teddscau
New member
Okay, so for the past year I've been trying to successfully raise invertebrate larvae. The problem I'm running into is that they struggle to stay suspended in the water column (in their nursery tank), and they end up dying from exhaustion. If I create any sort of current in their enclosure (even unbelievably gentle currents), they're tossed around in the tank because they are such weak swimmers. If I don't create any sort of current, they struggle to stay afloat and end up collapsing on the bottom of their tank/jar/kreisel/bowl and die of starvation because they're too exhausted to swim.
Like, what the heck am I supposed to do? Ideally I'd like to create an extremely gentle upward flow that will prevent them from sinking, but is gentle enough that they can swim wherever they want. I even bought that JellyTank 5.0 (or whatever it's called), but most of the babies end up accidentally getting caught in the laminar flow, being swept in a circular motion along the perimeter of the tank, struggling to escape, before finally succumbing to exhaustion.
I'm really frustrated by my failures. I spend HOURS collecting all the tiny, transparent babies, only for them to end up dying in their nursery due to being terrible swimmers. I've successfully raised numerous larval ghost shrimp and opae ula without any special care, but no matter how hard I try with amano shrimp, vampire shrimp, and emerald crabs, I can only get their larvae to survive, at best, 10 days. I've actually examined dying larvae under a microscope countless times, and from what I can see they're dying because they're so exhausted. No sign of disease.
I'd really appreciate any advice you can give me.
Like, what the heck am I supposed to do? Ideally I'd like to create an extremely gentle upward flow that will prevent them from sinking, but is gentle enough that they can swim wherever they want. I even bought that JellyTank 5.0 (or whatever it's called), but most of the babies end up accidentally getting caught in the laminar flow, being swept in a circular motion along the perimeter of the tank, struggling to escape, before finally succumbing to exhaustion.
I'm really frustrated by my failures. I spend HOURS collecting all the tiny, transparent babies, only for them to end up dying in their nursery due to being terrible swimmers. I've successfully raised numerous larval ghost shrimp and opae ula without any special care, but no matter how hard I try with amano shrimp, vampire shrimp, and emerald crabs, I can only get their larvae to survive, at best, 10 days. I've actually examined dying larvae under a microscope countless times, and from what I can see they're dying because they're so exhausted. No sign of disease.
I'd really appreciate any advice you can give me.
