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:
Blue Pearl Shrimp
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 24th 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!