Acclimation Day 5 and 6

Day 5

• Systems check: air line power strip on, aquarium filter power strip on
  • Filters not working in T2, T4, and T6
  • Replaced filter cartriges in all tanks and moved filters out of the water so you could see the flow back into the tank and to prevent crabs from climbing on top of the filter. All filters are working now!
• Checked ammonia in each tank
  • T1: 0.25-0.50
  • T2: Forgot
  • T3: 0.25
  • T4: 0.25-0.50
  • T5: 0.25-0.50
  • T6: 0.25
• Cleaned tanks using a vacuum hose for particle debris.
• Mortality check: While cleaning the tanks I used the hose to poke crabs and determine if they were alive
  • T1: 13 alive
  • T2: 14 alive
  • T3: 14 alive
  • T4: 13 alive
  • T5: 15 alive
  • T6: 13 alive
• Fed all crabs: Killed the air stones and aquarium filters for 5 minutes to let pellets sink to the bottom without being drawn into the filter. Added 1/4 tsp of food to each tank
• Added 5 mL ammonium conditioner to each tank
• Downloaded HOBO data, all tanks holding temperature around 14ºC

Day 6

• Systems check: air line power strip on, aquarium filter power strip on
• Mortality check
  • T1: 13 alive
  • T2: 14 alive
  • T3: 14 alive
  • T4: 13 alive
  • T5: 15 alive
  • T6: 13 alive
• Fed all crabs: Killed the air stones and aquarium filters for 5 minutes to let pellets sink to the bottom without being drawn into the filter. Added 1/4 tsp of food to each tank

Going forward

1. Add clamps to chambers so I don’t have to hold the probe to the chamber
2. Obtain flexible mesh for acclimation
3. Cover respiration chambers with paper or black plastic to simulate night conditions
4. Get refractometer for salinity measurements