So it’s been an interesting week. I had shrimp scheduled to arrive the 3rd and the 4th. The first order on the 3rd were 300 mysids. I set them up in a tupperware container but I realize in retrospect I had the salinity wrong. So I ended up with only a handful of those which the cuttles happily ate in like 1 sitting. I’ve since called the folks at aquaculturestore.com and gotten some better instructions for how to set them up. Very nice people. I’ve got more mysids coming from them on Thursday and since I’ve been relying mostly on amphipods to shore up my feedings, they were very kind and shipped me some free amphipods to help replenish my stock. Great people, highly recommend them.
The other order of shrimp were “marine janitor” shrimp which I ordered from a different supplier. Small, transparent, about an inch long max. They look just like the freshwater “ghost shrimp” you can find in most pet stores as feeders, but they’re saltwater. I ordered 100 of those and all but ten of them were DOA. I’m hoping to straighten that out today, because I couldn’t get ahold of anyone on Friday when they arrived, probably because it was the start of Labor Day weekend.
So yeah, I had to head into a 3 day weekend with basically nothing to feed these guys.I have spent most of my time picking the remaining amphipods and occasional fairy shrimp out of my sump. On Saturday, I fished about 30 out. Subsequently though, I’ve been getting about half that. It’s frustrating and exhausting and it’s been super stressful. Aside from that, I’ve been spending my weekend desperately trying anything else that might work. Here’s a run down:
Frozen mysid shrimp: Did not seem to show any interest in them yet.
Went to Michaels and bought a Triops growing kit. These are a species of freshwater ephemeral shrimp. It took them 2 days to hatch and they’re tiny, so I’m waiting on these. Not very optimistic.
Small guppies: I was hoping for guppy fry, but all I managed to find around town after going to 3 different shops were guppies that were about 3/4″ long. The biggest cuttle, Rorschach, is about .5″ currently, although they grow at an amazing rate, I think the guppies were too big. I kept a bunch of them and put them in my FW tank, so maybe I’ll get some actual fry eventually. Anyways, the cuttles weren’t interested.
Small marine janitor shrimp: There were 2 out of the survivors that I thought might be small enough. So far, no one’s eaten them, but they seem to keep to themselves and eat detritus, so I left them in the net.
When I started to run low on amphipods, I went to my aquarium shop down the street and they were gracious enough to let me borrow one of their dirty filter socks, so I scored about 30 more amphipods that way, plus I bought more chaeto algae from them and picked some more out of that. I still have to make it to Thursday before I’ll have those mysids, but I am determined to make this work.
The other order of shrimp were “marine janitor” shrimp which I ordered from a different supplier. Small, transparent, about an inch long max. They look just like the freshwater “ghost shrimp” you can find in most pet stores as feeders, but they’re saltwater. I ordered 100 of those and all but ten of them were DOA. I’m hoping to straighten that out today, because I couldn’t get ahold of anyone on Friday when they arrived, probably because it was the start of Labor Day weekend.
So yeah, I had to head into a 3 day weekend with basically nothing to feed these guys.I have spent most of my time picking the remaining amphipods and occasional fairy shrimp out of my sump. On Saturday, I fished about 30 out. Subsequently though, I’ve been getting about half that. It’s frustrating and exhausting and it’s been super stressful. Aside from that, I’ve been spending my weekend desperately trying anything else that might work. Here’s a run down:
Frozen mysid shrimp: Did not seem to show any interest in them yet.
Went to Michaels and bought a Triops growing kit. These are a species of freshwater ephemeral shrimp. It took them 2 days to hatch and they’re tiny, so I’m waiting on these. Not very optimistic.
Small guppies: I was hoping for guppy fry, but all I managed to find around town after going to 3 different shops were guppies that were about 3/4″ long. The biggest cuttle, Rorschach, is about .5″ currently, although they grow at an amazing rate, I think the guppies were too big. I kept a bunch of them and put them in my FW tank, so maybe I’ll get some actual fry eventually. Anyways, the cuttles weren’t interested.
Small marine janitor shrimp: There were 2 out of the survivors that I thought might be small enough. So far, no one’s eaten them, but they seem to keep to themselves and eat detritus, so I left them in the net.
When I started to run low on amphipods, I went to my aquarium shop down the street and they were gracious enough to let me borrow one of their dirty filter socks, so I scored about 30 more amphipods that way, plus I bought more chaeto algae from them and picked some more out of that. I still have to make it to Thursday before I’ll have those mysids, but I am determined to make this work.
