I've spent the last week fussing over Asgard, making sure everything is optimal for Balder, Sif, and Tiny Clanger. The shrimp are amazing creatures. Two of them have molted over the last week, leaving behind ghostly replicas of their bodies. They are frequently busy, using their two-fingered pincers on four different legs to scoop tiny scraps and algae bits into their mouths. Their intestinal tract is visible through their chitin; it produces cylindrical pellets, very small and white. With their dozen or so small rear legs they swim furiously through the water, darting from the driftwood mound into the Rotala/Ludwigia forest in the back of the tank.

When I can't find them, I'm sure they're hanging out in the cave at the rear of the driftwood mound, behind the clot of Java Moss I planted in the cave's visible end.

The two females are smaller and less boldly marked. Balder, however, is a few millimeters larger all around, darker (less translucent), with a dramatic white band running the length of his back. He's quite the stud.

I think I'm going to add two or three otocincli this weekend. I want to talk to Nathan at Nippon first, though.