Breeding Journal, Species: Lysmata amboinensis

General
Species:  Lysmata amboinensis
Social Structure:  Pair
Size of Individuals:  Appx. 3"
Age of Individuals:  Unknown -- At least 15 months
Date added to Tank:  9/1/2010

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  10 Gallons
Substrate Details:  Aragonite sand
Filtration Details:  HOB filters w/biowheels in sump
Water Changes:  Small and frequent
Water Temperature:  Ambient room temp -- appx 74 F
Lighting:  Small strip floursecent
Lighting Cycle:  Manually on and off -- Appx. 16H on / 8H off
Other Tank Inhabitants:  Two Perclua clowns, snails, hermit crabs.

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  Various pellets and frozen foods.
Feeding Schedule:  3-4 times a day

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  First recorded spawn: 11/7/2011
Spawn Time of Day:  Unknown - I suspect at night right after hatch / molt.
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:  After every molt -- they stay perpetually pregnant
Courtship Details:  None observed.  The pair stays together.
Egg Size:  Small, appx. 1 mm ?
Egg Color:  Greenish-gray
Egg Count:  Hundreds

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  11/22/2011
Hatch Time of Day:  10:00 PM, just before lights out.
# Days after Spawn:  Not sure.  Could be 15 days.
Larvae Description:  Tiny larvae with orange centers, no stalked eyes, six relative long legs, and shorter appendages in front of the long legs, and sticking out in front.


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  Ambient room temp., appx 74 F.
Size of Larval Tank:  1 gallon fishbowl.
Substrate Details:  None
Other Tank Decor:  None, except for an airline.
Filtration Details:  Live Phytoplankton.
Lighting:  None.
Lighting Cycle: N/A
Water Changes: 

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  Apocyclops panamensis copepods at first.
Feeding Schedule:  Continuous.

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start: 
Days after Hatch: 
Date of Settlement End: 
Description of Fry: 

Grow-Out Tank Details
Temperature: 
Size of Grow-Out Tank: 
Substrate Details: 
Other Tank Decor: 
Filtration Details: 
Lighting: 
Lighting Cycle: 
Water Changes: 
Size at Transfer: 
Age at Transfer: 

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types: 
Feeding Schedule: 

Additional Information
(No Pictures or Videos in the Section Please)
Miscellaneous Information: 



You will be required to provide photographic evidence in this thread of each event submitted for the MBI Program.
If your thread does not contain these photos the MBI Committee will not be able to approve your reports.

Since I had such serendipitous success with peppermint shrimp, I thought I might as well give these guys a try.  Picture of cleaner shrimp carrying eggs:
 

 

Attached Image(s)

Holy cow! Great shot!

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

That's a fabulous shot.  You've earned your 135 points! IMO

Thanks Tal and Kathy!  I got lucky.

Ya, no kidding.  Good luck!

Relatively new user CaptCrash recently posted some nice photos of his L. boggessi larvae, so I felt challenged to get some decent pics of my L. amboinensis larvae in their first day.  Here they are:
 

Attached Image(s)

Gorgeous!

I think that this means I need to step up the quality of my photos, yours are awesome.
 
Good luck with these, hopefully Ill be following you in a few months as mine grow up.

Amazing,Jim.a piece of art!
Any chance you tell us your lighting secrets?

Thank you, Luis!  The larvae was in a drop of water on an inverted small glass bowl.  The bowl was on an inverted 10 Gallon aquarium strip light (Black plastic strip light).  Shot with stock lens on a bellows extended way out on my Canon Rebel XT, with the black plastic of the strip light hood in the background.  The fluorescent bulb is parallel with the larvae, and quite far below it, from the perspective of the viewer.
 
I only realized after I took these that I had the ISO set at 800.  There was plenty of light, and I could have set the ISO to 100, and gotten much less grainy images.  I'll try that next time.

So some light is coming from above and some from beneath,giving us the best of both worlds!
What fluo light was that,photo light?
The pictures are so good,that I´d like to describe larval parts based on them.Perhaps in another thread?.I don´t want to mess with your?

Actually, Luis, the light was only coming from below.  Some may have been reflected off of the top of the water drop, or perhaps even the camera lens.  Feel free to copy the images to another thread, and if you need me to send them to you, just email me.
 
I'll try and see if I can get some even better ones that are less grainy later tonight.  If I understand this species correctly, it takes about 4 days for the first molt, so they should still be at the first zoeal stage this evening, I think.

OK, Luis here you go!  This time, the animal was in a drop of water on a microscope slide elevated on the inverted bowl, and the bowl was sitting on a 20 gallon tank on its side.  The light was a simple clamp-on light with a 6500K compact fluorescent bulb.  I had a black filter sponge in the background.  Shot at 100 ISO, 1/60 and 1/100 second, with the stock 28-90 mm zoom lens that came with the Canon Rebel XT, on a bellows, extended quite far out.  This time, the camera was on a tripod, and I used the mirror lock-up feature and a remote shutter control.
 
EDIT:  The light was below the animal, inside the 20 gallon, to the upper left in these images.
 


 
 

Attached Image(s)

Sames images, zoomed and cropped better ( I hope! ):
 


 

Attached Image(s)

Dang Jim... awesome... just awesome!

-Adam

Dang…Sweet!

Zoea 2.  These images aren't as good as I'd like, and they are probably the last ones I'll get from this hatch, as this batch is going downhill fast.  I have too many other things I'm dealing with right now, and I'll always have more of these larvae to work with later.
 



 
 
 

Attached Image(s)