Lucky One

Lately, I've been finding baby shrimp, dead and/or alive, in places they shouldn't have been in.  Yesterday, I picked up my shrimp net, only to find a dead baby shrimp inside.  It must have gotten caught when I was scooping out shrimp for buyers the day before.  A baby must've snuck inside and I didn't notice it when I pulled the net out of the water.
Last week, I cleaned the sponge I use to block my breeder box.  The sponge's purpose is to keep baby shrimp inside the breeder box and out of the main tank.  Unfortunately, the holes are large enough for small shrimp to climb into.  It's like a jungle gym inside!  While cleaning the sponge off from dead plants/algae, a baby shrimp was inside, hiding.  I ended up putting the sponge in the wrong position, not knowing there was a shrimp inside.  The shrimp dried up and died.  I only discovered this the day after the incident.

Last night, I received a batch of Rili Shrimp from my dear friend.  I came home, looking for a container to put them for the time being.  I decided to put them in one of my plastic holding containers (the ones you find in pet stores).  Well, the container I decided to use already had dirty tank water in it.  The container held water from a month ago, when I took a mini pellia square out of my tank to propagate and retie onto stainless steel mesh.  Funny thing is, I try to be really cautious when taking moss squares out of my aquarium because I know baby shrimp just LOVE hiding in there.  I try to shake it a couple times before taking the entire piece out.  Well, I must have missed one because look what I found inside the container.  *See pictures below*  It must have been living in there for at least a month with no filtration, whatsoever.  It lived in stagnant water.  I have placed it into my tank after snapping these photos.

Lucky little fellow, aye?  We give shrimp too little credit sometimes.  It really bothers me when people try to baby their shrimp by buying a million different products out in the market, thinking it will bolster survivability or whatnot.  The fact of the matter is, all you really need is the right water and enough natural occurring food and shrimp will be just fine.  This CRS lived in a small container with tank water and muck from my mini pellia.  No filter, no extra feedings, just water and mulm.
Now, do I think we should just let our shrimp live in filthy water and expect them to thrive?  Of course not.  I just want to make a point that our shrimp are hardier than we give them credit for.