The tank she is in is a 6 gallon (24liter) bare bottom tank with just an airstone. How could I not find the larva in that? I took the air stone out and looked with a flashlight even though the room is brightly lit. I searched around the tank wondering if she could have jumped out! I wondered if my dog had drank out of the tank and lapped her up! I even wondered if someone had broken in and stolen her!! This is crazy, I thought!
Then I noticed the water level was a few mm higher than normal because I had added a little algae to the water I had returned to the tank after siphoning. I wiggled the plastic frame that's around the top edge of the tank and out she came, swimming erratically. She had gotten herself stuck in there. She looked a little weak and tippy as she swam around and I took some video which I had intended to do anyway since I wanted to share where she was at in her development. She has been so tough that I hoped she would pull through. I added Euterpina acutifrons copepods which are easier to catch and hoped for the best.
Here is the video of her swimming soon after being released from "the trap".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEMLipuFTvM
Today she was swimming in spirals and I couldn't let her suffer so I euthanized her at 34 days old and 7mm total length (you can't see all of her tail in the photo). I feel that her development had slowed as a result of the bacterial problem and lower temps this last week.
I still have the next larval run going which is at day 6 today. We started with a small number of larvae and I'm only seeing two or three larvae each time I work on the tank. They do look good with nice full guts. I will continue on with it and also continue to check for eggs to start a new larval run.
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