My second berried Blue Jelly Shrimp has just hatched her eggs two days before I was expecting them. She has only been berried for 22 days, that is two days less than my first Blue Jelly. She was hiding inside the coconut cave, it seems to be the favoured place for my Berried Shrimps to hang out and they have not only passed their eggs down from their saddle to their Pleopods inside there, and spent a lot of time in there whilst berried, but they also seem to retreat back inside when it is hatching time.

I have managed to spot three tiny little shrimplets from this new batch, and I am surprised at the size difference between them and my first batch of shrimplets. I had not realised how much they had grown. It is not so much the length that has changed, it is more that the older ones seem to have bulked out and look more stocky in build, though I think they are also a little longer.

The first thing I noticed was a tiny thing floating at the top of the tank. I managed to fish it out and put in onto a piece of paper. Looking under a microscope (yes, I really am that obsessive), I could see that it was a larval looking shrimp, it had teh overall body shape, but no legs. AT first I assumed that it was a Ninja Shrimps shrimplet as they cannot survive in freshwater. I then noticed my Blue Jelly was just inside the cave and was looking paler than she had been looking earlier. That was when I saw two tiny Blue Jelly Shrimplets sitting just outside the Coconut cave and realised that what I had fished out must have been a Blue Jelly Shrimplet that had not fully developed for whatever reason.

The Blue Jelly babies are now about nine days old and are starting to be a bit less timid so I often see one skipping about the tank and going on a big adventure to explore their surroundings. SO far, I have managed to count eight of them all being visible at the same time so I am hoping that I have a few more that were just hiding at that point, but even if not I am very happy with having eight little beauties running around in there.

They don't seem to have grown very much over the past nine days, but they do seem easier to spot so maybe they have grown a little. It will be interesting to compare their size against the new Blue Jelly Shrimplets that we are expecting in the next few days as well as comparing the Blue Jelly Shrimplets size with the Tiger Shrimp babies.

The good thing is that I have finally managed to get some fairly decent photos of them now, well as good as I can with my point and shoot camera (seriously regretting selling my SLR and macro lenses now). All the same, I have some good images that show the tiny little critters.

With an expected due date for hatching of next Wednesday (27th March), I am trying to keep a close eye on my 2nd berried Blue Jelly. She kindly did some posing for the camera in a great position at the front of the tank allowing me to get some great photographs of the eggs and the developing shrimplets inside.

The eggs all still look quite a nice bright yellow colour, though it is clear to see small signs of red which from looking at the current shrimplets in the tank seems to be a coloured spot on their body just behind the head. They are too small to see their colouring properly but look like they are still mainly blue. The eyes are really clear to see, and once again looking at mum she has a definite and rapidly growing saddle which is the same as my first berried Blue Jelly.

Things appear to be going well, but I am keen to see if I notice the same level of colour changing within the eggs over the next few days as I noticed with the first batch of eggs. The eggs still look quite solid, and I had noticed that the last batch of eggs became almost transparent, so I am also keen to see if this happens again as we get closer to next Wednesday.

It's been a very exciting morning as I found one of my recently 'berried' shrimps was walking happily round the tank with her nice new blue shell and bright yellow saddle on her back, but no sign of the eggs. I had been a little worried yesterday as the reddish coloured eggs seemed to have thinned out as though lots of them had disappeared and the remaining ones she was carrying looked pale and almost white. I had assumed that things had not gone very well and that she had lost some of the eggs and that these last few remaining ones would also vanish to nothing. It was a great relief to see her looking so bright coloured and healthy looking when I checked on her this morning. Unfortunately my camera battery was 'exhausted' yet again so while it is on charge (I seem to sit constantly trying to photograph the tank) I had to resort to the camera on my mobile so quality is rubbish.

A little later on, whilst trying to take a look at the old shell that she had shed inside the darkness of the coconut cave, I noticed a sudden movement through the water and was really lucky to see one tiny baby shrimp sitting on the piece of bogwood. Again, as my camera is still charging I was only able to grab a couple of pictures with my mobile phone camera so the quality is shockingly poor, but considering the minute size of the shrimplet I am just pleased to have even captured anything.

I would estimate that the shrimplet is about 2mm long, and so far I have only seen one. Hopefully over the next few days a few more will come out from hiding and I can try and get some better photos.