100 Posts – A Dwarf Shrimp Blog Mile Stone

The Dwarf Shrimp Blog has officially reached its 100th post. The goal of this blog has been to inform and sometimes entertain those who are interested in this wonderful hobby. Since I started this blog in September of 2007, with my first post “The Cherry Shrimp Gets a New Name”  this blog has grown quite a bit.

Here are a few of my favorite posts and the 5 most popular posts (according to amount of visits).

My Favorites

5. American Glass Shrimp Breeding Program - (A Series) – I dive into breeding American Glass Shrimp for multiple generations. Sadly, this program was put on hold due to covering Hurricanes and the election for ABC News.
4. Soft Water Shrimp in Hard Water - (A Series) – At one point there was a lot of debate over the merits of keeping soft water shrimp (such as Tiger Shrimp) in hard water. This experiment proved it is possible to do so, but not ideal. This experiment was also put on hold due to hurricanes and the election.
3. Iodine: Is supplementation needed for Dwarf Shrimp?  – This post answers a question that is as old as the Dwarf Shrimp hobby. The basic answer is no, but this post dives a little deeper into that question.
2. Breeding Tiger Shrimp (A detailed experience) –  After reading many reports about difficulties breeding Tiger Shrimp I decided to post a detailed account of my experiences.
1. Dwarf Shrimp Contest Winners –  After a month long contest I was able to announce the winners and award them some free Dwarf Shrimp. I enjoyed being able to help a hobbyist get their hands on some free shrimp!

Most Popular

5. Birth to Berry – Yellow Shrimp Edition  – A detailed observation of Yellow Shrimp from the day they are born until the first female is observed to be berried.
4. Dwarf Shrimp Birth to Berry (update #2) –  The second update in a series intended to follow a few Dwarf Shrimp from the day they are born until the day they are berried.
3. New Shrimp (Caridina sp.) – TheShrimpFarm.com receives a few mystery shrimp that are later thought to be Malaya Shrimp.
2. Birth to Berry – Tiger Shrimp Edition –  Another Birth to Berry series, this time I follow the life of a Tiger Shrimp.
1. Breeding Tiger Shrimp - Showing that Tiger Shrimp are the most popular shrimp on my blog, this post is by the most popular.

Well, the first 100 posts have been fun for me (for the most part) and I really look forward to the next 100.

Please feel free to comment!

5 months on the road, the affects on TheShrimpFarm.com

Well, as some of you may know, I work in the TV industry as a Cameraman. The majority of my work is covering news at the network level. With that in mind it is easy to see why I had such a busy year! A few large hurricanes and a historic election season kept me on the road for over 5 months off and on. I am happy to say both hurricane and election season are over!

With these months on the road most of what I would normally do at home suffered, TheShrimpFarm.com included. I am lucky to be married to a wonderful woman who also has a marine biology degree, so my shrimp were left in capable (but unenthusiastic) hands. She did a great job caring for my vast collection and losses were minimal. So what happened to the projects I had going when it all got so busy?

Soft Water Shrimp in Hard Water

This project was intended to find how much a difference hard water would have over soft water in breeding and life cycle of a Tiger Shrimp. Before I left for work the size of the shrimp was about the same but the soft water shrimp were breeding already while the hard water shrimp were not.

Today, the shrimp population in the hard water aquarium has declined and the population in the soft water aquarium is on its third generation. I can not, with 100% certainty, attribute this to the water because I was not around to control the experiment, but I will say with confidence that there was a big difference. So my conclusion is that soft water is optimal for this species and hard water, while some may have some success with it, is sub-optimal.

Breeding Amano Shrimp – The Journal

This project suffered the most from my absence. All larva were lost. These larva require quite a bit of attention to be successful, and my wife was not willing to put the work in that was required.

I currently have 3 berried shrimp and I will be starting this all over again, again! I had to restart it once before, and now I guess it is time for Take 3!

American Glass Shrimp Breeding Program

This is a slow going program to start with, and while I was gone most of my females gave birth and there was a VERY low survival rate due to food requirements. This program continues and is on generation 3.

There will be more updates to come soon!

American Glass Shrimp Breeding Program (update #5)

After observing my 2 100% captive raised berried females for a while now I have decided to move them to their own aquarium in preparation for the larval hatch.

The females were first observed to be berried on June 24th and I plan on keeping a close eye on these females so I can give a rough estimate of gestation time. It looks like eyes are starting to become visible in the eggs so it shouldn’t be to long before they hatch.

Helpful Resources

• American Glass Shrimp
• American Glass Shrimp Breeding Program
• American Glass Shrimp Breeding Program (update #1)
• American Glass Shrimp Breeding Program (update #2)
• American Glass Shrimp Breeding Program (update #3)
• American Glass Shrimp Breeding Program (update #4)

American Glass Shrimp Breeding Program (update #4)

It has been a while since I last updated this series.

But today is an important day in it!

That is a picture of the first completely captive raised female to become berried in my aquariums. Today I woke up to find 2 females berried!

It took quite some time for these American Glass Shrimp to go from birth to berry, they are slow growing shrimp. These shrimp were born on October 16 2007. so it was about six months before they were first discovered to be berried.

I really look forward to seeing exactly how long the gestation period is and to raising these young and having more and more generations of captive raised American Glass Shrimp.

More updates to come soon!

Helpful Resources

• American Glass Shrimp
• American Glass Shrimp Breeding Program
• American Glass Shrimp Breeding Program (update #1)
• American Glass Shrimp Breeding Program (update #2)
• American Glass Shrimp Breeding Program (update #3)

American Glass Shrimp Breeding Program (Update #3)

The young shrimp have started to grow a little more rapidly now and have started to display a more aggressive feeding response.  They will gather around a food pellet and begin to eat with in a few short minutes of the pellet being added to the aquarium. 

My second set of shrimp have hatched and are about 2 days past their metamorphosis.  All my observations in update #2 still hold true.

•  The larva seemed to eat from the water column as well as from the surface and bottom of their container.
•   The head down floating larva were attracted to light.
•  After morphing to adult for the young shrimp actively swam in the water column for 2-3 days.
•  The aggressive feeding response that adults display has not yet developed

As thought, once past metamorphosis the young American Glass Shrimp appear to have a much larger survival rate than wild caught adults.