holy baby shrimp, batman!

[fugly]

i was observing my shrimp only tiger tank last nite and i was absolutely stunned to find a baby shrimp about 3-4mm in length. it was way too small for me to identify what type of shrimp it was as i had not seen any females with eggs or any males getting in the mood with the females. i've only had these shrimp a few weeks (of which none were pregnant), so it's darned near impossible that the parents are even in the same tank (only one baby, btw).

the only other reasonable explanation is that it is an amano. i had kept a female amano in the tank, which i had removed, just prior to adding the tigers. is it possible that an amano would've made it past the larval stage into the benthic stage in fw? only time will tell, i guess, since i cannot identify it using the nekid eye. will keep y'all posted.

exciting nonetheless! i was nearly floored when i saw it. unfortunately, i don't have a good camera with a macro lens to zoom in and take some snapshots. =(

[Mustafa]

Hi "fugly",

It's more likely that the little shrimp came in as a hatchling with the water that the Tiger Shrimp came in. This kind of stuff happens once in a while. The hatchlings are barely visible until they grow up a little. Tiger Shrimp young do not have stripes, so it's not right away apparent that they are Tiger Shrimp.

I have yet to see a verified and documented case of Caridina japonica larvae making it in freshwater.

Mustafa