Malawa Shrimp - Photo Gallery and Blog

[infopimp]

Well... I'd say this serves and pretty definite confirmation!!! Momma is hanging out now...

I wanted to note an observation... the Malawa molted 1 day after I added a dry, fallen Maple leaf to the tank. In another tank, I also had another first - a berried Bumblebee Shrimp - also 1 day after adding the leaf... also I had just performed a 10% water change with R/O... the tank water in there had been VERY hard... who knows... I'm just excited.

Do you think I caught "the moment" in that video? Here is a high res version you can download - tell me what you think: lol

Right-click to download... 90MB quicktime movie:

http://www.imageseek.com/malawa/Malawa_ ... served.mov

Not sure how long I will leave that link up, so be sure to save it if you are a super Shrimp Nerd.

Below: Photos from tonight... show the eggs quite clearly now! Wow... that was fast!

How long now? Three weeks?

[infopimp]

Some updates...

[infopimp]

A couple photos from this morning... the male is getting a free ride on the berried female.

[infopimp]

I'm pretty sure I just spotted the first Malawa Shrimplets.

Could this really be possible when I first saw eggs January 12th?

Wow... if even an amateur like me can breed these, these should stay in the hobby for a long time.

[Mustafa]

Yes, of course it is possible. I really hope that these guys stay around. Usually, when I introduce new shrimp to the hobby, they disappear after a while and I am the only one still with that particular species. If my population dies out due to some mishap (happened before), the shrimp is lost to the hobby. Good luck!

[southerndesert]

Yes, of course it is possible. I really hope that these guys stay around. Usually, when I introduce new shrimp to the hobby, they disappear after a while and I am the only one still with that particular species. If my population dies out due to some mishap (happened before), the shrimp is lost to the hobby. Good luck!

Hey Mustafa,

I am watching your back so to speak ..... Still have all mine going strong.

[Mustafa]

Good! Keep up the good work!

[infopimp]

So far these are easier to breed than Cherries, and more fun to watch. Even the shrimplets swim around like the adults, we're having a blast here watching them.

[Mustafa]

"Easier to breed" is always relative. It all depends on the tank conditions. Some "hard to breed" species can breed like rabbits if the conditions are right. Creating the right conditions for shrimp is really the most important aspect of shrimp breeding/keeping, much more so than for fish. The rest usually takes are of itself. Fish, in general, seem to have a much higher tolerance for variances.

[infopimp]

Good point!

I should clarify, that for me it has been very easy. I'm using half R/O, half tap water (my tap water in my community is VERY hard... like gh of 16), temperature is around 72.... and I am very much over filtering their tank... and now... after just checking, I now have four more malawas berried at this time!!!

I can see the next two that are about to get berried as well. I will do a new photo shoot soon, maybe later this weekend... the females are getting VERY dark and quite varied in color - some are amber, some are dark blue green... amazing to see so much variation.

The babies are just like the parents behavior wise... they explore and swim all over the tank.... compared to the similarly aged CRS shrimplets in there who do more "hopping around" early in their lives.

[infopimp]

This Malawa is very deep amber in color - I backlit her a bit to get these photos with a blue LED lamp. Malawas seem far less shy of lights than the CRS in the tank, who seem to flee when the light comes their way.

[adimeatatime]

Infopimp, it's awesome you are having berried females and seeing babies. It is such a joy to see the first baby of a shrimp you are trying to keep.

Mustafa, There are some us who are trying to get colonies established.....there is just such a learning curve to successfully keeping shrimp long term and like you say mishaps can be devastating to a colony.

On a happy note the Malawa's I received are doing really well. They seem very happy in the tank they are currently in.

Yes, of course it is possible. I really hope that these guys stay around. Usually, when I introduce new shrimp to the hobby, they disappear after a while and I am the only one still with that particular species. If my population dies out due to some mishap (happened before), the shrimp is lost to the hobby. Good luck!

[Mustafa]

I know....long term colony establishment is definitely a nut that needs to be cracked in the hobby. Anyone can breed and raise any shrimp out here at any given time, but will they be able to keep the colony going for years? Hopefully I can at least write some articles about my experiences over the years and give some tips and pointers.

[adimeatatime]

Yes, there is all kinds of excellent information to read here on your forum. When I first started I went back through and read all of the old posts I could. It was really interesting to follow the progression of the hobby through everyone's posts.

[infopimp]

One of my Malawas is consistently a bright orange... I wonder if this is just environment or if it could be selectively bred.

Another fun photo below.

High res of both available at links (useful to see patterns)

http://www.imageseek.com/sven/gallery/m ... 769?full=1

http://www.imageseek.com/sven/gallery/m ... 775?full=1