Young Cardinal Shrimp

[southerndesert]

As mentioned in another post I had several of my Cardinal Shrimp show up berried...Many died as a result of shipping related stress or injury, but several have also had their young. I have at least 3 different hatchings now and the young are doing fine. Here is a photo of one of them.



Very hard to get a clear shot....

The Cardinals are doing fine now and are settled in with no more losses for a couple days...



These sure are some beautiful shrimp and now very active around the tank (20 long) and displaying behavior you would expect of any good healthy shrimp. It is nice to see the young surviving and I will share more photos as the opportunity presents itself. I also will report if any actually berry while in my tank and I am sure hoping to see that soon.

Cheers, Bill

[nwinverts]

Bill,
Glad to hear they have acclimated to their new home and have thrown juvies. That’s half the battle.
I'm really hoping some viable colonies can be established here in the U.S. What water parameters are you keeping them in? Please keep us informed. Thanks for sharing.

Mark

[southerndesert]

Bill,
What water parameters are you keeping them in? Please keep us informed. Thanks for sharing.

Mark

Hello Mark,

Temp 82-84F
PH 8.2
GH 3
KH 4 to 5

Inert sand substrate and my water just happens to have correct parameters for these shrimp from the tap.

As a side note they spend allot of time on the leaf litter in my tanks, young and old. So those keeping them may want to consider using leaves if they are not yet. I use Ash, Peach, and Indian Almond in my tanks. I would use Oak, but here in AZ it is hard to come by. Here is how they react to a new leaf in the tank. The little baby is an "odd duck" that was in the bag as fry. No idea what it is and there were a couple of them....



Cheers, Bill

[Neonshrimp]

Congratulations Bill

I use Ash, Peach, and Indian Almond in my tanks

.
Nice variety of leaves and the little shrimp really like climbing on them.

I know it has been a short time but have you found the young to be less shy than the adults? I wonder if the shyness is learned or instinctive.

Thanks again

[nwinverts]

That’s what I have read. Alas, I may well have to do without. I was hoping that perhaps you were able to get them to acclimate to something a little closer to the 6.7 we have here in the northwest. Oh well maybe they will, but I'm not willing to experiment, because they’re so blinking expensive at this point.
The Sulawasi shrimp are all so beautiful. I'm more than a little envious.

Thanks Bill, keep up the good work.
Keep the pic's and info coming.

Mark

[southerndesert]

Hello Richard,

I started out with 20 about a month ago and some were DOA and the rest were doing good, but much smaller than the ones just in last week. Over time they became less shy and they are now all in a 20 long and becoming less shy daily. Perhaps the addition of the others calmed the new ones as well or just the old "safety in numbers" theory.



As you can see they are out and about...Hard to get a close photo of but half a 20 long

Here are a couple more of the young that were up close to the glass and they are not shy at all as yet, but have only been in the tank a few days so I really have no real info in regards to their behavior as yet.





These little guys are about 2mm in size, maybe 3 at most.

Cheers, Bill

[Guba]

I use Ash, Peach, and Indian Almond in my tanks. I would use Oak, but here in AZ it is hard to come by.

Nice pics! Why do you use those species of trees? I have Ash and Peach, but never heard of Indian Almond. When they decompose do they provide more microbial "critters", or is it just what you have available? I also have White Oak, if you need some oak leaves PM me, I'd be happy to stuff an envelope full.

[southerndesert]

I use Ash because it is a good sturdy leaf and lasts a long time, peach doesn't last near as long, but they sure spend allot of time on it. Indian Almond needs to soak longer to remove tannins, but helps keep water a bit softer and again the shrimp seem to really like it. Use the Almond mostly in Tiger and CRS tanks....

PM sent...

Cheers, Bill

[southerndesert]

A shot of the 20 long these shrimp are housed in. I now have no more berried females and that is good news. I normally would not be happy about this, but now if I find berried shrimp they have berried in captivity! So now the wait begins.....



Cheers, Bill

[Neonshrimp]

I normally would not be happy about this, but now if I find berried shrimp they have berried in captivity! So now the wait begins.....

That is a good setup for breeding and being able to see the shrimp easily Thanks again for the update and I too will be waiting to hear about captive breeding.

[southerndesert]

I have noticed that Cardinal Shrimp are very social and will spend much time in twos around the tank. They also seem to clean each other quite often. Last night I was watching the tanks when all the shrimp became more active and began moving about oddly. Next I observed a couple of these shrimp slowly tapping at each other face to face which soon turned into an odd dance like ritual and they were more embracing with leggs still than doing the short fights we see other Dwarf Shrimp get involved in.



This went on for a couple minutes then they locked together face to face



I couldn't get a shot off to show the actual face to face embrace, but it was caught them as they were letting go. Other shrimp would come running up, but were chased off by the smaller of the two shown. Curious indeed and I have seen the embracing behavior at other times, but not for such a long period of time. I looked in the tank for quite a while this morning hoping to perhaps see a berried female, but there are so many places to hide and so many shrimp I can't tell yet.

Now I am not at all claiming this was mating and I just don't know at this point, but these shrimp do not (so far) in my experience swim around the tank at all and move about almost strictly by walking so perhaps mating procedures are also different that other Dwarf Shrimp? I do know these guys are much more social and seem to use the white legs as almost a communication tool. These shrimp have settled in now and are just a hoot to watch and I will really be paying attention to see if this happens again and if it is indeed related in any way to mating.

My question would now be to those keeping Cardinal Shrimp as to what sort of mating behavior has been witnessed by those that have successfully bred these shrimp. Do males actually swim about when the female is ready or is what I witnessed perhaps actual mating?

Cheers, Bill

[Terran]

Great pictures southerndesert... Its nice that you captured them while engaged in this behavior...
I wonder if anyone has an explanation for it.

[Mustafa]

My question would now be to those keeping Cardinal Shrimp as to what sort of mating behavior has been witnessed by those that have successfully bred these shrimp. Do males actually swim about when the female is ready or is what I witnessed perhaps actual mating?

Cheers, Bill

It is entirely possible that this species (and others from the Sulawesi lakes) have different mating bahaviour. However, I doubt that the actual mating will be any different from other shrimp, i.e. they will probably still mate belly to belly right after the female molts. Even Macros mate that way.

[Guba]

First off, great pics again! It's nice to read these experiences and see pics to back them up. I think I saw my red claw macros breeding, but I didn't think the male was old enough. "She" was one of my original aquisitions and "he" was one of the offspring. She had just molted, and I just missed it, and was flailing around the tank trying to find somewhere to rest peacefully, when this little guy (maybe 1" total length) came up from behind her flipped her over on her back, got on top, and was out of there in about 2 seconds. I removed her to another tank becouse she was being harrassed to the point where she lost both claws. The tank had no original males left . In the new tank she is now berried.

[southerndesert]

The young are doing fine and I have around 40 that I can count in the tank of various sizes. Still patiently waiting to see that first female berry in my tank, there were several molts in the tank today giving the impression the my colony is healthy and growing. I will however correct myself about these shrimp doing no swimming though as I have seen one or two now lazily swimming around the tank. I will hesitate to make these sort of assumptions I think for now since these shrimp are changing their behavior as they become less stressed and adjust fully to their new environment. These are my first wild caught imported shrimp and I catch myself forgetting they have allot of adjusting to do yet and I am guessing the young born in the tank will show less and less "shyness" with each new generation.



The young as well as adults are like most Dwarf Shrimp attracted to the sponge filter and bio goodies it offers....

Cheers, Bill