Breeding Project: Cherry Shrimp

Okay, well the two pregnant Cherries finally hatched their shrimplets! But of course, I am super late with procrastinating on this update as they hatched about 2 weeks ago, on October 2 at about 4-5 am. It was quite exciting!!!

They were so miniscule when hatched and since have grown quite considerably! Interesting as I have yet to see the exoskeleton to prove that growth has been happening. Things seem fine for the young shrimplets as they are constantly foraging for food and I'm dropping pellets every so often.

Unfortunately, today one of the adult Cherry Shrimp died. I have no idea what happened, but probably me slacking with the water. With midterms a stone's throw away, I've become engulfed with my studies and have horribly forgotten about water parameters. I removed some water but then didn't add any fresh water for a while. Its not as bad as it sounds though as I only removed about 1/5 of the tank's water and they still had plenty of water. However, it didn't take me until today to add some more, so chemical levels probably rose. Maybe the shrimp died of natural causes? I'm always hoping for just that.

I'm aware that when shrimp pass, they often turn the characteristic orange because of the keratin, however, these guys explode into red after death! Such vibrant coloring! If only they were like that all the time while alive.. The other two still seem to be fine, but they were showing intense coloring as well so I really don't know if it was the suspected male who died or another female. Hopefully with the shrimplets, they'll learn to grow into adults and establish a viable breeding population.