found new baby shrimp (larvae)

[Harry]

Well, my two tanks (jars) have been in existence since January 2013 - that's about 15 months. The water remains clear as do the walls of the jars. With a magnifier, you can see spots of algae on the jar, from which the opae constantly feed. Having listened to the advice here, I pretty much left them alone, feeding a flake or two every week or two. The smaller jar has a few smaller shrimp now, so I know that breeding was successful to some extent. But today I noticed several larvae in the larger jar. They have red heads the size of the head of a pin and the bodies are very slender, maybe 1/8th of an inch long. There seem to be quite a few and they are feeding on the walls of the jar. I understand that these shrimp can live for as much as twenty years. But if they reproduce in accordance with the food supply, it would seem that these tanks can go on forever. Very cool, but obviously you must be patient.

[KenCotigirl]

Harry it is always good to hear success stories. I did not understand this sentence.."There seem to be quite a few and they are feeding on the walls of the jar." Larvae do not feed as far as i know. They live off their yolk sac. Are these the floating larvae or the 'baby' shrimp on the walls?

[Harry]

Cotigirl, it's really hard to tell, but they seem to be larvae because mostly they float, moving very slowly. But the times I can see them best is when they are on the wall of the jar. That is very infrequent because mostly they float. And I assumed they were eating, but even with a magnifier, they are so small that you can't see if they have claws and if they really are eating off the wall. From what you write, they probably just floated to the wall and then they float away. I Didn't know they feed from a yolk sac - is that sac visible? Where is it on them?

[Harry]

I just found a youtube of Opae Ula larvae and mine are definitely larvae. They are floating slowly - heads down. So they just floated to the wall and did not feed there. Also, there may also have been some larvae months ago as well. I probably never saw them because they are so small. I say that because I also have some small shrimp swimming around, about half the size of the other shrimp. And when I got my shrimp, they were pretty much uniform and adult size. Mustafa was right - just leave them alone.

I also disassembled my 5 gallon freshwater tank with cherry shrimp and replaced it with a two-gallon pretzel jar - no filter and no heater. The cherry shrimp were not flourishing in the filtered tank. The only thing flourishing in there was massive amounts of algae. Now with the jar, I have seen some fry. So I think I will just stick to unfiltered eco-system jars from now on. Much easier and very rewarding.

[KenCotigirl]

Great news on the larvae Harry!

[Mustafa]

Awesome Harry! As I always tell people, you could theoretically leave these tanks to multiple generations of descendents over hundreds or thousands of years (or more)...if none of them drop and break it of course. The shrimp will just keep reproducing without you having to do much of anything.