My Sexy shrimp just gave birth but I wasn't ready

[Levinson]

One of my Sexy just gave birth about an hour ago. 12: 30 ish AM local time. A little early for them to give birth (I read its usually at around 2am after dark), plus the room light was on.
I was lucky enough to notice out very soon after it happened but I didn't know it was pregnant so I was not prepared!
I turned off the room light, put a small led light at the side of the tank to attract the babies so they wouldn't swim near the overflow then into the floss.
But I'm afraid there isn't much I can do for these guys and they will most likely all perish soon. (Due to the filteration, no food, etc)
Should there be a next time, I will try my best to think of a plan to raise them!
My phone won't let me upload photos or videos for some reason. They are all really bad but I will post some of them later.

 

[Levinson]

Sadly, the babies were nowhere to be seen in the morning.
My guess is they got sucked into the filter floss & sock or starved to death. I did add tiny amount of ground frozen clam bits, spirulina powder and smashed marine pellets, knowing it won't do much but just hoping for a miracle which didn't happen.

Mother Sexy shrimp with eggs, about to hatch or during the hatch.

Video of Sexy with eggs

The babies. Very very crappy videos. They are the bigger particles with a tail darting about. I could see a lot more when I was not looking through the camera.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Tr9Mc3rmjKZgyvm7A

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GuLKvY799URrozu1A

https://photos.app.goo.gl/LLPmYTkx8Uprp3Hn6

 

[Marco333]

I built a breeding setup following this Guide. Waiting for my sexy shrimp to have eggs.

 

[Levinson]

I built a breeding setup following this Guide. Waiting for my sexy shrimp to have eggs.

Cool thx,
What do you plan on feeding the larvae?

 

[Marco333]

I’m not sure yet. Trying to figure out the easiest option.

 

[Levinson]

I’m not sure yet. Trying to figure out the easiest option.

If you don't mind, please do share with me when you decide on something. I'm also trying to find something relatively easy.
Live brine shrimp is good but it's kinda hard to get the timing right, especially for a noob like me who's never hatched them before. It would make things easier if I knew when the sexy babies will hatch but I don't think I can at the moment.
As for the rotifers, they are hard to find where I live and I'll also need to get the phyo culture going, which is also hard to find here. Not to mention having no experience with either, although I'm willing to try if I can get my hands on them.
Crushed flake food or frozen food is easy but I'm not sure it'll work and even if it did, it'll probably pollute the water real quick.
Oh what to do...

 

[Levinson]

So I had another Sexy hatch at 12:30 this morning. I've seen it as it happened. It was fascinating and I would like to write about how it went down but that's for another time.
I've made a larvae collector + rearing tank (in-one) unit based on the breeding peppermint shrimp guide (plus some other sources I've read). The idea is to have the unit collect the larvae and also have the unit as the larvae rearing tank.
It's a simple hang in the tank unit with an airlifting tube attached to the side to provide the circulation needed to have the larvae and feed stay afloat. I wanted to have the rearing unit inside the tank so I could make the use of the filtration I already have and eliminate the water change for the unit. The exit of airlifting tube is meant to be half above the water but due to the technical difficulties, it's submerged in the water near the top. The water would exit through the sand bed -> sponge mat -> holes at the bottom of the unit (just like the breeding peppermint shrimp guide). I've used a 3L container for the unit (the guide uses 5L I think).
Rearing unit

A LED light was taped at the side of the tank glass where the airlift pipe entrance is so when the babies are born they will be attracted to the light and be sucked up into the rearing unit.
As soon as the babies were born, I turned off the return pump and the collection went smoothly. There might've been some that I've missed but not that I could see. I'd say most were collected.

So the collection part was awesome but there are big problems.
1. The larvae (and food) keep sinking to the bottom onto the sand bed. Once it gets to the bottom, the larvae will try to jump. Many would bounce around the sand or sometimes even get stuck. A big no no.
Maybe this is due to the holes at the bottom? or the circulation flow is not enough? I did try to up the airflow but that would cause other issues (the larvae getting sucked up on the water surface by the bubbles) and it didn't look like it helped with the suspension much but just caused the larvae to spin around a little too fast.
2. The food particles (non-live) will get stuck on the sand bed when once it gets to the bottom.
This is pretty much the same issue as above but it is worse for the food. The larvae are slightly better at staying afloat. If this persists, unless I only feed live food, the much of the food particles will just get stuck on the sand and not be consumed, pollute the water.
3. Bubbles from air lifter lifting the larvae up to the surface and killing them.

The current unit may work in rearing some sexys to the adulthood but judging by how things look, I think it is highly unlikely, and even if it did, it would be a very small number of them.
I will have to think of a way to fix these issues or come up with a new unit for the future baby sexy hatches. Trying to come up with some ideas.
I didn't even get to what to feed and how to feed yet. That would be the next thing to tackle once I sort these issues out.
Please excuse me for this long and boring post.
Any advice or suggestions are welcome.

Collection at work 1 (video)

Collection at work 2 (video)

Sexy larvae in the rearing unit (video)

 

[Levinson]

Maybe I should consider building a pseudo kreisel tank?

