Got Them!

All 12 of them.  Young lady met us at Victoria Station. We arrived an hour early as my other half said there was a massive problem on the District Line. Of course we didn't think to check before we left that it had all been cleared. Still better early than late.

She had them in a jam jar and showed me them. A couple are bigger mostly they are tiny but they were only born in late January.  Said they were a bit stressed so they were very pale but she pointed to a fairly red one and said they will all be like that and she also thought one was pregnant.

I had taken a thick tea towel, brown paper bag, hand warmers to swaddle them in but they came in a jam jar and plastic bag.

My husband said it was so warm on the train I was likely to cook them before i got them home if I added the heat so I just wrapped them in the tea towel and tried not to jiggle the jar.

An hour later I got them home and started to acclimatise them. Did it slowly, for hour and a quarter. 10ml of water out, 10 ml of water from the tank in. Did this every 15 minutes.

Then, in my infinite wisdom I decided, as they were in a jam jar I would not be able to net them so got a new tea strainer, put an empty bowl next to the tank, decanted the shrimp into the strainer and into the tank. Bloody things were jumping all over the place. It does not bode well for my night's sleep.
One jumped straight out of the strainer back into the waste water jar so that had to be rescued.

Put them all in and they disappeared - for all of two minutes that is.

7 of them were straight out and on the plants and moss. Boy do they move.

I might be imagining it (Wishful thinking and all that) but at least these 7 don't look stressed. It's more like Wheeeeeeeee look at us!!

One of them seems to be a palish yellow, a couple are transluscent and only two of this 7 appear to be red. Still, if they are all there in the morning I shall be one happy lady.

I am watching them as I type this and they are zooming all over the tank, one has just done an acrobatic display but not like a spiralling fish. It looked more like enjoyment. We'll see.

Yay! Welcome home shrimpies!

They do move don't they?! We should have warned you that they jump I guess but you quickly become accustomed to their movements!

Hope they all colour up nicely and settle in well and don't panoc if you don't see all of them at once, they will hide at various times, usually after a moult. Also don't panic if you find little empty shrimp shaped skins, these are the moults.

It may pay for you to invest in some Beta Glucans. This helps them have successful moults. I bought this one and use literally a sprinkle at each water change.

The other thing to remember is not to overfeed. The petshrimp.com website has lots of useful info on it and helps prevent you becoming a neurotic shrimp owner!!!

Good luck and enjoy!

FC76

My shrimps only get fish food as well, they seem to be doing fine on it.

As several have said, don't judge the colours until they have settled in and grown, the difference can be amazing.

I never fed anything special to the amanos in my big tank, they ate whatever the fish ate and since that last one was over 5 years old when the wormer medication killed it, they must have found something to eat.
I do feed Shrimp Cuisine to the cherries in the smaller tank, though the fish will eat most of it and the shrimps do eat fish food as I've seen them with the different coloured micro pellets I put in the for the cories. I got the Shrimp Cuisine when I was trying to keep the baby shrimp alive in the QT. I ground it to dust to feed them. And as I have some left, I may well use it but won't replace it when it runs out.

I have them in a shrimp only tank, with a fair bit of planting and moss balls and a couple of hides. In fact I think I have too many hiding places and they are hardly seen.

Yesterday there were two bigger ones, (just tried to upload a photo but they wont take  )
but I haven't seen them today.
They are not as active as the 7 were yesterday and I haven't seen all of them together at all.

I shall give them their first feed tomorrow as I have our granddaughter coming and maybe with a wafer or a bit of courgette they might come out.