So, after my spectacular fail to reduce my shrimp numbers at the last live auction (I sold 11 shrimp, bought 10 from @ineke , who very kindly sent 13: resulting in a +2 from my previous shrimp total PLUS a 2nd tank I'd had set up for breeding now stocked with the new shrimp), I thought I'd start a post to track my breeding efforts/mishaps of the new inhabitants in my little nano tank.

So far, they've seemed pretty happy in their new home, no losses, plenty of sheds and at least two berried females.  Then looking in earlier, I saw 2 tiny juvies as well, so everything is tickety-boo.  I also realised why I've not been able to see the babies, they're a pretty similar colour to the substrate.  Here is a (poorly shot) photo to demonstrate - adult at the bottom, baby is the blur on the glass in the middle near the top:

So now I'm following on with my plan of breeding them with some of my blue bolts from my main Taitibee/Taibee colony.  I'm just drip acclimatizing them now to be released later tonight. 

Will I succeed in my plans to breed blue Taitibees?  With the blue bolts survive long enough in the new colony to add to the gene pool?  Do I have any idea what I'm doing or is this just a random experiment with no real understanding of shrimp genetics?  WHO CAN SAY? (Probably me in a few months - I'll keep you all updated)

Edited November 14, 201510 yr by Jo
My husband pointed out that I mis-spelt 'breeding'. He's helpful like that.

LOL Jo you sound as bad as me! My Taitibees have given me 12 beautiful Bluebolts now so I don't see why yours shouldn't ! Good luck!

Hehehe, my thought process was something like this:

These tiger stripe shrimp look awesome, but they'd look more awesome if they were blue.
These blue shrimp look awesome but they'd look more awesome if they had tiger stripes.
[Lightbulb moment]

:)

 

Love that thought process. Good luck. Looking forward to see the results.

So the breeding experiment has been going really well.  I've started separating out the culls (watch this space for a giveaway when they're big enough), but I'd like to introduce you to my newest arrival, 'Zoolander' (He is really really really good looking and has mastered blue steel). 

Can't believe the colour given his size/age, am so excited to see what he grows into!

 

Sorry I missed this post Jo. Zoolander  is gorgeous , the Taitibees give beautiful blues but that one is awesome!

So since my last post I've not been able to work out which shrimp is zoolander any more!  I've seen 2 shrimp that are about the right size, but they both look black rather than blue.  I'm not sure if that means zoolander didn't survive, is hiding somewhere or has just darkened with age. 

In the below group shot one of them is on the bottom right hand side (hard to miss such a dark shrimp!) the other is being sat on by an adult so it mostly obscured :)  Does anyone think it's possibly the same shrimp?

No I find if I put the shrimp in a white container and shine a light on it you can see if it has a blue base. So even if it looks black  - under light on white you should see blue - works most times for me. I've had really nice blue babies that end up black . I think most of us have.

All of these babies are now black