10/7/15          40            230           20 gallon long B, done
10/8/15          30            260            4 gallon Sweater box, done
10/12/15        10            270            4 gallon Sweater box, done
10/20/15          5            275           1/2 gallon plastic container

      11/24/15  Finally got box filters running in the two 20 gallon long cray tanks in the front room.

      11/29/15   The last listing with 10 crays in a 4 gallon sweater box was taken down this morning.  There were 5 surviving crays that were moved to the twenty gallon high that had already contained five crays from just before our Florida trip that I had accumulated in the 1/2 gallon plastic container listed above. The five crays that had been in the heavily algaed twenty since 10/20 have the best color of any of the babies.

       8/15/16   A new batch of baby crays released in the 30 gallon breeder tank!  Good thing too as my cray population has been steadily decreasing to maybe 10 to 15 left.

Epiplatys infrafasciatus infrafasciatus

      I enjoy the genus Epiplatys, from the diminutive annulatus to the medium sized dageti, and finally to the larger species such as Epiplatys infrafasciatus infrafasciatus.

My male Epiplatys infrafasciatus infrafasciatus

      My Epiplatys infrafasciatus infrafasciatus Mile 4 were purchased for me by Lee Harper at the 2012 AKA Convention in St. Louis.  The fish were raised by Sandy Binder, and received a rating of 90 points. I was thrilled that Lee was able to buy them for only $10 in the auction.  The original pair was very productive, so it was not long before nobody wanted the offspring in our local auctions. It often works that way.

      The picture above is of two of the three females in a fifteen gallon tank with one male. The easy breeding part is long gone, and until last night, I had not seen a baby in well over a year.  But then, there was a speck of dirt in an algae clump that turned out to be a fry.  That rare baby was siphoned out and put into a jar teeming with paramecia.  At least it won't starve.

15 gallon with breeding quartet

29 gallon with breeding pair

      1/5/2015  Large single female from isolated 2 1/2 gallon tank was added to the pair in the 29 gallon tank to form a breeding trio.  Hope to have better luck than the nonproductive pair.

      1/4/2015  Found and removed a small fry from the 15 gallon breeder quartet.  First fry in quite some time.

      5/27/2015  Mile 4 pair purchased at AKA convention.

Hoping for more fry

      9/27/15  I had moved the quartet from the 15 gallon out to the garden in the 100 gallon horse trough. When I emptied every last drop today, I netted the original four, and saw two babies, one of which got lost somehow.  So a couple of months of summer camp resulted in one juvie, but was fun.  Brought in the parents when a threat of low 50's mornings was approaching.

      6/2/16  Caught the four adults that had been moved in 9/27/15.  Yes, all four.  Put back out to the horse trough with some water lettuce, and some bull mosquito larvae.  Good luck to the larvae.