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Cherry shrimp are highly sought after for their brilliant red coloration, as well as their excellent cleaning abilities. The high demand makes them quite hard to get and rather expensive. I was happy enough to find that the pet store had a couple of these beautiful shrimps. When I looked very closely, I saw that one of the shrimp had a brood of tiny babies clinging to her underbelly. Shrimp carry their young on tiny fins under their tails until they get big enough to fend for themselves. Because of this, they will often breed while at the hatchery, and carry their already hatched young with them to the pet store. If you're lucky enough to get one, you can end up with dozens of baby shrimp in your tank.

 

Now I have tiny baby cherry shrimps scattered throughout my nursery. It's almost impossible to spot them in there so I can't get an accurate count. They're only about 3 millimeters long, and my nursery is full of thick plants designed to give them a comfortable place to hide. When they are a bit bigger, they will add little splashes of color all throughout my tank.  

My baby cherry shrimp are now fully grown and having babies of their own. The whole nursery tank is becoming quickly overrun by tiny baby shrimp. I can often see 10-20 babies scattered around the tank at any given time. They look like little pink grains of rice. I was changing some of the water over the weekend and carefully watched to make sure I wasn't throwing out the babies with the tank water. I noticed some barely visible specks which were the eyes of an even tinier batch of shrimp. And there is another adult with a litter of even more babies still clinging to her tail. When these grow up, there will be swarms of bright red cherry shrimp in my tank.

Well when you get some read to go I'll come over and fire up the grill and we can have a little cook out. Sound like fun?