Aquarium
In Jan 2013 we bred our first lot of redclaw spawn/babies & placed them in the aquarium to better monitor their growth. We must of had about 30 -50 from the netting that was harvested 13th Jan2013.
21st Jan 2013
We needed to clean out the IBC's as it had been nearly 4 weeks without a clean & sediment/waste/excess mushy fish pellets were building up on the floor. So using the hose inside the IBC running to the exit tap of the IBC, we started sucking up the debris. Not long after we noticed a hatchling near the sucker end & halted operations. Setting up a filter outside the IBC (ie shadecloth) we collected about 30 little crays.
By the time we had cleaned up the other 2 IBC's we had probably around 120-150 hatchlings from 3mm to 6mm long. We actually left the netting alone & the orchid pots (with netting) alone this time even though we found several more had made their way in there. We were gobsmacked at the amount we found in the debris of the IBC's. Obviously they were happy & safeish under the thin layer of silty slosh.
So in all we had about 180 crays in the aquarium. Some of that slosh ended up in the aquarium & it does not take long to increase it when feeding the fish pellets. When observing the little crays in the aquarium I noticed the bottom of the tank was teeming with movement (the slosh layer was) and as you throw in a dozen pellets many will break out and scamper to the food (and fight & carry on)
Disaster
On the night of the 31st Jan, I went out with the led light to watch them with the pumps & aerator turned off to keep the water still. Their little glowing red eyes were everywhere. It was at this point I decided we would try upping the feeding regime to mornings as well to see if we get a size increase.
01Feb 2013
I Checked them again in the morning and noticed very little movement in the aquarium (in fact the water was very still) I had forgotten to turn the aerators & pumps back on for all our containers last night! There were dead pasty white crays everywhere & in the end we lost about 160.
The other IBC's with the larger redclaw all were fine (we had surface access contingencies in place from out last disaster).
02Feb2013
Half cleaned the debris from the aquarium. Amongst the dead redclaw we picked out about 10 darker live ones & placed them back in. We might wait another week or two when they are all bigger to see as long as the water we changed now stays liveable.
On a brighter note we counted a dozen young in each of the other IBC's (so that makes about 40 more spreading the load)
06Feb 2013
On a brighter note, we have grabbed the other 40 from the mesh traps and placed them in the aquarium.
And today have checked the IBC's for egg stages & we have 4-500 crays due to leave their mums in the next week (from 3 redclaw). Another 200 will be due in 2 weeksish.
During our photo session today we had a female throw nearly all her babies (they were ready to go & have also put that 100 into the aquarium) (There were babies crawling everywhere)(but many did not survive the temperature change)
Been out at night to observe and you can notice the big difference in the newly released 3mm long spawn against the monster 10mm+ several week old crays. Reckon we will need to look at the next container to be added to the collection within the month for the next lot due over the coming month. (unless they all catch up in size) The sorting of sizes will be interesting.
So the aquarium is fully loaded again.
27Feb2013
We have some crays in the aquarium that are over 40mm long & others still at 10mm. Just goes to show the difference in growth rates/survival instincts. But maybe the bigger ones are survivors from the December batch.
03March2013
Filmed the goings on in the aquarium during the morning feed. Also shows the different housing we are trying to achieve a better result from high density living. Sped up 4X normal.
21st Jan 2013
We needed to clean out the IBC's as it had been nearly 4 weeks without a clean & sediment/waste/excess mushy fish pellets were building up on the floor. So using the hose inside the IBC running to the exit tap of the IBC, we started sucking up the debris. Not long after we noticed a hatchling near the sucker end & halted operations. Setting up a filter outside the IBC (ie shadecloth) we collected about 30 little crays.
By the time we had cleaned up the other 2 IBC's we had probably around 120-150 hatchlings from 3mm to 6mm long. We actually left the netting alone & the orchid pots (with netting) alone this time even though we found several more had made their way in there. We were gobsmacked at the amount we found in the debris of the IBC's. Obviously they were happy & safeish under the thin layer of silty slosh.
So in all we had about 180 crays in the aquarium. Some of that slosh ended up in the aquarium & it does not take long to increase it when feeding the fish pellets. When observing the little crays in the aquarium I noticed the bottom of the tank was teeming with movement (the slosh layer was) and as you throw in a dozen pellets many will break out and scamper to the food (and fight & carry on)
Disaster
On the night of the 31st Jan, I went out with the led light to watch them with the pumps & aerator turned off to keep the water still. Their little glowing red eyes were everywhere. It was at this point I decided we would try upping the feeding regime to mornings as well to see if we get a size increase.
01Feb 2013
I Checked them again in the morning and noticed very little movement in the aquarium (in fact the water was very still) I had forgotten to turn the aerators & pumps back on for all our containers last night! There were dead pasty white crays everywhere & in the end we lost about 160.
The other IBC's with the larger redclaw all were fine (we had surface access contingencies in place from out last disaster).
02Feb2013
Half cleaned the debris from the aquarium. Amongst the dead redclaw we picked out about 10 darker live ones & placed them back in. We might wait another week or two when they are all bigger to see as long as the water we changed now stays liveable.
On a brighter note we counted a dozen young in each of the other IBC's (so that makes about 40 more spreading the load)
06Feb 2013
On a brighter note, we have grabbed the other 40 from the mesh traps and placed them in the aquarium.
And today have checked the IBC's for egg stages & we have 4-500 crays due to leave their mums in the next week (from 3 redclaw). Another 200 will be due in 2 weeksish.
During our photo session today we had a female throw nearly all her babies (they were ready to go & have also put that 100 into the aquarium) (There were babies crawling everywhere)(but many did not survive the temperature change)
Been out at night to observe and you can notice the big difference in the newly released 3mm long spawn against the monster 10mm+ several week old crays. Reckon we will need to look at the next container to be added to the collection within the month for the next lot due over the coming month. (unless they all catch up in size) The sorting of sizes will be interesting.
So the aquarium is fully loaded again.
27Feb2013
We have some crays in the aquarium that are over 40mm long & others still at 10mm. Just goes to show the difference in growth rates/survival instincts. But maybe the bigger ones are survivors from the December batch.
03March2013
Filmed the goings on in the aquarium during the morning feed. Also shows the different housing we are trying to achieve a better result from high density living. Sped up 4X normal.
21 April 2013
6 weeks on since the above filming and not alot has really changed in the aquarium. About a dozen redclaw are twice the size & just as many are still 15mm long and not growning at any great rate.
Have emptied out the aquarium and the redclaw tallied 58.
Have put them into an IBC with adults to bring upon a little of lifes stresses & hopefully get better growth.
(Postscript: Aquarium was used for about 6 months & now redundant)
6 weeks on since the above filming and not alot has really changed in the aquarium. About a dozen redclaw are twice the size & just as many are still 15mm long and not growning at any great rate.
Have emptied out the aquarium and the redclaw tallied 58.
Have put them into an IBC with adults to bring upon a little of lifes stresses & hopefully get better growth.
(Postscript: Aquarium was used for about 6 months & now redundant)