Down to two. One is not looking good and still swimming upside doen which means it may not have gone through its metamorphosis properly.
However, the other one is a winner. Swimming head first and digging into the moss I put in there.
There is much to be learned about the transition to FW and I have alot of testing to do the next go around.
Here is my first hypothesis which I want to break down on the next batch:
First and foremost, the surface tension is a major issue. It appears that once FW is initiated to the SW, the specific gravity obviously changes and I think the juvenilles have trouble with buoyancy (which makes sense). So, they tend to float toward the surface. Too much suface agitation just kicks their butts, so I need to create a fine turbulance at the top, just enough to break the tension, but not shoot them all over the place.
Second. Bigger container!! The cups are just silly. No need. Maybe a 2.5 gallon next time.
Third. Drip acclimate slowly. I am going to set it up with perhaps about 1 gallon of SW from the initial harvesting, then have 1 gallon of FW in a jug and have it set up to just drip in really really slow. Once its done, do it again and again til the SW is almost fully dilluted.
Fourth. Do not extract the juvenilles until full molt has occured. From the reading I have done and what I have witnessed so far, they need the SW to get through the first molt. It was clear that once FW was added, the ones who did not fully molt where goners. (This may also tie into the bouyancy theory since the exoskeleton may get more dense after the first molt, which may help them control their movement as the specific gravity begins to change).
I tried taking pictures of the little guys, but you can't see a damn thing. I need to get a better lense for my camera.
/www.njagc.net/) is attempting to breed them.. however the forum is private. I'll post some relevant quotes from the thread:
