11 shrimp? Did I get an extra?

[MelWong]

This is a bit of an interesting conundrum. When I received my shrimp in the mail I recall having 10 of them swim out of the bag. Now, I've done a recent headcount and I have ... 11 shrimp. Nobody's been berried, but I did recall seeing a tiny thing that I thought was a 'pod swimming out of the shrimp bag when I transferred them to my tank.

Theory: That might have been a larval or very small shrimp that came along for the ride, that survived and grew larger in my tank, and I'd only noticed it after my shrimp all got comfortable at the front of the tank.

[Mustafa]

Your theory may be correct, as there are a trillion small (too small for sale) shrimp and larvae swimming around when I catch shrimp for customers. However, I often do include an extra shrimp on purpose (sometimes for orders of 10 or more, more likely 15 or more). With orders that exceed 20 shrimp that's pretty much standard. So, another theory is that instead of a larva growing up, you simply did not see the extra shrimp (since you did not expect one, and I didn't say there is an extra shrimp in the bag). That's especially likely if all the shrimp you see are similar in size..i.e. there isn't one tiny shrimp and ten clearly larger ones.

[MelWong]

That's especially likely if all the shrimp you see are similar in size..i.e. there isn't one tiny shrimp and ten clearly larger ones.

I see.

Thanks for the extra. (:

I'm sort of waffling on ordering more shrimp, since they're doing so well, but the shrimp doing well would also mean they will start breeding given time, so I'd rather just see if they'll breed first, and just be mindful of feeding amount and how clean the water is. If I upgrade them to a bigger tank I may very well order more from you. They are so very engaging and soothing to look at especially when I'm knitting socks, which tend to be boring and repetitive, so having something entertaining to watch is always helpful.

[Mustafa]

You're welcome. Yeah, you should probably wait. I'd love to sell more shrimp, but the truth is that I think *everyone* should aim to breed these guys *first* instead of buying a gazillion of them. Seeing offspring, and then several generations in the same tank is part of the experience. 10-30 is enough of a population to start out with. depending on tank size. If you want to stock more tanks and don't want to wait for your larvae to reach breeding size (could take up to a year, at least 6-9 months...hard to say), that's a different story, of course. In your case you may want to have a tank in every room you may end up knitting socks. If you move around a lot, that may turn out to be quite a few tanks.