Paratya australiensis planktonic larvae

[Grubs]

About 3mm in length.  The light flecks in the water is the best timed green water outbreak I could have wished for!  The green colour of the body suggests they might be eating it too so its all fingers crossed for some post-larval juvenile settlement. 

Edited August 30, 2016 by Grubs

[fishmosy]

Nice work. Its great when everything lines up. Best of luck getting them through. 

[Vadnappa]

Nice one grubs. Where are the parents from?

[Grubs]

I think the parents are yours from south east of Melbourne.  You need to remind me of the location so I can write it down. 

The others I have from western Vic are young and have not saddled yet (but getting close).... but they are mixed in the same tank which is not ideal but with all the other native shrimp species there's only so much room for Paratya.

[Vadnappa]

O cool, they are from where Dandenong creek goes through Bangholme. You've  proven that population has a planktonic stage. Was it a salty green water mix you have them in? Did the western Vic ones end up getting much bigger, they were quite small when I saw them.

ive got another 3 types of paratya I'm waiting on to see how they breed. Plus a c.indistincta and another little group I've just collected from qld which I haven't had a chance to even see what they are yet, but they do have large eggs.

Edited August 31, 2016 by Vadnappa

[kizshrimp]

Great post Grubs, good luck with them. Tricky little buggers. We should catch up again soon. 

Nice to see you here Vadnappa and getting in on another interesting topic. I've only ever found one population of large-egged and direct-developing Paratya species and they were in East Gippsland... in the same drainage as a typical small egged species. 

[Grubs]

11 hours ago, Vadnappa said:

Was it a salty green water mix you have them in? Did the western Vic ones end up getting much bigger, they were quite small when I saw them.

These are just in the tank with the parents and its a bit of a test to see if they can make it in just the fresh water.  the collection site is not far upstream from the Patterson River estuary so its quite possible they need a bit of salt... but we'll see.

The Wimmera R.  Paratya are certainly bigger now, some saddled and I have seen one berried but not close enough to see egg size.  The Wimmera R. is landlocked but does have a lot of salty groundwater intrusions. In general salinity is EC < 2000 µS/cm so I'm expecting them to breed well in fresh.   My aim with the Paratya is to first prove they breed for me in a tank before I move them to ponds outside and see how well they do through next winter. 

I've gone a bit nuts on ebay buying tubs and ponds lately...

[Vadnappa]

Thanks kiz, our interests seem to keep crossing paths. 

The shrimp I mentioned that I'd just collected are not a paratya, no supra orbital spine. Also a lesson I've learned, paratya may not be able to compete with exotics when food is lean. I say this because I have all my groups dispersed along side cherries and crystals. I've been away for a few weeks and all tanks have been on rations. Just got back to find 3 of my paratya groups have been really thinned down in numbers while the shrimp they were boarding with all seem present. And the tanks were I have paratya with natives like riffles or red nose are all fine.