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 two berried Blue Jellies are doing very well. I am checking the tank in anticipation several times a day in the hope that the eggs will have hatched or be starting to hatch. I am so excited about the little shrimplets as they will be my first ones ever. I have found that she is hiding more and more at the moment and often she isn't seen for hours as she hides away in one of the various hidey holes I have set up to help them feel more secure. I know she disppeared (as they all did) when her saddle moved down to her Pleopods, but I hope she stays out in the open to hatch them as I would love to see it.

I have notices as well, that as the eggs develop more, they are turning more of an orange colour which shows up more when she is near to the other berried Blue Jelly as shown in the pictures below. I have also been trying hard to get a good photo of the eyes inside the eggs which are becoming clearer to see each day.

After having gone into hiding for a day or so, one of my Tigers that I thought was saddled is now berried and happily wondering around hungrily chasing down every last bit of food in the tank. The Tigers don't seem to show their saddles as clearly as the Blue Jellies and it is not totally clear from these images but you can see the slight shape of the eggs in the saddle. One of the main differences I have noticed between the Blue Jellies and the Tigers is the timescale between the saddles showing and the shrimps being berried. The Tigers seem to have gone from the first to second stage much quicker, just a matter of a few days, whereas the Blue Jellies took between 2 and 3 weeks, however, this could be that the Tiger female may be more mature than the Blue Jelly Females, so again I will have to keep and eye on this timescale next time (or with future off spring).

A berried female Tiger Shrimp. The Orange eggs show up clearly on the Pleopods