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Showing results for tags 'darwin algae shrimp'.
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This is a native Australian shrimp species found in the NT that is renown for eating various types of algae, especially string type algae. The males are smaller and less colorful than the females. This shrimp is a relatively large species and can grow to approx 5cm. There has been little success in breeding this species in fresh water. The females become berried easily, but the fry do not survive. It is thought that only brackish water contains the food that the fry require.
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This is a bit of a serendipitous project. I've been breeding Darwin Algae Shrimp (DAS) Caridina sp. NTnilotica for a while now using salt water algae cultures to raise the larvae. I'm up to the F3 generation (since I got them from Aquagreen) and have raised a few hundred shrimp. The normal colour is the horde in the photo below (swarming on an algae wafer)...but recently I've noticed just a few berried females that are white with metallic eyes. I thought at first it might be that they have just moulted - but the saddle suggests otherwise, and tonight I isolated one that has released swimming larvae (I caught a few to try and rear) - so she has stayed white for long enough for the larvae to mature. All up I only have 3 white females and 2 males ... but hey thats enough! The males are just clear, but have the same eyes which really shine when viewed at night with a headlamp so easy to identify them among the herd. Of course I don't know if the colour (or lack of colour!) will "stick" long term in an individual shrimp or whether it can be passed on... but only one way to find out...