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.

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.