Archive for December, 2007
It has been 3 days since the young blue pearl shrimp hatched (Merry Christmas to Me!) and today I have observed breeding behavior in the aquarium again. All the males in the aquarium are swimming erratically threw the water column, and I found a recent molt of female that just dropped her first generation of young.
When a female shrimp is about ready to breed she will find a secure hiding spot, molt, and then release a pheromone into the water column indicating her readiness to breed. This pheromone causes the males to swim erratically in search of the female until the pheromone is dissipated. I will be keeping a close eye on the aquarium in anticipation of finding the female berried again!
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“How do I breed this shrimp?” That is one of the most common questions asked by visitors to TheShrimpFarm.com. I get asked how to breed everything from Amano Shrimp to Cherry Shrimp to Crystal Red Shrimp. All three of these shrimp have different requirements for successful breeding so its not an easy question to answer generically.
So in response to all these questions I have written an article called Breeding Dwarf Shrimp. In this article the process of breeding Dwarf Shrimp (for the articles sake I only talk about Caridina and Neocaridina species) is discussed in a generic manner.
While this article does not go into specifics for every species of Dwarf Shrimp, it is a good general primer. It gives the basics for high order shrimp (those that hatch as miniature versions of the adults) and a generic overview of low order (shrimp that hatch as larva). To see the full article go here: http://www.TheShrimpFarm.com/breeding_dwarf_shrimp.shtml
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Posted: 25 Dec 2007 01:51 PM CST
After carrying eggs for 20 days exactly, the first baby shrimp have been observed. 61 Days after the Blue Pearl Shrimp (Neocaridina cf. zhangjiajiensis) were born the second generation was born. Here is a recap of the aquarium these shrimp were raised in and the maintenance procedures.
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2.5 Gallon AGA Aquarium.
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PH 7.8-8.0
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Temp: 78
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Bare Bottom
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Small piece of Drift Wood with Java Moss and Java Ferns
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10 Blue Pearl Shrimp
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Daily ¾ gallon water change (almost daily J)
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Seachem Prime used with every water change
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1 small pellet of Hikari Crab Cuisine pet day (twice on some days)
I suspect the very rapid time frame from birth of the original Blue Pearls to the birth of the second generation has a lot to do with the water temperature, frequent feedings, and daily water changes. Water parameters were kept pristine at all times.
The second generation of shrimp will stay in this aquarium and will be observed for the same project. I suspect that with the larger amount of shrimp in the aquarium the birth to berry time will be a bit slower.
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Selective breeding has shown its effects for many years in the tropical fish hobby, and now the dwarf shrimp hobby is starting to really reap its benefits. The Tiger Shrimp (Caridina sp.) is bred in 3 color forms, wild type, blue, and even black. The Neocaridina cf. zhangjiajiensis has been selectively bred from its wild color to include a white morph and a blue morph. The most popular shrimp in the dwarf shrimp hobby, the Cherry Shrimp (Neocaridina heteropoda var. red) is no exception.
The Neocaridina heteropoda is now being selectively bred to display its natural color patterns as well as 2 other color variations.
Wild Type Neocaridina heteropoda:
There is the ever-popular Cherry Shrimp:
The newest of the group, the Yellow Shrimp:
With these examples it is exciting to think where they hobby is going. There are many shrimp that are still unknown to the typical Dwarf Shrimp hobbyist and if only a fraction of those shrimp have the ability to be selectively bred from amazing colors like the Neocaridina heteropoda, the hobby is in for a quite exciting future.
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Over the past five years or so my two hobbies have been raising dwarf shrimp and photography. I have found that dwarf shrimp are one of the more difficult things to photograph. They are always moving, they are small, and they live in an environment not ideal for photography.
In my photography hobby I used to be a purist. I would only shoot on 35mm film. I felt the colors were superior and that depth of field could not be matched. Due to the expense of processing 35mm film, and the MANY bad pictures that one must take of dwarf shrimp to get ONE good one I never used my high-end cameras for dwarf shrimp pictures.
I bought my wife a point-and-shoot digital camera so she could snap as many shots of our nieces, our family, and our dog as she wanted. Selfishly I made sure the camera had a macro mode (the ability to focus up close on small objects). With this camera I took a ton of pictures of shrimp, and out of 100 I would get one that was useable on my website.
I experimented with putting different types of glass in front of the lens. I used magnifying glasses, this worked a little better than just the point-and-shoot, about a 75-1 ratio. I tried using a lens from my high-end camera and placed it in reverse in front of the point-and-shoot lens. With this technique I was getting about a 25-1 ratio.
Here is a typical picture using a point-and-shoot digital camera with a lens from one of my high end cameras in front of it
When shooting with the point-and-shoot digital camera I found it necessary to have a lot of light over the fish tank and a tripod was essential. After doing this for a few years digital SLR cameras improved leaps and bounds. I decided that it was time to give one a try.
I bought a very nice, entry level DSLR. The Nikon D40. It does everything I need as an armature photographer and more. I also invested in a few macro lenses. With this camera and lens set up I get about a 4:1 ratio now, and the quality is leaps and bounds above what I used to get with the point-and-shoot camera.
Here are two pictures of the same shrimp. The first is typical of a blurry, out of focus shot that about 3 out of 4 pictures look like. The second is the keeper of the series. Click picture for full size.
 
I will be writing an article for TheShrimpFarm.com about dwarf shrimp photography soon with tutorials on both point-and-shoot as well as DSLR cameras. But if you have the money to invest in a DSLR, you do get what you pay for and I would highly recommend it.
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