Hello Hivians! I believe i will soon have 'berried' (preganant) shrimp!
When a female shrimp molts their exoskeleton, they release pheromones into the water. During this molt they are at their most vulnerable due to the lack of exoskeleton, therfore they hide. You can tell a female has molted by all the males swimming around the tank frantically, trying to find the female (this can also be due to poor water conditions)
An adult shrimp usually molts every 3-4 weeks, they do this as the exoskeleton doesn't grow, they need to shed it and grow a new one as their body grows.
Shrimp can encounter problems when molting and die, usually if the water conditions arent correct. I have checked the water in my tank and they are within the recommended parameters, so hopefully we have no issues.
This was hard to capture on camera due to the size of the shrimp and my camera not wanting to focus correctly. But, i did manage to get some photos and videos. I didn't know how to upload a video so i converted it into a gif, this has reduced the quality of the video.
I have seen this behaviour in my tank earlier in the week but i didnt capture it on camera. Hopefully, between that time and this, we have a 'berried' shrimp.
Sorry for the poor quality of images, i struggled to capture photos that showed them swimming around. If i zoomed too much you couldn't tell, and when zoomed out they are quite hard to see in the photos.
I hope i can find and catch a 'berried' shrimp on camera soon to update you guys on here. I will provide information on that stage of a shrimps life when i have something to show.
I am looking forward to having lots of baby shrimp swimming around and growing the colony size.
this is an interesting choice of pet as far as the commonly known ones seen in aquariums, curious as to how big they can grow in size and the ideal quantity a colony of these tiny crustacean can be well taken cared of, thanks for sharing your fascinating photos of them 😊
https://d.buzz
These stay relatively small, the can grow to around 1" (2.5cm).
The colony can grow in size quite quickly, into the hundreds. But due to the size of the tank, i'd say 75-100 would be ideal maximum for this size of tank. I am planning on selling the excess when colony reaches 40-50.