Organizing and cleaning tanks in FTR for new oysters
Overview
This post details my process for dropping off the new oysters at FTR and organizing/cleaning tanks. Mac came over to help me with this today and Noah prepared the tanks!
Tank cleaning and organizing
Our goal today was to clean and prepare the tanks for the new oysters to keep them as healthy as possible for student projects.
Yesterday, Noah performed a full water change in the left tank and today performed a full water change in the right tank. Both tanks are now clean with nitrogen nutrient levels measured at 0 in all tanks (i.e., ammonium, nitrate, nitrites).
Once tanks were cleaned and ready, I then added the new oysters. New oysters were added to 4 of the black mesh cages/pouches with 2 bags per size (2 bags of 6mm seed, 3 bags of 9mm seed).
I attached tags to these bags as pictured here.
These oysters are clean, healthy, and will be used for the student projects this quarter.
I also downloaded all loggers I found in the tanks and reset one logger in the left tank (SSN 22023402) and the right tank (SSN 22023409) that are continuing to log temperature.
Organizing oysters
We then took out all older oysters and went through all bags and bins to check health and mortality. About 90% of oysters were dead at all sizes, which is why we have been seeing elevated nitrogen levels the last couple of months.
Mac and I discarded all stocks with high mortality. The following oysters were still in good condition and were kept:
- Westcott oysters (four red mesh bags corresponding to hardening treatments)
- Extras of the large oysters that were still alive in the white basket (~50% were dead and removed)
These oysters were put into the right tank.
The new oysters were added to the left tank.
Tank inventory:
- Right tank: 1 basket large oysters and 4 mesh bags of Westcott oysters
- Left tank: 4 black mesh cages of new oyster seed (6mm and 9 mm)
Feeding
I then fed the oysters before I left (left the hoses in the filters) and showed Hazel how to do the feeding. Hazel will feed the oysters on Mondays and Noah will continue feeding on Thursdays.
What if we need more oysters?
If we need more oysters for projects, I recommend that we purchase fresh oysters in batches. See my recent post for details on how I did this.