A Beginner's Shrimp Journal

HI folks! I decided to start a thread for my shrimp questions and pics.

Question #1:
If you take a peek at the pic of my blue shrimp in THIS THREAD, you can see she was berried (I hate that term...). Even though I am a female myself, I found the whole thing very creepy! ANYHOO, when I catch a glimpse of her now, she looks sorta normal again. That photo was taken on April 17th... has enough time passed that the babies are somewhere in the tank? I read that they stay put for a while?

ALSO, I recently noticed one of the red ones looked like she could possibly also be carrying babies. She isn't as translucent, so I wasn't sure.

Question #2:
Do shrimp prefer mates of the same color, or does it even matter to them? I had to replace my very first shrimp (red/white) and also my only yellow one, and when the new yellow went into Plant Test Tank #2, with mostly orange-yellow culls, it took NO TIME AT ALL for one to "accost her". It was the first time I have seen any mating behavior at all.

OBSERVATION:
I picked up one of Aquarium Co-op's shrimp domes, since I can't see them when they hide in the cholla wood. If anyone wonders about them, they are nice though I can see certain size fish getting stuck in the holes. I was hoping babies would hide in there but my timing may be off. For about $4, it seemed like a nice addition to Plant Test Tank #1

If you don’t cull by color, over many generations your shrimp will be a dull brownish red color. There is no color preference for mating. I cull my tank monthly. Any shrimp that is not vivid red I place in my tank for rejects. I now have a vibrant red shrimp tank. And a tank of color mutts. I will soon start a tank only for blue Neocaridina.

I do know about the "culling process". It makes it sound like each shrimp actually doesn't care what color the other is for mating?

Not the best pics... taken with my phone in a hurry since they were actually in-view!

Nells250 said:

I do know about the "culling process". It makes it sound like each shrimp actually doesn't care what color the other is for mating?

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Yes. They are color blind when it comes to picking mates.

Even Rili can mate with Pumpkins, Reds and Blue and produce all kinds of diverse shrimps, from copper, red, orange, brown yellow and green mutts. (that still shows incredible striping) between that you will get intergenous types. Like Pumpkin Rilis, Super reds, Red pumpkins, light purple and translucent.

Who knows ?

This evening my shrimp were incredibly active. I only can compare it to a swarm of bees. I must have at least a hundred red neocaridina of all ages. Too dark to get a good picture.

That's another thing I don't understand. How come some days you can't even FIND a shrimp, other days they are all wandering around, eating or whatever?

When my colony was about 20 shrimp they were good at hiding. Now that the colony has grown to over one hundred, I always see them everywhere throughout the tank.

Nells250 said:

That's another thing I don't understand. How come some days you can't even FIND a shrimp, other days they are all wandering around, eating or whatever?

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I get the same, I bought 18 at the end of March over 2 weekends. 4 died within a week of the first batch. (Confirmed corpses)
For ages I see 3-4 shrimp at a time and think maybe I lost alot more.
Then one day I get 10 in view all at once and this was not relating to any feeding time or anything.

I have not seen any with egg's yet though.

gwand said:

When my colony was about 20 shrimp they were good at hiding. Now that the colony has grown to over one hundred, I always see them everywhere throughout the tank.

Click to expand...

You have to reach a critical mass of shrimp before you always see them.

OK folks, I have an UPDATE: there are indeed baby shrimps swimming around Test Tank #1! And they are all different sizes! There are at least 3 about 1/4" and today I spotted a couple about 1/8"! There are also all these little pin-prick size things swimming around, which I HOPE are also shrimp.

I've been taking the shrimp food and grinding it into powder for them all. The adults seem to like that as well!

QUESTION: when do they start to show their coloring?

Yes, a female will only lay eggs that are about to hatch, and keep the remaining ones until ready. There can be multiple days up to at least a week for a complete layout of just one hatching.

OH! I thought they all hatched at once!

UPDATE: Had some fatalities... my mother blue died (didn't look good the day before... still carrying babies??), one red, one yellow... all adults...

BUT a bunch of babies swimming around! Picked up two more adults, red/clear and a sort of blue/black/clear, BOTH of which are now pregnant!!!