Finally!

[JoeG]

Well, its finally happened. After 1 year, 7 months, and 19 days I have my first berried female. And not just one female but two. The first I saw this morning had only 2 eggs but then when I was looking for her this afternoon I saw another one with many eggs. I guess just leaving them alone is the way to go. I have been adding one very tiny shrimp pellet each month to the tank and I took the night light out of their room last month. I think I read somewhere that the room should be totally dark at night. Don't know if that made a difference or if it just took them and the tank this long to mature.

[SuperProofer]

Congrats!

[JoeG]

Thanks SuperProofer, I’m pretty excited that it’s finally happening.

Update: I haven’t seen the two egg shrimp since that first day so either she is a pretty good hider or she dropped the eggs. The other shrimp with lots of eggs tends to stay on top of a lava rock and is very easy to spot. She is doing well and seems to still have all the eggs.

[Super Jess]

Congrats on the berries! It's totally possible your two-egger is hiding. Mine seem to be out and about with their eggs for the first few days, then they mostly hide in the cave spot until just before hatching. Fingers crossed for lots of tiny shrimp babies in your future!

[Zlatan2601]

Congrats man, so jealous...

Good luck with the berried females!

[03amida]

Congratulations!! I had a similar situation, my two egged is still holding on to hers and the one with the large clutch just had her babies. Honestly I was fascinated watching her swim while keeping all those eggs secured under her tail.

Many wishes for more berries in your future!

[JoeG]

03amida thanks for the encouragement. Did your shrimp hide alot or were they in plain site most of the time? My female with the ‘lots’ of eggs seems to always be front and center on a lava rock, while the one that only had two eggs hasn’t been seen for a few days.

Zlatan2601 how long have you had your shrimp?

[Vorteil]

Congrats J

My berried females mostly stay hidden. Every once in awhile I'll see one or two come out and then disappear to the back of the tank where all the lava rock is. The babies just appear free floating around.

[JoeG]

Thanks Vorteil. I only have three large size lava rocks in my 5 gallon tank but the shrimp definitely know how to hide. I was just looking in the tank and I was only able to count 6 of the 30 shrimp that I have. I know I still have 30 because last week when I fed them I was able to count all 30. So I’m going to assume/hope that my ‘two egg’ shrimp is just hiding. I will keep you guys updated when the babies arrive.

[Vorteil]

My tank has a bit of macro algae in it Just happen to catch one berried female out tonight.

[JoeG]

This is a 17 day update. I saw both berried females today. The one that had two eggs now looks like she only has one (may still have two but I only saw her for a split second), and the one with a lot of eggs still has a lot. Hopefully they can hold onto them for another 2 weeks and then we should have our first babies! By what I could see the eggs pretty much look the same as they did the first day. I think I was expecting them to grow in size but I guess the growing part won't happen until they hatch. Well just wanted to give a short update. Will let you know when they hatch and are released.

[JoeG]

Day 27 update. So far the female is still holding the eggs and looking very good. They seem nice and tight against the body so I’m hoping that over the next few days they hatch. Here are a couple of pictures that I took of her this morning. They aren’t the best pictures but at least you can see how she is holding them.

I haven’t seen the ‘two egg’ female since the last update.

[JoeG]

Day 29 (August 18) - still no floaters yet but I wanted to give an update of the tank. Last night before I turned the lights off I noticed that a lot of the shrimp (around 20) were on the sides of the tank. This is not their normal behavior, usually I only see about 10 at any time walking around the tank foraging. This morning when I looked into the tank to see if any of the babies were floating I noticed a differant female on the side wall with eggs! I know (think) this is a differant female because the first berried female never, at least I've never seen her, walk on the walls and the eggs are being held differently. These eggs seem to hang further out from the shrimp, making them show from the sides when looking at her back. There are still lots of the shrimp walking along the walls again this morning so hopefully it is a sign of more berried females to come. Will update again when the first babies are released.

Confirmed: the female from this morning is indeed another female with lots of eggs. I just saw both of the berried females on a lava rock a few inches from one another.

[JoeG]

Day 29 continued - I just saw my two egg female. She still has at least one egg but there is possibly still two. She never did get to where I could see them clearly. She stayed on the lava rock with lots of algae so I wasn’t able to see under her belly very good. But the good news is that the first two berried shrimp have been able to carry their eggs for 29 days. I think they will probably hatch and get released over the next couple of days. The temp in the tank stays right around 72 deg F.

[Super Jess]

Sounds like everything is going swimmingly! All your supershrimp dreams are about to come true