Some potentially (well, more than likely) sad news from Trooper and the gang - but also looking for advice.
With all the commotion going on in life right now, I'll admit, I haven't been as diligent about checking in on the little guys as I should have been. A while back, I noticed that in the smaller jar that only had 5 shrimp to begin with, I could only count 4. I hoped maybe the 5th one was just a really good hider - but I've yet to see him appear, so I'm thinking he's gone.
Additionally, once the babies were born in the larger jar, it's been impossible for me to count how many are actually in the jar now. I started with 10, I believe there were 6 or 7 babies total.
This morning, I peeked in on everyone and noticed that there was what appeared to be a dead shrimp in the larger tank. He was ghostly white, but I know it wasn't a molt because the body was solid and still had the brown spot on the back. The others were picking it up and trying to eat it, of course. I was sad for the loss, but as I shone a flashlight in to get a better look and make sure there wasn't something else going on, I swear I saw his legs move a little... more than once (and not just a "swaying with the water current" kind of way). So I decided to intervene. I managed to get the little "corpse" out of the jar and popped him into my emergency back-up tank. I'm really not expecting anything to happen, but thought he deserved the chance to try to survive and heal if it was even a little bit possible. If I don't see any movement in the back up tank in a week or so, i'll assume the worst.
There haven't been any changes in the tanks, ever, to my knowledge and they've been in a cabinet behind a closed, glass door for months, with their cork lids only slightly askew so I doubt anything could have gotten in there. The water doesn't look mucky or fouled that I can see and there are no other noticeable anomalies - and I've never fed them. I'm assuming this is all just circle of life kind of stuff, but I also know how hardy they are, so wanted to make sure there isn't something else afoot here. So my questions are:
1. The babies are still pretty small and they were born a few months ago; is this normal? How quickly do they grow? I did also notice an almost microscopic one today which could "possibly" be from another clutch, but I can't be certain - I never saw another berried shrimp.
2. How many shrimp are considered "acceptable and normal" losses? Like I say, it's virtually impossible for me to count them all now, so I can't say how many I have or haven't lost. But I'll try again tonight to see if I can get a solid count.
3. A few months ago I was finding molts and having babies. Now it seems that has come to a halt. They don't seem bothered otherwise; just swimming around, doing their shrimpie thing, but is there something else I should be looking for. Unless the one I saw this morning was Trooper, the original shrimp from my Ecosphere, who I know was older and didn't come from the best conditions, I don't know what might have caused this. But I don't think it was him. The spot on the back didn't look right. But with all the new shrimp, I've had a hard time pinpointing him lately as well.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
She started having her babies yesterday. She has two left still this morning. I think she had 7 or 8 eggs. I've been able to count 5 babies in the water, but it's difficult because they are soooo small and my jar has some imperfections in the glass (an effect that made it cool looking when I bought it; but I didn't realize how much it would interfere with the view).
