RCS becoming more RED

I am very happy to see my female Red Cherrys becoming more red. Young females are known to be more pale, but after each moulting the are turning more red. And because of that I am starting to realise that I probably have only ONE MALE !!! I just hope this little guy can fertilise all the females...hm. I believe I am better off buying another male or two. The next two photos are showing the one male I have. RCS males are very pale with very little red on the top of their abdomen, and that is more like red dots. The abdomen shape is not as deep as the females is. If you take a closer look (the first female photo) you will notice that the females abdomen is rather deep, so it can store and protect the eggs. I am 99% sure that the pale shrimp is male. Time will tell.
I fed my Neocaridina denticulata sinensis with cooked carrots but they didn't spend much time eating it. They rather feed off of the aquarium glass and from the Oak leaf litter. I am observing them very closely for the last few weeks and I believe that their main diet is formed out of microorganisms, algae and fungus, rather than boiled veggies and algae wafers. Just a few days ago, I fed them with a small piece of algae wafer but they didn't eat all of it, instead they were picking "things" from the stones, leaf litter, glass, filter, plants and gravel. I am prity sure shrimps will do much better in mature set-ups, where aquarium mulm has been formed.

And since they enjoy eating microorganisms from the Oak leaf litter, I collected some more from a near by park. I am soaking them in a bit of dechlorinated water, so they sink readily. The more leaf litter, the more surfaces for the microorganisms to grow on. I will try to collect more withered Oak leaves before the season is over.

Photos by Dusko Bojic.