i was trimming some very thick and bushy clumps of java fern tonight in my 40g tank before i did a water change. as i was trimming the largest clump i noticed one then two small shrimps. i had to blink and do a double take for as far as i was concerned this tank had no shrimps in it. the tank did have six adult shrimps in it a few months ago but i noticed that my large angels, that i had in the tank at the time, seemed to be eating them. i rescued the 2 remaining adult shrimps and put them in another tank. shortly after this i removed the adult angels from this tank.

the shrimps i saw tonight are about 3/4 of an inch long (2cm). the adults that were in the tank, at least 3 months ago, were at least 1.5 inches long (4cm). so i am absolutely sure that the two shrimps i saw tonight are not ones that i bought and can only conclude that my adult shrimps have bred and two babies, possibly more, have managed to survive, hiding in the thick clumps of java ferns. at the moment the tank has 2 adult bristle-nose plecs in it and lots of baby convicts. when i get rid of the baby convicts i am going to put a medium shoal of tetras in the tank and maybe 2 large male and 2 female adult shrimps in, in the hope that they might breed some more.

the tank conditions for anyone that wants to know are ...

24c (75f)
pH 6.6 (on average)
ammonia and nitrite 0
KH 0
GH 0
NO3 20ppm (on average)
15-20% water change per week

to finish, i am dead chuffed that i have two new shrimps. i have seen two or three of my female shrimps laden with eggs before but up till now never seen any babies survive. two baby shrimps surviving can't really be called a successful breeding but i am happy all the same.

i don't have a pic of the baby shrimps yet but here is a nice pic of one of the adults ...

caught one of the baby shrimps munching on an algae wafer and managed to get a pic of it.

although the pic is a little dark and slightly out of focus, the iridescent blue colour can still be seen. the adults are not as blue as this. the pic also makes it look bigger, in reality it is only about 2cm long at most.

Very nice little suprise you have got there then. Also i think the picture with the algae wafer helps put the size of thr shrimp into proportion

Awww, cute shrimp. I want to get some someday. As of now all I've seen at the local pet stores are ghost shrimp. I know that different types of shrimp can be ordered at drsfostersmith.com but the shipping is too much. Well, good luck with your new babies.

in my LFSs here in the UK amano shrimps seem to be fairly popular. they tend to sell for about £1 - £1.75 per shrimp.

i love mine, they are very interesting to watch. mine quite often can be seen dashing about the tank like mad things, quite often in the evening. i think this may be a kind of breeding behaviour as it seems to be the young male shrimps that do it.

i am not sure about shipping, but they do seem fairly sturdy and would probably survive if packaged well.