Red Cherry Shrimp Fertilization process

sed03f

sed03f

a plant a fish
Jul 23, 2008
683
0
0
Florida
inverthobby.com
Real Name
Sarah
I was unable to find anything that relates to a direct eye witness account of the male RCS fertilizing eggs. I believe I saw it a few weeks ago.

I turned on the lights to the tank and noticed two shrimp acting peculiar, the female was trying to swim upwards, and the male knocked her back down. I saw this happen twice, then the female was forced on her back. The male was on top of her. This action lasted only a few seconds before both shrimp swam off. I have never before seen this action, but both were full grown adults, and a berried female.

Soo.... what do you think?
 
Interesting that shrimp might use the missionary position.
 
I don't have a clue and I watch a lot. I constantly have berried females and shrimplettes galore... but I've never seen anything that looks like mating behavior. :huh:
 
lookit said:
Interesting that shrimp might use the missionary position.
Click to expand...


OMG! Thats what I was thinking! but I was so shocked by what I saw, I have never seen that type of behavior before, and it was when I turned the lights on, so maybe I interrupted something, and the male just didn't care?

It was in my 75g turtle tank, this tank has surprised me at every angle, I threw some shrimp in there and they just breed like crazy! and with no plants in there. Love that tank, I finally found a place to put my duckweed, turtles eat it all in hours!
 
I have not personally witnessed "mating" behavior in shrimp, but your description matches what i have read about the mechanics of the process.

Basically the eggs are kept up on the shoulders in the "saddle." As the female gets to the right age/developmental status they start to move down an equivalent of Fallopian tubes to around the middle-lower part of her "chest", in front. The male stops by and delvers a packet (that's the term they use!) of sperm, then pretty much tips his hat and leaves. The eggs pass through the sperm packet, being fertilized on the way, and the female deposits them between the swimmerettes for development.

If for whatever reason the female is ready but there is no old-enough male available she goes throught the same motions but, obviously, without the sperm packet. So the eggs that are deposited just hang there for a few days then start to decay and are dropped. I think my briefly berried cherry went through this recently; she only had about 6-8 eggs in the undercarriage as best I can tell. Observation continues.

They say both parties molt immediately before this action commences. At any rate it matches what you saw. Very cool observation and you are very alert to have caught it. :)
 
I noticed that I said she was "berried" during this process...she was not, she was "saddled" huge difference, didnt catch that until now.


Thanks for your feedback everyone:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom