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This first post is more of a teaser than anything, but after 103 long days of waiting, I have a settled Lysmata kuekenthali! I'll have more full documentation, explanation, and the print files for the kreisel design I used available soon, but for now, a blurry video of the first successful settlement:

Sorry to hear, it's been my experience that often when something starts to show symptoms of a problem, you either have a very small window to react or it's already too late. In any case, if you're familiar with the forums/information on humble.fish, that is a pretty good community for addressing fish disease and treatment, and may just be a more active place than here. There's also Reef 2 Reef as there are a few people there that are pretty good with treatments and pretty quick to reply. While I don't have any kind of diagnosis for you, one thing I like to keep on hand is methylene blue, as if there are breathing issues/ammonia burn (mostly after transit) on the gills, the extra oxygenation seems to help things a bit, and it's safe to just take normal tank water in a bucket, add a few drops, and let the fish be in there for a while. I've also lost a few in that dip, it's no magic bullet, if it is an oxygenation thing rather than an infection or other stress response, it could potentially help.

A second one settled, this time from the second batch, making it a 99 day settlement. While it sounds like it's skewing down, the second one from the first batch still hasn't settled by day 118, so seems like a good bit of variability. Also, it doesn't appear that temperature plays a huge role - I will see with the second batch, but while the first batch was 24-25C the whole time, the second batch had its 25W heater stick on after a week or two, and while I eventually caught it, it would only push the temps to 27C, so I let it go. A 2-3C difference for nearly the entire duration and the settling times at least appear to be pretty close so far. What's more, the first shrimp has molted 2-3 times already and is nearly twice as long as this second one in its two weeks of being a juvenile. New one:

A week and a couple days in, the second still hasn't settled, and none of the batch from May 21 have settled at 3 months in. The one that did settle has gained a good bit of color, though, and molted only a week after settlement. It was a big difference in behavior from larva to settled shrimp, but a pretty big difference in behavior from day one settled to day two as well - definitely expending less energy and preferring to hide much more (like the adults.)

I just started them off in the tank water they were collected in then new salt water. I saw a very small amount of detritus build up outside the kreisel section and there is definitely a copepod population, and even a little water cloudiness in the last month, but aside from the film on the surface it appeared mostly fine. For feeding, I aimed to only add enough artemia to be consumed within 12 hours or so - both to reduce the fouling of the water and to keep the artemia closer to their hatch time. I used the disk shaped hatchers for a long time but broke one screen, so eventually I bought a pair of Ziss hatcheries and they have been good and easy to use so far. I actually don't even use a light to settle them - the egg shells float pretty well with modest aeration so I just harvest the main solution until the end where I disconnect the air and get the last bit before the eggshells on the surface. I think the feeding quantity for 50ish larvae after a month or two is like 2/3 of the column of a 5 mL pipette, but this varies with density. For the two larvae in this run, they would never eat through enough artemia for them not to be in the water, so I just fed like 0.5mL or so twice a day to make sure there was food available.

Thanks! It was primarily newly hatched artemia (day hatched to about two days old), but I occasionally supplemented a slew of whatever copepods I had and every couple of weeks added some phytoplankton. Oddly, very few water changes or other interventions of any sort, about 3 over the full duration. The molts would sometimes be visible in the tank, but eventually broke up, dissolved, or were otherwise consumed, and I believe most of the dead larvae were eaten by live ones. Don't think this shrimp got a lot of that, though, it's been only two larvae in this batch since the end of May. Pulled it out, took some pictures, and transferred it into a holding basket in a proper tank. For reference, that is one well in a two well slide, the water is maybe 4-5mm deep so the shrimp is probably around 9mm nose to tail.

SAVE THE DATE We are excited to bring in Tia to speak to the club about successful care of macro algae and use as a bio-media. WHO: WAMAS Club Members & Family WHEN: November 14, 2026 Time: 2:30 - 6:00 pm WHERE: Green Acres Center, 4401 Sideburn Rd., Fairfax, VA Speaker: Tia Davis-Wells - "TBD - (talk on macro algae) BIO: Tia is a marine biologist whose work bridges ecology, chemistry, and aquaculture. An Honors graduate of the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Marine Biology program, Tia has conducted research on zooxanthellae expulsion in Cassiopeia sp. with implications for coral bleaching, conservation of the endangered diamondback terrapin, and more. She is the head scientist at a mushroom cultivation and compost analysis lab, where she develops algae-based nitrogen supplementation, and she also leads her own company dedicated to scientific testing and the aquaculture of macroalgae for agricultural applications. Her current research investigates how different macroalgae species absorb trace elements, the biochemical properties of algae—including pigments and nutritional value—and their potential applications in sustainable aquaculture. Tia is a frequent speaker at the Reefstock and Reef Retreat conferences. Special thanks to theses sponsors. Please support them & say thanks next time you shop with them. WAMAS Platinum Sponsors - Air, Water & Ice - Avast Marine - Blue Ribbon Koi - Champion Lighting & Supply - ChemiPure (Boyd Enterprises) - Coral Candy Aquaculture - Fintastic Aquariums of Maryland - Frank's Tanks - Reed Mariculture (Reef Nutrition) - Reef eScape - Supreme Reefs WAMAS Banner-Only Sponsors - Bulk Reef Supply - Cobalt Aquatics - Coral Magazine - Jellyfish Art - Maxspect - Two Little Fishies ** INTERESTED in helping make this event a success - please send an email to officers@wamas.org or send a message to me or any of the officers and let us know you are interested in helping.