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| November 18, 2003
We had just introduced the "Premium Micro-Lobster Breeding Food" as part of our improved Introductory Mini-Breeder Tank and had not yet thought to offer the food as a separate item as the cost of handling such a small order alone would be prohibitive. I explained our situation and requested more information about her situation. ~~~David |
November 19, 2003 Hi, My situation is this, someone gave me a jar with sand and black coral with 3 micro-lobsters. I wanted to learn more about them, thinking just leaving them in there wasn't enough. After reading your site I was shocked and amazed at how most people market them! I want to be able to provide a healthy happy life for them. After I had sent my email I thought about this, what are the possibilities of incorporating them into one of the systems you sell? Could they survive that type of change? If you have any advice or suggestions I would be terribly appreciative. Thank you very much and thank you for providing such a informative website, Carrie~ |
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(Carrie's order and payment came in and the unit was sent on Wednesday, November 26. But with Thursday being Thanksgiving, and Carrie's office closed on Friday, it was delivered on Monday, December 1.) |
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I can already notice the differences between these and the ones I have in the jars, size and activity being the main things. I had a question, there was about 1/2 inch to about an inch of water leakage. Will adding just distilled water to this mix be a problem? I will have pictures for you hopefully tomorrow and then you can see the water level, maybe it was not filled up much more than it is at now. I will send more details when I have the pictures ready to email to you. They arrived around 1pm on Monday. They were a little pale and many of them did not want to come out of hiding, I would say I lost about 4 of them, I received the package on its side and I think they got crushed? I set them up and put on the light, about an hour later, I would say there were 8 who came out to be very active. Before that they would peek their heads out and then go back and hide in the rocks. They continued to do laps around the tank, check out the rocks and chat with each other till I left around 5:30pm. Thanks, Carrie~ (Note: Keep water about 1" below the bottom of the light unit. Use distilled water to replace evaporation. ~~~David) |
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December 2 (PM report): The little guys started to calm down about two hours ago. They have stopped their laps and are picking at the rocks, the sides of the walls and just kind of sitting around, looks like they are looking for food and taking a break. Their color is still a nice red. A few keep checking out the top of the tank. Must be used to finding the food there? I will wait a few days for them to settle down and they have the ones who didn't make it to eat. They do eat them right, or should I take them out? If there are specific things you would like me to look for, please let me know. Thanks, Carrie~ (Carrie was wise to wait a few days before first feeding. Any not surviving the journey will be quickly eaten. ~~~David) |
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Today was feeding day, I fed them around 2pm. This was an amazing and delightful thing to see! I put the spirulina in and it was sitting at the top of the water slowly spreading out. The lobsters started to circle but none poked at it. About 2 minutes later one little guy sprang at it and sprang away, this helped it spread out. About 30 seconds later another little guy sprang at it, he proceeded to either share the food or tell another lobster what was up there! Then they all started at it and what it really appeared to be.... sharing the food or filling every one else in...
<<<<< Here is a picture I took about 30 to 45 minutes later. I think there was a little too much and will wait a few days rather than a day...? They are still happily doing laps and nibbling at the top almost 2 hours later... Carrie~ |
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The lobsters got their 3rd feeding and boy were they ready! Not more than 30 or so seconds and they were at it. It's funny, I notice that many of the lobsters like to just hide out in the rocks while the other half love to do their endless laps (is this common?) but once the food comes out, they all come out of hiding. So you have the red ones and then the pale ones from under the rocks eating. And you can watch them eat away and all get nice and red. With this 3rd feeding I went back to a full scoop of the spirulina and they finished it all pretty much in an hour or so. They are just a total delight for me and I am so happy knowing that they are getting the right treatment vs what most shops are telling people. Thank you for all your informative emails and your amazing website, I have passed along that information to everyone I know who has the little jars and are under the impression that they need no feeding. Carrie~ |
| Carrie, thank you for your wonderful report on the first ten days since you received your Mini-Breeder Tank! The photos were great, but your commentary really gave us a very real sense of your enjoyment. It said what I too felt when I learned how much to feed. I crashed several units before I was able to come up with the recommendations: "Feed only the amount that the Micro-Lobsters can eat in one to two hours. If they didn't finish in that time, next time feed a bit less. Follow each feeding with a no-feed day!" Carrie was already familiar with opae-ula and it's wonderful that she could see and share the difference in our units and the way our Micro-Lobsters behave. Within a week, Carrie became very confident of how to feed them and it is very likely that she'll never overfeed and crash the system! Mahalo again Carrie! ~~~David ______________________________________________________________________ Carrie's second part reports on her efforts to create a new larger unit by combining four smaller mug-size jars. *** Go to Part II: Creating a New Larger Opae-ula Unit! |
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