Cutest little shrimp EVER

[Baccus]

In my pack of zebra shrimp that I got from Northboy I have found a few miniscule shrimplets. I tried valiantly to get some decent shots of one of the tiny little dears but all he keeps coming out as is a tiny smudge of white on an other wise dark leaf.

But seriously its too cute for words.

So sorry for the crappy quality but see if you can spot him.

And the really scary thing is I am sure there is an even tinier one getting about in the container :tears_of_joy:

[northboy]

This springs young and I have heaps of them.

Bob

[BlueBolts]

cool…goo duck with them. Go the zebs !

[ineke]

Yep bottom right in first picture:encouragement:

[Baccus]

In the first pic, the shrimplet I was trying to get in focus is on the leaf, the others where bystanders. LOL

[blindfisherman]

I have just noticed a whole bunch of tiny little things (the are so small they have VERY minimal colouring) in my little tank of zebs which arrived last thursday. :victorious:

What tds are you putting these into?

Good luck with them :congratulatory:

[ineke]

Oops:D

[Squiggle]

Awesome stuff, love these Zebs, can't wait to post pics of my own. :victorious:

[Baccus]

After spending the day sweltering in 88% humidity and trying not to think about how much I wanted to see how my new zebras where doing I finally got to come home and go shrimp hunting in my tanks.

The first 4 pics are of a couple of the zebras in my NT tank ( call it NT just because most of its inhabitants came from there).

Helping the filter work LOL

Loving the moss

And this leaf aint half bad either

Now for the other 4ft tank which is a real jungle

Spot the shrimp

[Baccus]

Meeting the locals

Happy to share

Cant get enough of this filter LOL

[Squiggle]

Very cool pics, thanks for sharing! :victorious:

[Baccus]

Just because I love finding these little guys and photographing them here are some more pics taken from the two separate tanks. They seem to like hanging out in tangles of weed, so when they are actually in the open and staying still its a bonus, otherwise they manage to almost always be partially blocked by some plant life.

[northboy]

Looking good, now produce some young, no pressure.

I put some of the new baby's from this year in with my Cherry's that go to the markets on the weekend about 4 weeks ago and they are kicking on well

Bob

[Baccus]

Good to hear, I think it may take for ever for me to actually know if I have some offspring, the two tanks these guys are in are total overgrown jungles. The 4ft I keep a jungle for the shrimp, even though I am pretty sure my corys don't eat them, but the plant life just ensures they have somewhere safe to feed in peace from the bulldozers. The NT tank has a huge hollow log and almost as much plant life, but the spotted blue eyes are breeding well in the tank so I am not inclined to remove/ trim the weed for fear of removing eggs.

But the main thing is the shrimp seem happy even if it makes it all but impossible for me to find them all of the time.

[Hyzenthlay]

So cute! My friend have me a few because she got heaps and they seem to be doing well in my shrimp community tank. I saw one steal a blackworm almost it's own size from a pygmy cory and swim away with it. She has eggs with eyes so I'm guessing they will hatch soon. I really hope they survive but I can never see my baby shrimp until they are bigger in my overgrown tank either. Too many fast growing stems were not my best idea ever.

[Baccus]

I seem to have stumbled across a food the zebra shrimp can not resist. I have been giving the NT tank feeds of first bites food for the miniscule spotted blue eye fry and the zebras come racing out to also eat it. They will come and eat the other range of foods with the other shrimp but the first bites seems to go down a real treat with them.

[Squiggle]

Awesome find, very useful to know, thanks for sharing! :victorious:

[Baccus]

Our recent daytime temperatures have soared with humidity also being close to 100% and making life in general hellish. So I have been worried about how my zebra shrimp where fairing in 30+ degree tanks. Thankfully they seem to be powering along and don't seem overly concerned about the temp so far.

I snapped some pics of a couple of the zebras that came out of their log (and the plant life) long enough to get photographed in the NT tank, the others in the 4ft are blissfully hiding out in a massive lump of java moss and the hanging roots of a huge tangle of java fern. It doesn't make them easy to find or photograph but at least I know they too are still going about their shrimp business.

And a sneaky little ring in, a berried female Blackmore River shrimp

[northboy]

With the strain that every one has, from the lowlands, I have never gone with the Folklore about heat? as mine go through summer up here AOK, to 32c, The things that really push them over the edge are, poor water quality as in Ammonia NO2, NO3, Phosphates and Hard water, I was never able to experiment with hard water or I should say unwilling but Ben as taken the readings and semi proved it, that hard water will nock them over as well as poor water.

More experiments to be done, Ben? I have soft water and can not make the tank space YET to experiment and do the repetitions of the experiments to make it a conclusion.

The other requirement I have found with Bens back up is the need to have access to leaves, Leaves of any sort are OK, once again in time the successive generations will need them less and less and be AOK on normal food totally, in saying that they will take any food offered and well as the leaves.

I also put up the theory about the contact with the non native shrimp passing something on to the Zebs to knock them over, I was to quick with that one as I have had them with every Cherry and Crystal type I have with no ill effect, that is not to say someone has some CRS or RCS that are resistant to a particular bug that the Zebs won't be resistant to.

It is a whole paper in itself and the paper is on the drawing board, it will be about their biology in the wild as well as in captivity and captive breeding success and failure. When it is done and before it is vetted I will bung it up here first for the Library

Bob

[blindfisherman]

I have had them in 170 TDS in a separate section to my crystals since mine arrived. Mind you the parameters you listed are nil or as close to nil as possible.

Have noticed a lot of nice healthy moults and also there are a bunch of babies which are over a week old now.

However I don't have any leaves in there at the moment, probably should give them some IAL.

Is there any age you tend to experience problems Bob?

-Sorry to semi hijack the thread.

[Squiggle]

Awesome stuff, they look awesome Baccus, very cool pics. :victorious:

Very exciting stuff Bob, I can't wait to read the paper, should be very informative. :encouragement:

[warren63]

Look forward to reading your paper too Bob. Got these zebras on the wish list but just want to make sure ive got everything right first.

[northboy]

Age is one thing I have not noted, but a couple of years old seems to be it for them? 170 would be the absolute max on this generation, more generations will be adaptive to higher TDS.

Basically the more captive generations the easier they will get like every thing we keep and we will get size and colour differences

Bob

[Hyzenthlay]

Sorry to hijack with a question, but how low should nitrates be for them? Mine seem happy but I want to make sure they stay that way. Nitrates are usually around 5ppm before a water change.

[Squiggle]

That's a good level, as a general rule you should keep all shrimp under 5ppm. :encouragement: