DK's m..a..d.. d..o..-i..n..g..s........

[DKShrimporium]

So, I've declared my potassium studies over for the time being, and have been working on magnesium. I will do a tweak or two, and then I think I'll finally be happy.

Here are the latest shrimp-y toys, helping in the Madness. The cumulative Madness has significantly improved my capture rates, I can tell you (as in the number of young per batch making it to juvies). These are some of the very few toys for Shrimping I cannot buy at BORG!

*************

In other news, I'm VERY excited that I have apparently a few what I call Appaloosa tigers that have popped up in recent batches of the Black Tiger tank. I've been surprised by the Black Tigers, in that they pretty much produce like themself, and not much of a mixture of "grades." I was expecting a degradation over time with a mixed population, and just haven't seen it. But apparently mixing just the right two T-Rex's together has FINALLY yielded me some Appaloosas. They are absolutely my favorite of the spectrum. I'm also finding that the pigment develops a bit on black tigers, in that it will actually spread toward more coverage over time. So I have to wait for my Appaloosas to mature into juvies to see what I've really got, then will snap some pics. Right now, they are small, and the tank glass is furry, too, but I'm keeping it that way for the young over the summer breeding season. That's why I haven't shot many shrimp pictures in recent months.

Finally think I've got the Red Tigers dialed in, although knock on wood that my upcoming magnesium tweaks don't crash them! This has been a much slower than I want project, due to the DKMSJ work I did the past year.

OH, and BTW, I'm learning so many things are not true. I've run the Blue Tiger tanks all summer at 78, and they've been fine and churning out the babies to boot. Whodathot.

[shrimpnmoss]

You know Donna, I never bought into the whole you HAVE TO keep tanks under 75 degrees thing. I know quite a few people in Asia that keep likes to keep their tanks between 75 and 77. Once someone told me that baby survivability is highest around 75.

[DKShrimporium]

So, last night the shreeeeeeeemps got sugar snap pea pods. Here's what was left this morning.

A new way to make sculpture...


.

[Senior Shrimpo]

DK,

Before you pick your winner. I have something I've been working on for hours. Would you mind giving me some time (at most, a day) to finish it up? I think you'll like it because it is just comical enough to be uniquely DK. (I mean this in a very good way )

Edit: Spent more than 4 hours of work on this darn thing. Almost done!

[Senior Shrimpo]

http://imgur.com/2QCVYl&FHk3j

Check them out people!

They show up compressed here so check them out on Imgur!

I worked on them for a while

[spyke]

you so win......sh*t...

lol

[shrimpnmoss]

Lol that thing has a shrimp tail and whiskers!

[Senior Shrimpo]

Hahaha it's a TyrannoShrimp

(also had ideas for a King Kong shrimp, Tiger shrimp, Cherry shrimp, etc.)

[DKShrimporium]

Holy Bajeebers! I was up on a ladder messing with a tank when I thought an airplane hit our house. The whole rack of tanks started to slosh and then there was a huge bang upstairs.

THANK GOODNESS I had tied down my racks with kevlar rope bolted into the floor joists above them, in case any freak thing like this ever happened. The rack would have fallen over on me, with all that weight!

We had an earthquake! Stuff fell off the walls!

Yeah, I'm still sort of in shock. I can't even use my phone because the cell towers are overloaded. Philly and Wilmington evacuated some hi-rises due to panic the news is reporting.

So, I guess I'm not gonna bother shipping shrimp, today.

Hmph.

DK

[shrimpnmoss]

Glad your tanks made it OK. Thank God there was a safety officer onsite.

On another topic. Can you share some information or conclusions from your K study? I'm mainly curious if dosing K affected your shrimp breeding?

[DKShrimporium]

So, in true geek-like fashion, the squirrely-brain takes off, wondering if my ground water will be affected by the earthquake - any new cracks in the bedrock, causing a different flow of water into my well? Will I see a wave of turbidity or nitrates (I live near farmland and we get fert runoff into the ground water; this year it's been lean because it's soy rotation, so they fert less heavily than corn years. Corn is a hungry plant.) from the next Water Factory cycle? Better be on the lookout, ready with my testing kits, just to be sure.

I can't answer too well on the K+ question because I didn't have the variable isolated. Based on a compilation of experience, though, I'd say planted tank K+ levels don't much affect what shreemps decide to do. I'm running very low K+ levels right now in a test, but concomitantly decreased my GH, so any effect could be due to one or the other, and more likely to the GH overall than the K+. I know, that's pretty much a non-answer.

[GDP]

Unless you were like +/- 50 miles of the epicenter your ground will be fine.

[asukawashere]

Holy schnitzel! Glad to hear you (and the shrimp) are okay. Safety planning FTW!

You may wish to look into the matter of counseling for the shreemps, though. It's possible the trauma of quaking will reduce breeding rates. Psychological trauma can result in a number of debilitating physiological issues. :P If I, for one, were a shrimp in an earthquake, I'd probably have a heart attack.

All jokes aside, though, I'm glad that you're well enough to be squirreling away about groundwater effects XD

[DKShrimporium]

Originally Posted by asukawashere

You may wish to look into the matter of counseling for the shreemps, though. It's possible the trauma of quaking will reduce breeding rates.

I'm hoping it's sort of the opposite, you know, like when the power goes out in NYC and all those people are stuck in elevators... what happens nine months later...

[Senior Shrimpo]

DK,

I was really freaked out by the earthquake as well. I didn't even feel it but I was driving at the time and the radio started yelling "5.9 in Mineral, Virginia!"

Apparently, because the East Coast has more dense rock in it than the West coast, the quake was felt over a much wider distance.

I bet they'll be selling "quake preparation kits" tomorrow at all the grocery stores.

Sorry to get so off topic... lol, when I heard of the earthquake, I didn't even think of my tanks. I immediately thought "OH, I hope I feel some shaking!" Good job me, want to be hit by an earthquake.