Questions about shrimp

erin14

erin14

Canadian, Eh?
Aug 7, 2007
638
0
0
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
I'm new to shrimp and I just bought about 15 Orange Bee shrimp and Red Cherry shrimp (in total, not 15 of each). I just have a few Qs...

1. Whats molting and how do you know when they are doing it
2. What does the terms "berried" or "saddled" mean??? Something to do with eggs i'm assuming?
3. How long do they carry these eggs and do they just hatch out of the mother one day or does she lay them first? I'm assuming my fish would eat any eggs they came across?
4. What do the eggs look like if they do actually lay eggs and are they easily noticeable?
5. How many babies could one expect and should they be left to defend themselves in the tank or could I scoop up the eggs/babies and put them in a breeder net to hatch?

Thats all I can think of for now but feel free to post anything you think might be helpful for me! :)
 
1. Molting is when the shrimp shed their old skin and leave it behind. It gets rid of the old, tight shell, and lets them grow. Unless you catch them in the act (unlikely), you can't know when they'll do it. Molts look, at first glance, like dead shrimp. However, you will soon find out that they are just the empty shell. Crayfish eat their molts, and I'd assume shrimp will eat some of theirs too. Some good nutrients, etc in there.

2. Berried means with eggs, pregnant, if you want. The term comes from the small, round eggs on the female's saddle. Most do resemble berries. The "saddle" is often how you can sex shrimp. The saddle is under the tail of the female shrimp. It looks like a fatty extention to the tail. This is where the eggs are stored.

3. The shrimp hatch out of the eggs after they are out of the saddle. Shrimp do not lay their eggs. I'm not sure, but I think shrimp gestation is something like 2-3 weeks?

4. The eggs are small and round, usually dark. The female carries them until they hatch.

5. Without predators in the tank, you should expect something like 15-30 young. Maybe a few more.
 
1. Shrimp are crustaceans and have exoskeletons like crabs and lobsters. These do not grow, so periodically they shed them and form a new one to continue growth. This is called molting. Periodically you might find what looks like a dead shrimp, except whitish-clear. Thats the exoskeleton.

2. "Saddled" means the female's ovaries are starting to fill with eggs. The ovaries become more brightly colored and you can see the eggs inside her. "Berried" means the female has moved the eggs down under her swimmerettes (the little legs underneath between the body and the tail), where she will carry them until they hatch.

3. Depending on the species, she will carry them from 2 weeks to months, depending on how long they take to hatch.

4. See 2 and 3.


5. Almost all fish will eat baby shrimp. Depending on the species, they may even have a larval stage, which means they probably won't survive anyway. If you are going to try and breed them to sell them or stock other tanks, your best bet is probably either to pull out berried females, or do a shrimp-only tank to maximize the survival rate of the babies.
 
Yeah like he said :D
 
If the tank has dense areas of planting (like mosses) there is a good likelihood babies will survive. Bee shrimp do not breed in freshwater. Cherries you can expect them to become berried 2-3 weeks after you notice the visible saddle. After they are berried its about another 3 weeks until you have baby shrimp. It may take a couple weeks after they hatch for you to readily see them in the tank. To protect baby shrimp, covering the intake of your filter with a sponge is a very good idea.
 
to make it a little more plain talk after the eggs are ripe so to speak and after she molts, then she can become fertilized by the male. then she holds the fertilized eggs in the tiny swimmerettes (legs) under her tail where she keeps them till they hatch, she tend to them and fans them all the time, so any that fall out are usually lost to tank mates or snails but they are sort of sticky so they stay there better.
sorry if too kindergarden but sometimes its a little helpful
 
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