# First baby shrimps :-)



## MichaelJ (13 Aug 2021)

Hello,  I've only had shrimps (different colors of Neocaridina davidi) for a couple of months and just saw this tiny little guy or gal for the first time last night   I saw a couple more similar sized later on.

I'd say they are about 5 mm at most - not sure how old that would make them ? I am surprised they are that colorful and ballsy at this early stage. One would think that being less colorful and more stealthy would increase the chance of survival... I am crossing my fingers that my Cardinals and Black Neon's will leave them alone... some of the females are huge (biggest Cardinals and Black Neons I've ever seen) and could probably make short order of the baby shrimps. I am less worried about my Embers.

I am deliberately cultivating a little bit of hair algae (or perhaps a moss of sorts?) at a corner near the surface of the tank to give the shrimps some nice fresh produce to munch on 






Cheers,
Michael


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## Cheltster (13 Aug 2021)

Nice I was thinking my babies must have died or been eaten. There were several berried females then they were no longer berried, but no babies. Now I'm hoping they are just hiding.  Only have neons for fish so predation is less of an issue.


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## MichaelJ (14 Aug 2021)

Cheltster said:


> Nice I was thinking my babies must have died or been eaten. There were several berried females then they were no longer berried, but no babies. Now I'm hoping they are just hiding.  Only have neons for fish so predation is less of an issue.



I cant tell for sure, but I guess the babies in my tank must have been hiding around for a while - a week or two perhaps?... I dont know how fast they grow.  I still see them around so it looks like the fish are leaving them alone - I even saw one of the babies on what I thought was a total suicide mission scooting through the open waters just inches away from some of the big Cardinals!  
Cheers,
Michael


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## jamila169 (15 Aug 2021)

Most sources give about 3 days for when they emerge to eat - BUT I have at least 3 new adults that must have come in as tinies that I never saw until they were juveniles, I think it depends on how much room they have to hide, now I've got upwards of 50 babies of different ages you can't miss them. I've also had adults in the community tank that went missing for weeks and are now consistently visible , shrimps are weird


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## kammaroon (15 Aug 2021)

My red cherries are white/transparent when I first spot them and they are round 2mm in length. They start gaining colour and much more out and about after a week.
This was taken with my phone camera so excuse the blurriness:


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## Sean Scapes (15 Aug 2021)

I've also had my first wave of baby cherry shrimps. Most i've counted  in one go was 5 at one time. Spotted a pregnant cherry about 3 weeks ago and now I find the babies in and around the moss in the tank. Still very tiny but colour has started to show as I got 4 red and white and one blood red got in the bag from aquatic shop. 4 of the babies are red and white and one looks orange. I was concerned that mixing them would give them a more bland colouring.


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## MichaelJ (15 Aug 2021)

kammaroon said:


> My red cherries are white/transparent when I first spot them and they are round 2mm in length. They start gaining colour and much more out and about after a week.


Interesting. Yes, I figured mine would be around 2 weeks. The tank where I keep the shrimps is densely planted with lots and lots of hiding places so it would be very easy for me to miss them especially when they are colorless. 
Cheers,
Michael


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## jamila169 (15 Aug 2021)

Right in the middle here are 3 day olds ( going from when we had the moulting zoomies 2 days ago) Ramshorn is about 8mm across



The biggest of the babbies on the stick are 4 weeks ish the smallest about a week and a half old, they grow at warp speed early on (they go through a lot of stages that require a moult)


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## MichaelJ (15 Aug 2021)

jamila169 said:


> Right in the middle here are 3 day olds ( going from when we had the moulting zoomies 2 days ago) Ramshorn is about 8mm across


@jamila169  Very nice!  So tiny  



jamila169 said:


> The biggest of the babbies on the stick are 4 weeks ish the smallest about a week and a half old, they grow at warp speed early on (they go through a lot of stages that require a moult)


Is that some sort of feeding stick ? and is that dish thingy a shrimp feeding station? if so, where did you get that? 

Cheers,
Michael


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## jamila169 (15 Aug 2021)

MichaelJ said:


> Is that some sort of feeding stick ? and is that dish thingy a shrimp feeding station? if so, where did you get that?


the stick is a glasgarten shrimp lolly , not sure which one as I got a mixed pack , the feeding station was from amazon, there's quite a few on there you just have to be aware of the length of the tube if you've got a lid, search for shrimp feeding dish and tube, they're dead handy for keeping food off the substrate


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## MichaelJ (15 Aug 2021)

jamila169 said:


> the stick is a glasgarten shrimp lolly , not sure which one as I got a mixed pack , the feeding station was from amazon, there's quite a few on there you just have to be aware of the length of the tube if you've got a lid, search for shrimp feeding dish and tube, they're dead handy for keeping food off the substrate


@jamila169 - Awesome - will order - thanks for the info!


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## Cheltster (15 Aug 2021)

Is it normal for pregnant female shrimp to hide?  I had two or three pregnant females around the end of July. I'm not sure if they have gone into hiding, had the babies, or dumped the eggs. All the females I see currently are not berried and I can't see any little ones. My tank is very heavily planted, I can go for days not seeing my Oto, so a baby shrimp could easily vanish. Here's hoping I get some nice babies like you guys.


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## jamila169 (15 Aug 2021)

Cheltster said:


> Is it normal for pregnant female shrimp to hide?  I had two or three pregnant females around the end of July. I'm not sure if they have gone into hiding, had the babies, or dumped the eggs. All the females I see currently are not berried and I can't see any little ones. My tank is very heavily planted, I can go for days not seeing my Oto, so a baby shrimp could easily vanish. Here's hoping I get some nice babies like you guys.


I had some that I never saw until they were juveniles (one of the females must have been berried when I bought them) and there were only about 5 that made it ,The real explosion I've had was from 5 females hatching eggs one after the other over a fortnight, there's enough babies to make them bolder and hiding places are a bit crowded so they come out more


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## Wolf6 (16 Aug 2021)

I never saw berried females but small shrimp just show up so I suppose they do hide pretty well  here are a few generations of mine, the one in the corner is one of the first shrimp in the tank. Generation 4 is slowly appearing now with new colours as clearly the 2 cherrys I once put in the tank to test the water have survived and are now mixing in


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## Cheltster (27 Aug 2021)

Just a little update; returned from my holiday to notice a tiny baby shrimp on a piece of broccoli that I dropped in there.  Similar in size to the ones in the moss shown above, post #8.  Only spotted the one so far but if there is one, I'm sure there will be more.  Shrimp are complete ninjas, always way more than you think you have.


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