Hidden Shrimp Community Discovery [You Won't Believe This!!]

OK, I'm taking a very quick break in the proceedings to share this with you.
Today, I'm changing the substrate from gravel to sand in my 180 litre Juwel Rio.
In this tank I have the following:
male platies
cherry barb red chinned panchax
male guppies
1 BN plec.

Everybody is in the temporary container and looking good so far.


I got down to the last inch of water and guess what I discovered:
3 adult red cherry shrimp
5 shrimplets of varying sizes!

I'm sure there are more in there, but I've looked as closely as i can and can't find any.

The mystery is, I've never put any shrimp in that tank! It doesn't have calcium or anything.
The only thing I can think of is that they came in with the red chinned panchax, as i know the seller also has shrimp in his tank.

But, against all expectations, not only have they survived, they've bred as welll! The babies must have come along recently, as i put the red chinned panchax in about 6 weeks ago!

How about that for survival!
Anyway, I've added them to my shrimpery, so they're safe now!!

Back to changing the substrate!

Are you sure you couldn't have accidentally transferred them from your shrimp tank, with plants, net or whatever?

In the spirit of Robert's excellent advice/suggestion, I've amended this title a little.

This is such lovely news, especially after yesterday. Very pleased to hear that they are safely in the shrimpery.

Thanks fcmf, that's a much better title.
Sorry Robert, I was so overcome with excitement at my finding that i just wrote the first thing that came into my head!
Tank's all finished now. Nice new sandy substrate and fishes are all back in and swimming about happily!

Hi Fiona, it was the phrase in brackets: 'You won't believe this!' Not the best, as Robert quite rightly pointed out !