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.

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.

My second female Blue Jelly Shrimp has finally lost her saddle (apart from one or two rogue eggs that have yet to move) and is now happily carrying her collection of bright yellow eggs.

When looking at mummy number one, her eggs seem to be showing some small shadow shaped inside so it looks like the babies are starting to develop quite nicely.

No signs yet of any saddles with the Tiger Shrimp, but I have only had them for a little over a week so it is quite soon to be expecting anything from them, though the tank is being littered on a daily basis with old shrimp shells (at least one or two each day) so there is good signs of growing going on in there and today's water testing showed that the water is keeping very stable and clear so all is going well so far.

With the (hopefully) imminent arrivals coming I am trying to get everything set up ready for the babies. With this in mind I have added a new plant, a round pellia as I read that its broad leaves are perfect for holding the tiny food particles for the shrimplets. After adding it to the tanks it has always had at least one of my shrimps on it so they are loving this plant already, just hope they leave some food for the babies.

I brought my first Shrimps just a few months ago. To be honest they were (and I hate to admit it) a bit of an impulse buy. I was actually going out to get a few platys to add to my community tank and get a bit of colour and I saw these funny little shrimps scampering about in the tank. I was told that these Yamato Shrimp would be fine in my aquarium so I took one to start with and before I knew it I was totally in love with her and after a bit of research I was soon rushing back to the store to get her some friends.

The more I read about Shrimps the more it sparked my interest, and the more I watched my four funny little chaps the more I loved them. I became quite obsessed, even to the point of naming them (Sherman, Sheldon, Sharon and Sheryl). I totally bored my family with tales of what the shrimps were doing, but they were just so comical and entertaining to watch.

It was during my research that I started to realise the huge variety of Shrimps that were available. One in particular stood out for me, the Blue Jelly Shrimp (Neocaridina Heteropoda var. Blue Jelly). I was really lucky and managed to find a breeder who was selling them and who was also really happy to give plenty of advice (I am slowly becoming a bit of a nerd, but if it helps my Shrimp who cares).  So I placed my order with www.easishrimp.co.uk and have started off my first dedicated Shrimp tank with five of these beautiful Shrimp and will see where that takes me.

Since I received them on 23rd January they have settled really well. The tank is regularly littered with their old shells as they are growing rapidly, and they are also slowly getting their saddles (four of them appear to be females and the last one is hopefully a male) so I am anticipating the pitter patter (or splish splash) of tiny little Blue Jelly Babies in the coming months.