Hi everyone! I'm a proud baby shrimp mama to two little larvae. They hatched yesterday and the one little guy is bobbing around happily.
The second larvae (although alive) has been lying on the substrate since last night. She moves kinda like in a popping motion from time to time but she's yet to float/bob around.
I'm new to handling larvae so I was wondering if I may please get your advice.
Should I syphon out the struggling larvae and separate her so that she doesn't get trampled on or am I adding undue trauma to one that is inevitably going to die?
I had a number who struggled when they were getting near metamorphosis (laying on the bottom, thrashing around), but that doesn't sound like what happened here given they only recently hatched.
But still, I would leave it alone and see what happens. It may well recover. All the ones that had problems in my tank vanished, and judging by the number of babies I've counted since then it seems likely most of them ended up surviving. Those that didn't left no trace and were presumably eaten after dying, without any adverse effect on the water quality.
You shouldn't need to worry about her/him being trampled on. My shrimp mostly ignored the larva that seemed to have trouble floating, and when they did step on them it didn't seem to do any damage.
I'd also test the water to make sure you don't have detectable amounts of ammonia. If the water is fine then it may be that there is just something wrong with this particular larva.
I am curious though, did the mama shrimp start out with more eggs and just carry only two to term or did she have only two attached from the start?
Hi Varanus! Thank you for the advice. I'll leave him be and see how he does.
The mama shrimp had 10 or so eggs to begin with but slowly started dropping her eggs over time. She had three left until two days ago, dropped one and gave birth to two. The one she dropped miraculously hatched but it seemed to have died. It's lying on the substrate not moving.
I've had these guys for over a year now and this is the first time I had a berried shrimp.
She became berried soon after I moved them to a new tank so I'm thinking that the water parameters weren't the best in the newly established tank. The tank's been going for a month now.
Sorry for the late reply! I had one survivor. He vanished for a while but now he's swimming around with the adults. Wow are they ever tiny and cute! The other one which was weak vanished so I'm assuming he didn't make it. Soon after, I got another berried mom with over a dozen eggs. I was worried that again the mom will start dropping eggs but this time around it seems that most of them hatched. I woke up yesterday morning to find a dozen or so little guys bobbing in the water.
