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.

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.

I have been looking at some shrimps and snails on ebay for quite a while, but as I knew we would be going to visit family that live fairly close to  the seller I held off so I could visit them and chose for myself. I wanted to get some other shrimps that would be able to live with my beautiful Blue Jellies, but obviously don't want to risk any interbreeding between them. I fell in love with the Tiger Shrimps and the Ninja Shrimps but couldn't chose between them. Lucky for me I didn't have to as the Tiger shrimps will not breed with the Blue Jellies and the Ninjas need brackish water for their babies to survive so I was able to get some of each. So, I am know the very proud owner of five of each.

It is quite dangerous for me to go into aquatics stores, and going to Kesgrave Tropicals was a really bad move as they have a massive range of fish, snails and shrimps (and much more), and my wish list has grown longer and longer. I also walked away with some Candy Nerite snails (to go with my Zebra Nerites) and some Assassin snails (to try and rid my Platy tank from the infestation). They were all really helpful and friendly and made us feel really welcome. When we said we were on our way home from a visit to the area they made sure that the shrimps and snails were packed really well and would be as comfortable as possible for the three hour (plus stops) journey back to Brighton. On the way home I was already planning my next visit to them, though I may have to place an order via ebay in the meantime.

So, my Shrimp tank now contains five Blue Jelly Shrimp, five Tiger Shrimp and five Ninja Shrimp. Oh, and on top of that, one of my Blue Jelly Shrimp is now berried (pregnant) and happily wondering around carrying her eggs and a second female has got a massive saddle (hopefully she will soon also be berried), hopefully in the next few weeks my tank will have some lovely little babies running around.

One of the most important aspects of keeping shrimp is the quality of the water. If the conditions aren't right then the shrimp won't survive let alone live long and healthy lives. I have read so much about water quality over the past year since going from muddling along with my two Orandas (and getting most of their care completely wrong up until now), and getting my second fish tank for the Platys.

I am really angry with myself for not doing my research four years ago when we decided to get a few goldfish for our boys (had I have done my research then we would never have brought any goldfish at all). I based it all on the fact that I had kept goldfish as a child. We used to win them at the fair, and would take them home and keep them in a tiny unfiltered fish bowl where they would last for a year or so if we were lucky and that the giant goldfish called Jaws that my mum had for about fifteen years (also a win at the the fair) was just a freak of nature. I assumed that was all they needed and that they were short lived, so didn't think twice when my kids asked for a fish. Now I know how much care and space they need and that they are not short lived at all I will never ever buy another goldfish (unless I have room for a big enough tank or a big garden pond).

Anyway, water quality is the key, and as I am hoping to breed my Blue Jelly Shrimp (as well as caring properly for the fish in my other two tanks) I needed to invest in the proper kit. I had tried using the test strips but they are not all that accurate (unless you want just a quick reading to see if anything is at odds), and I had brought a separate Ammonia test from API as this is one of the key problems that need to be prevented in a Shrimp tank. As the API tests are the best (that I have found anyway), I decided to invest in the API Freshwater Master Test Kit and found a great seller on ebay who was selling them for just £19.99 including postage which was a real bargain, (I used Specialist Marine Aquatics but there were several sellers at a similar price).

The test kit arrived yesterday and is really simple to use. I was really happy that the water tested perfectly so all is going well so far