Peppermint Shrimp

[Sregnar35]

How will I know if my pair of shrimp have or will mate? Are their eggs visible floating or will they be attached to something? Will you be able to see the female carrying the eggs, because you can kinda right through their shell? Thanks for any info.

[mogurnda]

Peppermint shrimp are hermaphroditic, so any two will mate. Fertilized eggs appear as a yellowish/greenish mass attached to the pleiopods (aka swimmerets) on the underside of the abdomen. The larvae are planktonic, but can be reared if you are willing to devote a system to do it. Otherwise, it's a nice source of plankton for the tank.

Mating can only occur right after the "female" molts. In young adult animals, this can happen every 2.5 to 3 weeks.

[Sregnar35]

I took your advise in an earlier post and bought a second shrimp in hopes of diversifying my zooplankton. I'll have to keep an eye on them after they molt I guess. Is there any way to tell their sex?

[Brian Schaff]

Hy,

You won't have a female and a male.
What will happen is that both of the shrimp will have eggs, and hopefully they will all be fertilized.
Whent they molt they will release the eggs that hatch and produce larvae.
The big problems start when you need to rear the larvae and they all end up dying. Nevertheless they make good live feeding for the aq.

Brian

[Makaiveli]

I've got two!