BABIES!!!

[ssdarling]

Finally! I've had my shrimp for a year and FINALLY I see BABIES! Way too small to capture with my crappy camera. But you guys know what they look like. Cute little swimmers everywhere!

[ssdarling]

They were big enough to take pictures today. Barely Lol. I sat and watched one of them pick stuff off the side of the glass to eat. I was wondering how they did it.

[ssdarling]

I counted at least 16

[Nellyville41]

Congrats!!!

[Dch48]

I have 6 now as well. They have to have some kind of mouth parts. Mine float and twitch from the bottom to the top and look like they're doing fine.

[Mustafa]

I have 6 now as well. They have to have some kind of mouth parts. Mine float and twitch from the bottom to the top and look like they're doing fine.

They don't. They have been examined under microscopes, and they do not have any mouthparts it seems. They simply can't feed, even if they wanted to.

[Dch48]

Really? So how do they survive for weeks until they morph into shrimp? Do they feed off of a yolk sac all that time?

[Varanus]

Really? So how do they survive for weeks until they morph into shrimp? Do they feed off of a yolk sac all that time?

I believe so, the yolk is probably some pretty concentrated nutrients, and these shrimp don't eat much to begin with so they can live on it just fine.

Actually, even quite a few baby animals with mouthparts may not feed for weeks after hatching as the remaining yolk is slowly absorbed into their bodies.

[Dch48]

Just another amazing thing about these amazing little creatures.

[Mustafa]

Yep, giant yolk sac. That's why their "heads" look so round in close up pictures. Normal, feeding larvae of other species are more like little bent lines floating in the water.

[shrimpy4]

It’s that time of the year in my tank too. Just took this pic, and there’s about 7 new larval stage “hanging out” and at least 4 berried.

[Vorteil]

Looks great. It's always fun seeing the berried females.