new rosenbergis from store one has eggs

luscombe · Post by **luscombe** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 11:54 am

I bought a female rosenbergi from a fish store and wanted to know if anyone can tell me if I should put her in the tank with the other shrimp. The other shrimp that I have is also a rosenbergi, Im guessing a male but not sure. His/her arms are at leaste 75% of his body length and is now about 4and 1/2 inches long. I know the only time females can mate is when molting, but she (the new rosenbergi) has a belli full of green eggs (no ham,haha), that is the way I bought her from the store. She is about 2" long and I have her in a different tank andwas wondering if I should put her with the other shrimp and hope they have some little ones

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 9:14 pm

How big is your male?

The eggs on the female are most likely fertile or she would have dropped them.

I would wait until either the eggs hatch, or she drops them to put her in with a new male. No telling what his response would be to a female with someone elses eggs.

luscombe · Post by **luscombe** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 9:30 pm

thanks for the reply. The male is about 4and 1/2", I've had him/her (I still have'nt found how to tell the difference) for about a month and a half. About five days ago I moved the original out of my fish tank for obvious reasons and put him into a 70 gal. He seems to like it alot. I put some feeder minnows in there for him also some hornwort plants( someone on this forum said rosen.. like them). From reading what mustafa said, I also put some oak leaves in there for him, He said they rot to form a certain type of algea that is good for them.
The female I just bought a couple of days ago, already had the eggs (green) in her so I specifically asked for her and also another one too( no eggs). I put her in a divider so that if she does give birth, the fish do not eat them, but I also read that the males are extremely protective of pregnant females? when she and the other new one get big enough to eat my fish I was thinking about moving them to the 70 galtank.
respectfully awaiting your experienced opinion

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 12:48 am

When photobucket comes back up I'll post some pics of a male & female.
4.5" is small for a male, so he may not be sexually mature. Your female naturally is. In a 70 gallon tank it is safe to put the two together.

Males are protective of females with their own offspring, but I suspect they have no loyalty to the offspring of others. Females are attracted to the males and the males are happy to have the females close. Females do ot like each other's company and males will do battle to the death, ot at least will remove the other's claws. Females are also likely to fight if there is not enough room. 70 gallons is fine for a male and 2 females.

Any sort of food is good as long as there is a good mix of animal and vegetables. Mine like hornwort. The oak leaves would be for cherry shrimp, not M. Rosenbergii.

Be sure to provide large hiding places for them. They need it when they molt.

The offspring require advanced care to raise as they require 13 ppm sea water and lots of special food to survive. The adults can not tolerate salt water.

luscombe · Post by **luscombe** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 7:14 am

Thank you. Are there any difinitive characterisics, visual or physical, that I would be able to tell the difference if it is a male or female? I know the one in my big tank is a juvenile.
As for the pregnant female, the divider that she is in( in the small tank-30 gal), is a mesh net box. I have some anacharis in there also.What kind of special care should be given for the eggs and the young, and what is necessary for her to lay or drop the eggs?
By the way the mesh net box she is in, does not appear to me that the holes are big enough for the eggs to fall through and would also protect the young hatchlings from the fish I have in the tank

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 12:25 pm

When the eggs hatch the young will all be eaten by any fish in your tank. You'll need to move her to a fish free tank if you want any zoes.

PM me and I'll send you a 5meg+ manual on how to raise M. Rosenbergii. The process if quite labor intensive and requires feeding 3 times a day and loads and loads of water changes with 13 ppm aged sea water. This pretty much requires access to ocean and rever water.

Some other members have tried it here and have gotten close, but did not get any young rosenbergii post-larvals.

The process requires feeding with hatchling brine shrimp for several weeks, followed by a transiition to a scambled egg formula until the go post larval. Without the large water change volume the food polutes the water and kills them.