Eggs!

[shmohney]

After ten long months of anxiously inspecting my 1.5-gallon tank every day while wearing two pairs of reading glasses and wielding a super-bright little flashlight, I finally found a shrimp with eggs today! I had stopped topping off the tank with pure water when it evaporated, as someone had said they got repro when they increased salinity slightly. Don't know if that's what did it, but this little shrimp appears to have eight eggs. It doesn't show in these pics, but one egg is sort of off to one side and wobbles when she swims - I'm afraid that one might fall off easily. Can someone remind me about how long after eggs appear before you get free swimming babies? About 30 days? I know shrimp often lose their first eggs, but I'm thinking positive....

[tooth]

Incubation in my tank has been between 30 and 40 days, depending on room temperature.

[KenCotigirl]

Great news! I remember how wonderful it felt when i found my first berried shrimp. If you are anything like me you will spend an inordinate amount of time searching for her when she is out of sight. Also nice pictures. Keep them coming.

[shmohney]

Yes, I do indeed spend a WAY inordinate amount of time looking for that mama. I do know a couple of her hidey-holes in the rocks though. I have large gravel and coral pieces piled up in one corner of the tank, and I put pieces of construction paper against the tank wall on both sides of that corner. I can flip them out of the way when I want to get get a look. Gives the shrimp a darker place if they want it, and gives me a chance to find them when they think they've gone to the darkest possible place. She has a couple of spots in there where I can often find her. It's a change from her original behavior - when I first saw she was berried, she was out and about and stayed that way for several hours. Haven't seen her out since. So, I don't know how long she's been eggy, but I'm going to count from the day I posted, because I look at them several times a day and I'm going to assume I would have seen her pretty soon after the eggs showed.

[shmohney]

Just an update - I was gone for several days. Got home Sunday night and saw the berried female swimming around in the open. I'm assuming it's the same one, as I can never find more than one in the tank at a time. I got a good look with a magnifier and she still has eight eggs. She seems to be carrying them closer to her body now, and I can see her swimmerets undulating round the eggs. Pretty fascinating. Anyway, she's been carrying them for at least twelve days now. Gives me hope that I might get some babies this first time. I have dreams of raising hundreds, maybe having a five or ten gallon tank with so many that the water looks pink from a distance, then giving them to friends - which is funny, as most if my friends have a hard time seeing the point of keeping these little shrimp.

[Mustafa]

Congrats! I also still remember the first time I saw my supershrimp berried (back in 2004)...it's always an exhilarating feeling to be rewarded for having done *something* correctly. As for your tank looking pink from far away because of the number of shrimp..not going to happen. Even my tanks with thousands of shrimp in them don't look like that...although some parts of the substrate do during feeding time when tons of shrimp pile up on and around the food.

[shmohney]

Don't take me too seriously, Mustafa! I was referring to this Scott Santos pic that someone else posted on this board a few years back - the seventh picture in the trailing link. But no, I don't really dream of that. I want some babies, and I eventually would like a larger tank, maybe 5 gallons, Meanwhile, my first berried female is still carrying what looks like all of her original eight eggs. It's been 20 days now since I first noticed she was berried. I doubt that she had the eggs long before I noticed, so I'm going to seriously be looking for some larva in about ten more days.

I usually feed my shrimp a pinhead-sized pieced of sinking fish food every two Sundays. I didn't do it yesterday though, because I was a little afraid she'd get some eggs knocked off of her if she joined in the scrum for the fish food. Probably not a valid concern, but hey, they're my first babies.

[Mustafa]

I know exactly what picture you're talking about. The shrimp you saw in that picture are all wild caught shrimp dumped into a way too small tank for the number of shrimp. It's basically just a holding tank. They would never survive for long like that. As for the female losing her eggs while fighting her way to the food...don't worry.

[shmohney]

Ok, I kind of figured that wasn't a sustainable tank, but it sure is pretty.

I was worried about my mama - hadn't spotted her for a couple of days, but I just saw her. She has been hiding in the gravel pile (limestone rocks about 1.5 inches each) almost exclusively for two weeks. I I would have very little chance of getting any more photos of her, the way she's hiding. She can go deep n the pile and remain unseen. I'm starting to believe that she might successfully hatch off this brood, as she's been berried for at least 24 days now.

[Mustafa]

Yes, I'm pretty sure the eggs will hatch. By the way...the hatching time is closer to the 35th day usually (depending on water temps), so don't freak out if you don't see anything hatch on day 30.

[shmohney]

I'll do my best to be patient! Somewhere on this board I think I read that the range is 30-40 days, depending on water temp. Mine is around 69 degrees F this time of year, so I'm not expecting hatching until at least 35 days. I spotted her again today, so we're at 25 days now.

[Mustafa]

At 69 degrees it's probably going to be closer to 40 days, but we'll see.

[shmohney]

What a relief! I didn't see my berried shrimp for 6-7 days, despite the continued obsessive looking that previously rewarded me with at least one sighting each day since I first saw her. But last night I saw her again. Of course I can't be positive it's the same shrimp, but she's the same size and light color as the one I've been watching, and seems to be carrying the same number of eggs (eight). So if it's her, she's been berried for at least 35 days since I first noticed her on March 4. Fingers crossed - any day now!

[shmohney]

Well, it's now been 40 days since I first saw the berried shrimp. I'm seeing her every day since she showed back up after disappearing for a week. Saw her 20 minutes ago. And still no babies. I'm beginning to believe the possibility that when I stopped seeing her, it was because she lost the eggs, and the one I started seeing a few days later is actually a different shrimp with much newer eggs. Only time will tell.

Has anyone else had a berried shrimp that just disappeared for a while, and then showed up again before the larvae hatched?

[KenCotigirl]

Here is a tip: In your previous photos the eggs are a solid color. A week maybe less before they hatch the eggs will look different. No longer solid in color but with distinct light and dark areas. Post a photo of the current berried shrimp.

Ken