 

[Levinson]

It's been less than a day and the number of live shrimp larvae has gone down quite a lot. I'd say less than 30%. There are some that are definately still alive. The only thing I can feed right now is pellet food soaked and smashed in rodi water. Flake food would've been easier but that's all I had.
The male Sexys were acting really strange today, jumping and running all over the place for hours. It was just the males too and all of the males. All of the females were calm. I've never seen this kind of behaviour before. Worried, I checked the basic water parameters but they were all ok. One of the male Sexy ended up being sucked up into the airlift while jumping about and ended up in the rearing unit. And it molted there! It was a PITA to get him out cuz putting a net inside the unit meant possibly harming some number of the babies. I did get him out but unfortunately I couldn't get the molted shell out. Hopefully I didn't do too much damage to the babies and the freshly molted male adult.
Don't know if it's a good idea or which one to go for but maybe I should put in a small sand sifter in the rearing unit?
Can anyone let me know if you can watch the videos in the links above without an issue? Just wanted to make sure.

 

[Levinson]

Only two larvae remaining. Not sure if they are even alive.
So the current setup doesn't work which was kinda expected. Better think of a new setup before I end up with another birth. .......I hope there are more babies to come.
Trying to reflect on the failure and think what the causes of the issue might've been.
Things I can think of right now are...
There were too many/big holes at the bottom for the water to exit through and much of the flow ended up going towards the bottom? But I was worried the unit would overflow if there weren't enough holes. Maybe I can fix it by having the holes only at the centre part?
I'm thinking maybe a kreisel tank might be a worth a try. There are two things I'm not sure about.
1. spraybar/water entrance placement and angle to have the propper circulation and not have things being pushed towards the mesh. I'm looking at some examples but still not so sure.
2. what size micron mesh I should go for. I don't want it to clog and overflow.

I have ordered some brine shrimp eggs and flake food so they're on their way.

​

 

[Levinson]

3rd day since the birth. I thought I've lost them all so I was trying to pull the unit apart to do some experiment.
But I found two that might be alive.

It was pretty dang difficult but I managed to film a video clip of one. To me, it looks like it's still alive and moving.
What do think?

 

[Levinson]

All larvae from the 2nd hatch died.
Another female hatched at around 12: 30~1: 15.This is 3rd hatch. This time, I wasn't there so most were gone by the time I found out.
I only got to find out that there had been another birth by finding just a few new babies remaining. Sad but there is nothing I can do for them right now. Again, I wasn't ready.
Gotta work on the new setup for the babies.

 

[Levinson]

Got Diy pseudo kreisel set up.
Not sure if it'd work. The things I'm worried about are;
1. the mesh screen clogging too soon,
2. bits getting into the kreisel through the pump (leading to clogging),
3. the unit not being able to keep the babies off the ground.

The small pump (3.5w) for it is in the display tank but it might be a good idea to move it into the filter compartment. I will have to make a space for it.
I made a small barrier on the top just in case the unit overflows. It's meant to lead the overflow water back into the tank so it doesn't pump the water out of the tank and flood my room.
I will be really bummed out if there isn't another hatch after all this.

 

[Levinson]

Babies hatched at around 1am. This is 4th hatch. Good thing I had the unit setup only hours before but I didn't know it was going to be so soon. The babies were captured using the air lifting device and the new kreisel tank seems to be working at least for the time being.

This is off topic but does anyone know why I cant upload picture from mobile? All the buttons on the editor aren't working only on mobile. I think I have done it before.

 

[Levinson]

So far, many of the babies are still alive. It looks as though some of them might have died but it's hard to tell.
Some bits of stuff do settle at the bottom of the kreisel if they are a little heavy or large. Likely due to the unit having a flat area at the bottom. This might not necessarily be a bad thing since I could siphon the stuff out. We will have to wait and see.
I've seen some of them grabbing onto some bits so I think they are eating but there were not so many of them like that which worries me a little. I don't know what they are eating or if they are eating enough.
I wanted to start hatching brine shrimps asap when the babies were born but I didn't have a hatchery so I've just put some brine shrimp eggs in a small plastic container with saltwater as a temporary measure. Some hatched after 24 hours but it was a real pain harvesting them. I have yet to see the sexy larvae actually eat the baby brine shrimps.

Video of Sexy larvae (last night)

I've made a brine shrimp hatchery with some plastic bottles, air pump and LEDs and had it running from last night. I didn't drill any holes to the cap but used rigid air tubes instead. This is my first so I'm not sure if I'm doing it right or how I'll harvest them. I thought the empty eggshells were meant to float and I could separate the BBS by leading them to the settle at the bottom with a light but it looks like some shells and unhatched eggs also sink to the bottom. If I use a turkey baster (or a straw) to harvest what was settled at the bottom, won't I end up with some shells and unhatched eggs mixed in?

 

[Levinson]

Figured out how to harvest the BBS using a small LED light. Harvested and put some in the rearing unit.
The difficult part is, I don't know when, how often and how much to feed.
I observed them for a while but I don't see any live BBS getting eaten. Even when I bring them together with a light.

 

[Cole.mormon]

Maybe once a day

 

[Levinson]

Maybe once a day

Thank you, Cole.
Do you think once a day would be enough also for the crushed flake food? Or would that be just for live food?

 

[Levinson]

While cleaning, I found what I thought was a dead sexy shrimp larvae from the filter floss so I took a close look. It turns out, it was still alive! If it was poorly fed, I think it might not live for long. I'm not sure what I'd do with it.

 

[Levinson]

It's been 6 days since the sexy birth (technically 5 days cuz they were born at around 1am).
It looks like there aren't as many babies now but a fair number of them are still alive. I've witnessed some of them eat BBS which is good. I'd say so far so good. Hopefully, I can keep it up.
I strongly suspect at least one of the adult female sexys are pregnant. I have 4 females in my tank and they keep on reproducing. I'm happy for them but I'm not sure if I can manage another batch.