Help with Amano/andor Cherry Shrimp situation

[MarisaB]

Hello! Glad I found this forum. First a very quick introduction....I have a ten gallon planted tank (6 years old) and a little 2.5 gallon Betta/planted tank.

My question is in regards to my 2.5 gallon.

In it is currently one betta fish....driftwood....lots of java moss and two shrimp we purchase about a year ago as "Amano Shrimp"

I own four other shrimp in my ten gallon which are indeed Anamo Shrimp. Anyways.

The other night we are looking close at the 2.5 gallon and notice little TINY specks crawling on the glass and the seams....seemingly eating some algae growing there although they are SO SMALL you cannot see identifing features, they are just a little bigger than the period at the end of this sentence, or basically the same size as new born Sea Monkeys if any of you have kept those.

I know Amano shrimp are larvae and that larvae uses Brackish water to fully form into little shrimp. But I was ready that often, an aquarium place might mislabel Cherry Shrimp as Amano Shrimp....and that Cherry Shrimp begin life as a fully formed mini, not larvae, and can hatch in regular freshwater tanks.

We have taken a really bad, blurry photo (there is two in the photo, although I'd say there is about 25 of them in the tank)....here:

When looking at the photo...I immediatly thought it was a baby shrimp....although I have NO IDEA what they really are, or if they are in fact baby Cherry Shrimp. Any ideas or giveaways so I can KNOW they are shrimp?

Thanks in advance for your time.

Marisa

 

[black hills tj]

i think a faster shutter speed would help...

 

[plecoperson]

Baby cherry shrimp are verrry tiny, but look exactly like miniatures of the parents. Those guys don't look like shrimpies....hmmm.....

 

[Purrbox]

It'd be very hard to mistake Amano Shrimp for Cherry Red Shrimp. So if the shrimp your are in possession of look at all like Amanos then they definately aren't Cherry Red Shrimp.

Amano baby shrimp would be floating in the water column and not crawling on the glass surface. I suspect that you may be dealing with seed shrimp aka Ostracods.

 

[MarisaB]

Hi guys. thanks for your help so far.

Well the two adults I have in this 2.5 don't look like my adult Amanos in my planted ten gallon. They are a bit smaller....(although full grown) and although I read cherry shrimp are usually red (especially females) these two in the 2.5 gallon are not. One does not have much color while the other one has tons of blue and reddish spots on its body.

I am not sure if they are seed shrimp either because although the picture sucks....these guys aren't round....but who knows?!?!?!! How would seed shrimp get in there in the first place?

Anyways I am hoping as these little buggers get bigger I can tell what they are??? I am pretty confused right now.

 

[majolo]

Looks like maybe a freshwater copepod of some sort. See the first picture in this link. Should be harmless, and I think shrimp keepers like them because the shrimp will feed on them. I have tiny moving specks in my shrimp&snail tank, though I can't tell what kind of critter they are. Very impressive pic if these are as small as I'm thinking!