Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

The pics are nice and it is difficult to catch these tiny babies, so great job. You did say they are eating moinas and plankton. Please keep us informed and the pics coming.

Thanks.

Oh, I missed that, sorry.

June 11th

One week old today. Things had been going well. They are growing. I can see a lot more detail to them a week later. But they started to disappear. Last night was the first night I left the lights off. And this morning I can only find about 20 of them. They have been hiding in the plants and hanging out at the bottom of the the tank more and more. But when I feed them, they usually start showing up. I'm afraid they crawled into the substrate and got stuck.

For food:

Fresh mona is born every night. Which is why they're hanging out at the bottom. And I add some extra mona every other day after a water change.
Then, I've been taking the pellets that I feed to the adults. (Hikari crab cuisine) And soak them in hot water till disolved and give them a few drops several times a day. They seem to go for those.

You can see his little pinchers now



They've been hiding out in the hornwort and dropping down like spiders to catch mona or some times each other.

Wow, it looks like they are looking right at you. Great job and pics. Keep up the great work taking care of the the little ones. Thanks for sharing.

Two week up date

Well I left the lights off 3 nights in a row. And each night I ended up with half of what I had the day before. I saw pockets of little bodies between the glass and gravel. So I decided to leave the lights on. I was down to about 15. Several days later, still have about 15. The moral of the story: Leave The Lights ON.

I was kind of bummed and thought about scraping it because I have another female due in a couple of days. But, I'm becoming attached to the little buggers I have left. And getting a better chance to observe their behavior. A small group hangs out at the top waiting to be fed. Another group hides in the plants, prefering to catch their own lunch. A couple of loners that are very territorial of their space. A pair work the sponge filter. And I can bet who the parents are just by the way they act. It's interesting.

Their tails are a little longer. Their arms are longer but other than that, they look just the same as last week. They've lost interest in liquidized food and prefer something that they can sink their teeth into now. So I'm using fry food and floating pellet dust. And of course, mona and whatever else in there they can catch.

I'm guestamating that they were about 2mm when they hatched and are about 5mm now.

And a Happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there!

Hope they stay well and please keep us updated on them and the new batch you are expecting.

Thanks!

Week three update
Big shrimp week

June 20th
Noticed that some of the the babies have well developed swimmers (pleopods) And whiskers (antenna) But not much in the way of legs yet.

The third mom is due tonight. So disconnected the power filter and left the lights on over night.

June 21st
A few floaters made it through the night, maybe a dozen. So I sucked them out and put them in the 7 gallon with the first batch. The first batch may eat the newborns but it's better than being filter muck.

Later, I was siphoning up some small plankton out of the 5 gallon, unheated, unfiltered feeder bucket, when I saw a shrimp swimming around! When they were about 3 days old I was trying to vacuum up the left over food the moms didn't eat. I thought the little buggers were out of the way, but apparently one got sucked up because I threw that water in the plankton bucket. So he had been living in there for about 2 weeks. I sucked him up again and put him in the 7 gallon with everybody else. He's tiny, not much bigger than the newborns but a real good eater.

The first 2 moms are due on the 25th. Now I'm thinking of just tossing them in the bucket and seeing what happens.

June 23rd
The case of the disappearing shrimp! Everyday, less and less shrimp. Some of the newborns are getting eaten. I saw one of the Big Little Guys pick one off. So there's only about 4 left. The Big Little Guys went from 15 to 9 to 5 this week. What the ...? They're eating well. The water quality is good. I haven't vacuumed any more of them up. It's just frustrating. And then, I saw one swim up from the substrate. And he was swimming upside down...or is it right side up? Anyway, he was swimming head up. And he swam over to a leaf and sat down. I HAVE A SHRIMP!!!

Thanks for following along on this adventure.

Baby pictures:

Great Story! I'll bet you have more than you think. My american ghost shrimp Palaemonetes paludosus did a dissapearing act, then showed up again when they were bigger in a month.

Great job of caring for the babies and thanks for telling us you story. If we ever go through the same situation we can learn from this posting. Besides that we got to see the great pics and follow your with your story.

Again thanks so much, and if something new happens let us know.

Bye!