Berried at last!

[sabbylina]

I'm so excited! Today I spotted my first pregnant shrimp!! She's got at least 7 eggs that keep moving around in there, like little balls rolling past one another. How come they move so much anyways?

Besides being super excited, i'm a little worried. I move back home from college in three weeks and was wondering how to transfer them. Normally I move half the water, catch the shrimp one by one and put them into the travel container, then move the rest of the water. I do that in reverse when i get home. But now I have a pregnant shrimp.... Would it better to just take off some water into a different container and cover the tank so it doesn't spill, rather than transferring them? I don't know if sloshing water is good or bad because it's about a 2 hours drive home. Depending how long they are pregnant for/ the eggs float in the water, i might move them individually. can someone please remind me how long they carry for and how long before baby shrimp are running around?

At the current stage, i'm leaning towards just removing some water and covering the tank with saran warp, but it depends on the timeline. My other option is to move them now and leave them in that container until the babies are big enough to be seen and moved.
Thanks for any advice!

~Sabby

[CanadianShrimp]

I've had to move berried shrimps twice and both times I've transferred them (and all other shrimps) in a separate container so I'd keep your usual system. I've never had any problems with them losing the eggs during the transit.

I usually leave maybe 1/4 of an inch of air on top of the container (so the water doesn't move too much and I open it from time to time during transit for a few second to replace the air). I'd be afraid to leave them with less water with all the waves and the substrate moving.

[sabbylina]

If i was to cover their current tank with cling wrap, do you think it would hold for a few hours? If it works i couldn't have to move them at all.

[CanadianShrimp]

I guess it would depend on the size of your vase/aquarium, I have a 5 gallon aquarium making it pretty hard for me to do (and it's too heavy to move when full anyways), but if you have a small vase maybe it's doable. But don't forget the substrate, rocks, etc. may shift during transit and crush or bury your shrimps, you should probably at least remove anything heavy (but you may want to leave some algae for them to cling onto).

[sabbylina]

I ended up moving them into a Tupperware. It was exactly the right size with the substrate, without there's about an inch of room at the top.

When moving her, my pregnant shrimp dropped at least three of her eggs. They were riding on her belly and she just dropped them in her desperate attempts to flee my net... Will they survive? They're still in the water and there's nothing heavy to crush them. She's still got at least two on her though.

I also discovered another one was pregnant! YAY! But these are inside her, at the top where the thoracic and tail region meet. Do they move as they get more developed, or do shrimp carry them in different places?

Thanks for all the help!

[KenCotigirl]

No answer on raising dropped eggs. I assume the chances of success is low. The eggs develop in the shrimp. She molts, mates and fertilizes the eggs as they leave her body.

[sabbylina]

Well she had three when i left for vacation. When I returned there were two babies floating around the water. I'll take it. They're so cute! They just float head down and so desperately try to swim but get nowhere :3

How long do they stay like that?