Tuesday 7-14-15

Today I primarily checked for new larvae and did a mortality count for the HC tanks (as these had some of the most culling of non-swimmers during the tank cleanings on Monday). I also drilled holes into my 10cmx10cm PVC tiles so that I can tie them on to a plastic coated wire mesh for the settlement stage.

Checking for larvae

• Some: SS3,HC3,HC1,NF1,SS1,SS2,HC2(?)
• Lots: NF3

Larval tank counts

• HC_Tank2_160 (100)
• HC_Tank1_new (100)
• HC_Tank1_new (160) -> HC_Tank2_160

Wednesday 7-15-15

S. Roberts came in today to help out with cleaning, counting, and setting up the settlement system. He roughed up one side of the PVC tiles with sandpaper, so as to make that side more preferential to oyster settlement.

Larval tank counts

• NF_Tank2_160
• NF_Tank1_new (100)
• NF_Tank1_new (160) -> NF_Tank2_160
• HC_Tank2_160
• HC_Tank1_new
• HC_Tank1_new (160) -> HC_Tank2_160
• SS_Tank2_160
• SS_Tank1_new
• SS_Tank1_new (160) -> SS_Tank2_160

New larvae

With the extra help today, I decided to do individual counts for each family. There were very few, with none for NF, making me think that the broodstock are winding down.

• Some: SS3,HC2,HC3,HC4

Growth experiments

• I took some more samples from the growth rate experiments today for size measurement, and will be taking down the 1st growth experiment on Friday.

Friday 7-17-15

The seawater was shut off for a couple hours today as they were doing some reorganization of the hatchery. I was able to clean and take samples for counting from the larvae tanks before the shut off and then finish the broodstock buckets afterwards. I made sure everyone had enough food during the break by splashing some extra algae in.

Larval tank counts

• NF_Tank2_160
• NF_Tank1_new (100)
• NF_Tank1_new (160) -> NF_Tank2_160
• HC_Tank2_160
• HC_Tank1_new
• HC_Tank1_new (160) -> HC_Tank2_160
• SS_Tank2_160
• SS_Tank1_new
• SS_Tank1_new (160) -> SS_Tank2_160

New larvae

Well I was wrong by thinking that they were all winding down. There was 441,100 larvae from SS and 205,133 from HC, but barely any from NF.

• Some: SS4,NF1,HC1,HC4
• Lots: SS3,HC2,HC3,HC5,SS2

Salinity

Took samples of ~100 larvae from each of the 45 silos in the salinity experiment to do live/dead counts and save for taking pictures. Unfortunately Ryann, the PSRF intern helping me on the salinity project, and I ran out of time so I was just able to do a rough activity estimate (% swimming). I fixed the wells in 10% formalin and left covered in parafilm to look at next week.

Sunday 7/19/15

Came in for a couple hours on my way back from a camping trip in Olympic National Park. Cathy Pfister, my adviser from UChicago, stopped by for a tour of my setup and to catch up on how things are going. With Michael’s help, I also did the water changes for the 2nd growth experiment and the salinity experiment and changed out banjo filters.