Dwarf Shrimp

I recently decided it was time to time how long it takes for Neocaridina shrimp take to go from birth to fully matured adults.  The way I tested it was to put newborn shrimp into their own aquarium and track the time until the first female is found berried (carrying a clutch of eggs).  

 The first species test was the Blue Pearl Shrimp (Neocaridina cf. zhangjiajiensis).  12 newly hatched shrimp were placed in a 2.5-gallon well-cycled aquarium.  The aquariums specifics are: 

Size: 2.5 Gallon

PH 7.8

Temp: 75-78

The shrimp were fed 1 small pellet of Hikari Crab Cuisine (half a pellet when the shrimp were younger).  All detritus was siphoned out and small (10% of water volume) is changed almost daily.

The young Blue Pearl Shrimp were born on October 24^th 2007.  They were transferred to their own aquarium 2 days later.  On December 4, 2007 the first berried female was observed.  41 days total.

Observations and theories:

• Heavy feeding may have aided in rapid maturity
• Many small water changes kept water parameters pristine, which again may have helped with rapid maturity
• After the first few weeks, at least 1 molt was found per day.
• Females began to display the “saddle” about 10-12 days before the first berried female was observed.

I have started a Cherry Shrimp (Neocaridina heteropoda var. red) experiment as well, with the same water conditions and same size aquarium.  I believe the Cherry Shrimp will grow at about the same speed as the Blue Pearl Shrimp.   Updates to come!

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