Tiger eggs good or no?

soh15 · Post by **soh15** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 12:35 pm

I have 2 Tigers that have had eggs for 7 days each. Neither has dropped any at all. My question is are eggs fertile after 5 to 7 days. Will shrimp drop infertile eggs after that time? I also have males so I figure after this amount of time they would be fertile or be dropped. Eggs are greenish brown.

Thanks

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 12:44 pm

They are fertile, or they would have dropped in just a few days.

soh15 · Post by **soh15** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 12:56 pm

Thanks, I hoped there were.

Kenshin · Post by **Kenshin** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 3:10 pm

If you acquire them from which they were captive bred, then I believe it will hold on to it until they hatch.

If they were not acquired from captive bred, then actually it could all depend on several factors. How long have you been keeping them so far? Were they originally imported/wild-caught? These 2 factors are one of the most important factors to determine whether your Tiger shrimps (or any other rare species shrimps) will drop their eggs even if they have been holding on for more than 5 to 7 days even if you believe you have males in your tank.

If your shrimps' origin is from imported/wild-caught, then I highly doubt they will hold on to it much longer unless you have been keeping them for a while now (such as several weeks).

I have experienced that from 3 different species already in which when I acquired them, their origins were wild-caught/imported. They seem to go through a transition period to adjust to your new environment. Even if they are carrying eggs, they will very highly likely drop their eggs slowly no matter if there are males. The stress factors of them going through many different transition periods (their natural environment, to people who caught them, to dealers, to importers, and then to us) make them drop their eggs. However, after a couple of molts, if they manage to survive in your environment, and molt one more time then start the process with carrying eggs, then I believe it will have a very high rate of offsprings. The species that I observed these observations were Tiger shrimps (which is my F3 generations), and 2 different strains of Bumble Bee shrimps.

soh15 · Post by **soh15** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 4:03 pm

I have had them for 14 days. Got them from LFS. Not sure if captive or wild. Started with 8 and now have 2 males and 2 females with eggs. They are in a 10gal RCS tank that has been running for 2 years. PH6.6. Temp 76f. 50% loss over 14 days which I read is normal. The 4 that died never came out, so I hope these 4 make it. Guess I will know for sure in about 2 more weeks.

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Kenshin · Post by **Kenshin** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 5:05 pm

If you bought them from your local LFS, then it is highly likely they were imported/wild-caught. There is no such thing as 50% loss over 14 days is normal. Did your local LFS owner told you that as well? I believe he/she told you to make you buy more to overcome the "future losses" you will experience.

If it is imported/wild-caught, then a lot of them will die within days to several weeks. It does not matter how perfect your water conditions you have for them. They have been stressed from all the different phases of transitions and shrimps cannot recover usually once they are stressed out (unlike other hardy invertebrates or vertebrates).

When trying to breed your own species of imported/wild-caught shrimps, you have to buy in large numbers to start out with. For all of my imported/wild-caught shrimp species, I always start out with around 50+ animals of each species. Usually most of them will die within 2 weeks or so. Then, I am usually left with around 10 to 15 and within that, I hope I always get at least 1 male (and I have been very lucky in this aspect so far

).

Most of these wild-caught shrimps are females since they are bigger in size and have a better coluration, hence buyers tend to buy them with ease compare to males in which are smaller and are usually less colorful.

That is why a lot of people tend to give up shrimp keeping hobby due to the LFS, and all other people that are involved with the capturing and importing of shrimps for a quick buck sale. In addition, most of these people do not even know the true species of the shrimps and start giving them names left and right (best example: AZ Gardens). Most of the new shrimp "want-to-be" hobbyists" always want to buy new and distinct color species of shrimps since they are hoping to breed them themselves. However, their shrimps die one by one or in masses once they acquire them and they have no clue what happened. In addition, the LFS or dealers sell these shrimps for at least several dollars each, hence making it expensive for shrimp "want-to-be" hobbyists to try again.

rugie · Post by **rugie** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 6:29 pm

Good post Kenshin! My heart goes out to those folks who buy shrimp as you indicated, have them die and then have a serious problem with themselves "thinking they did something wrong" When in fact there was little to nothing they could do to stop the die off.

soh15 · Post by **soh15** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 6:35 pm

Ok... My LFS did not tell me that, I read it here. I hope mine make it, I figured I would have losses.Thanks for the info.

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 7:46 pm

Good information and thanks for sharing guys

soh15, I hope your shrimp do well too. Please keep us updated

soh15 · Post by **soh15** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 8:31 pm

I will, thank you all, Great site.....

TKD · Post by **TKD** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 9:35 pm

Yup, the mass die off thing can happen to anyone...
Even if you have other shrimp that use the same paramaters and they are ok.

TKD