Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

Hi guy's,
I have a fuzzy claw machro in berry at the moment. This is her second time in berry, but the male died while she was in berry the first time. Is it possible that the eggs are fertile? It's been about 6 months, at least, since the male died. Are shrimp able to store spermazoa the way some livebearers do?

The dwarf shrimp are not able to store sperm. I am not sure about the Macros though. I did want to ask you if there were any resulting babies from the first batch of eggs. Also, how long has she been carrying the eggs this time?

I didn't get any young ones from the first spawn. When I saw the eggs on the tank bottom I assumed that they were infertile and immediately did a water change- oops. After reading Mustafa's article on these shrimp I saw the error of my ways (wish I had a pair of binoculars). I also learned the hard way about keeping weekly doses of iodine in my water (the male after molting comes to mind). I'm not exactly sure how long she's been in berry, I noticed 2 days ago, but it couldn't be more than a week.

Just an update, she's not in berry anymore.

Guba wrote:

I also learned the hard way about keeping weekly doses of iodine in my water

Do you add iodine to your water ?

If so, why ?

John

Guba wrote:Just an update, she's not in berry anymore.

So the eggs were not fertilized. Please let us know what happens if you decide to try with a new male.

I've read that iodine helps shrimp/crayfish to successfully molt. Successfully being the key word here. I've had shrimp actually molt and just turn white and die. I have well water, and it's slightly on the soft side, but when I add iodine all my shrimp seem to thrive. I just recently read in a book that adding 1 drop of "over the counter" tincture iodine per 20 gallons of water should be safe for inverts, I'm going to try it when I run out of the stuff for aquariums. As for another male, I don't have any. I'm keeping my eyes peeled on aquabid.

How do you treat the well water? Do you use Prime like most members? Please let us know how it goes when you try the "over the counter" tincture iodine.

I personallly have started to use little pieces of cuttlebone to add calcium to my tanks. I mainly do this to keep my snails' shells from breaking down. I hope it will have a positive effect on my shrimp too. I 'll just wait and see.

I bypass my water softener and put it in my tanks straight from the ground. The local region where I live has some odd ground water. I lived about 600 feet down the road and had well water that two water filter companies basically declared liquid rock out of my faucet. Snails thrived! My fish always colored up! At tropical fish auctions the auctioneers would always comment how nice they looked. Now in my new (older) house the water is a lot softer coming out of the ground, the fish don't color as well and the snails that thrived at the old house basically went extinct. When I had shrimp at the old house I never lost one from molting, not until I moved into the new house. The iodine additions seem to help my shrimp get through the molts for whatever reason.

Sorry to hear about your new situation. You might want to look into water purificaton systems or filters like the one badflash has. If you want to go low budget you can but the water from a RO drinking water vending machine.

I think you misunderstand me. I put staight well water in my tanks because I want all the trace elements and minerals! I have a whole house water softener, but I don't use it for my tanks. Anyway I'll keep the forum posted on the tincture experiment.

I see, I actually add the elements to my RO water. I use Electro-Right and another additive along with the cuttlebone. Hope to hear more soon.

I've read that iodine helps shrimp/crayfish to successfully molt.

Mustafa has thoroughly debunked iodine in fresh water system. Do a search on iodine and you'll see this myth brought up & busted over & over. Fresh water systems are devoid of iodine and no critter that has evolved in fresh water needs it to any appreciable degree. It is possible that brackish critters need it as sea water has iodine. The myth appears to be carried over from salt water invert keepers generalizing to fresh water.

I've not used iodine in over 2 years, since I found it makes no difference. It doesn't.

Well she molted again yesterday and today I noticed berries. I'm getting the impression that females don't need a male in the tank to be in berry. And for the record, I stopped using iodine additions. So far everything's going well, thanks Mustafa and all for the great input!

Guba wrote:Well she molted again yesterday and today I noticed berries. I'm getting the impression that females don't need a male in the tank to be in berry. And for the record, I stopped using iodine additions. So far everything's going well, thanks Mustafa and all for the great input!

Hey Guba, to answer your question, yes, female shrimp can 'be berried' or carry eggs, that are not fertilized. However, they usually drop the eggs well before they would normally hatch.

FYI, I've never added anything to my water, besides a conditioner to remove toxins from tap water. I've never noticed any unusual molting problems with my crayfish, or shrimp. Since I have anywhere from 1000 to 100,000 shrimp at any given time, a small number do have issues molting, like lost limbs. I also find, on average, six deaths per month.