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A Shrimp Story (1 Viewer)

  • Thread starter KarenB
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K

KarenB

Being new to the hobby, everything fascinates me. I think we had the tank up a month when the first emerald crab spawned, and I watched with jaw agape at the tiny little miracles floating about, attracted to the flashlight beam.

We have four peppermint shrimp, and I knew some day we might have little shrimp fry. For the past week I've been watching closely two very "pregnant" peppermint shrimp as their eggs have gone from green to amber and, in the past few days, white. Tonight under the actinics, I actually got to see the new babies being born.

And what a sight it was! I watched as the mother to be fanned and fanned the eggs. She's been doing this for a couple of nights in a row. I expected the fry to float free any moment. Mother was anxious, first under the rock, then on top, then back under, fanning as she paced. What I expected and what actually happened really took me by surprise.

She went back underneath the rock. At this point my nose is against the glass, and I'm looking for some sign that the fry have floated forth. In the blink of an eye she'd made a diagonal path toward the top of the tank and actually jumped out of the water and then quickly came back down and under another rock. Suddlenly the water was cloudy with tiny baby peppermint shrimp. Wow!

Of course, all the fish had a feast, but for a short time I did get to appreciate the brand new tiny little lives.
 
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Wildfire

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Very cool... Any chance that you could get them to spawn in a fuge somewhere? Sounds like you could keep most of us well situation in peppermints for quite some time....
 
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K

KarenB

Actually, looking in the fuge this morning, some of them did make it in there. They appear to be hunting for food. They are quite a bit bigger than I expected them to be, head to tail, about a quarter of an inch or a hair less. That was the first thing that struck me when they were first released into the water. I would love to raise some. I have lots of little critters in the fuge and some algal growth. I'll be watching for the next release with the other shrimp that are holding eggs, and I'll have a shrimp net handy and try to catch them before the fish do, lol. I discovered this morning that I have two other peppermints with eggs, not just one :)
 
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K

KarenB

Yeah, I thought that, too, and just figured I'd let nature take its course.

Thanks for the link, though : )
 
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