Last week I was surprised to discover something new in my nano tank.
At first, I wasn't sure what I was actually seeing. I thought it might be a tiny worm, you know, a planarian or something that fish-keepers commonly find in tanks that are overpopulated or overfed, or maybe just some bit of detritus that had landed on an anubias coffeefolia leaf. Then I noticed it was moving against the current, and I immediately knew what I was looking at: a baby shrimp (aka shrimplet)!
It was so small that it was very hard to see. I mean, neocaridinia shrimp are small enough, even when fully grown, but these micro-mini-shrimp have got to be the smallest babies I have ever seen... and I've bred bettas before (aka Siamese fighting fish), so I know how small some tiny baby fish can be (I understand that bettas are among the smallest of baby fish), but these shrimplets are ridiculously small! In fact they are so small that I can't get my old iPhone6 to properly focus on them most of the time, as you can tell from the picture below, where one of the shrimplets is resting on a java fern leaf.
To be honest, I only spotted the first shrimplet by chance, really, but then I started looking around the tank and noticed several other baby shrimp. It's hard to say how many are in there exactly, but I counted at least eight this morning, roughly the same size as each other, and all of them starting to get some color.
I seem to have a habit of setting up environments that encourage fish to breed. I don't know. I chalk it up to experience, really. I've been a fish-keeper most of my life at this point, and I "ain't no spring chicken" if you know what I mean..! Even the filter on this nano tank is 30 years old (and running just fine, which is very impressive), so yeah, I've been in this hobby for a while, I guess.
Speaking of that filter, it's a little noisy, so I should probably replace the impeller - another thing I have learned from past experience - but it still works so well that I have it on the lowest setting possible. I suspect that even at its lowest setting it has probably sucked up a few shrimplets, despite the foam pre-filter over the intake tube, but if that's the case, these guys are the survivors and probably too big to get in any major anymore. They are certainly growing, and judging from their coloration and activity level, they seem to be thriving.
So what do I do now? The answer is simple. Continue with the status quo. In other words, keep doing what I've been doing all this time. In general, if the conditions are right for breeding, they are right for growing the babies out. Therefore, I continue my routine and make small weekly water changes, but I am wise enough to avoid making any major changes while the babies are growing. I only clean the algae that builds up on the front glass, just to be able to see inside better and enjoy my tank. I'm not getting rid of any algae on the rocks and plants, however. I keep it there to provide food for the shrimplets.
Anyway, here is the best close-up I could get of one of the largest shrimplets (probably a female, given her growth and the fact that female neocaridinia shrimp are larger than males. I can't see any details on the shrimplets with this camera, but I already have a new iPhone XR waiting to be activated, so I expect to have much better pictures the next time I post.
Keep those elbows wet!
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