Finally! A Berried Shrimp!

[shrimpy4]

I've had the bowl since November of 2012 I believe, so it took over a year and I've finally spotted my first berried shrimp. Look to be about 6-7 eggs. Exciting! Hope nothing happens to her over the weekend.

[dndvictory]

I wish you the best with her.

[KenCotigirl]

Great news shrimpy!!

[Mustafa]

Awesome!

[shrimpy4]

Sad news, just checked in on her this morning and looks like she's kicked off almost all of her eggs. There's only one left right under her body, there's a couple that seem to be hanging on by an invisible thread, she keeps kicking all of her legs as if to free them.

So the assumption is, if they don't stay with her the full incubation period they're pretty much lost? Or any chance they'll hatch resting at the bottom of the bowl?

[Mustafa]

Usually the eggs are gone. But some strange things happened in some people's tanks that are not fully clear...such as larvae appearing from seemingly nowhere. I wouldn't count on the eggs surviving, though, if they have been dropped. I'd just wait for the next female to get berried.

[shrimpy4]

So after the tragedy of my first berried shrimp dropping all of their eggs, I've come back to the office after the weekend and found another berried shrimp. That's great to see, but I have a question:

Should I continue to feed them (between once a week to once every two weeks)? I usually drop a single pellet of fish food in on Friday's, it's about the size of the head of a pin, very small. What happens though is there tends to be a lot of activity after I drop it in, a lot of movement, and the last time I did when there was a berried shrimp, by the next day she had shed all of her eggs. Is that too much commotion for a berried shrimp? Should I wait to feed all month until her eggs hatch?

Only clincher is I added a hermit crab a couple of months ago, but I think he'd have enough algae to feed on in the meantime.

[KenCotigirl]

I cannot speak for the hermit but I see no problem feeding the shrimp as usual. If she is going to drop them she going to drop them.

[shrimpy4]

So far so good, she's still holding on to her eggs. My heart actually sank when I came in on Monday because at first I thought she was down to only 2. But then I noticed that it was a completely different shrimp that had also berried. Odd for it to be only 2 eggs I suppose, but the other one still has 6, and it's the first time I've ever seen two shrimp berried in there at the same time. Fingers crossed!

[KenCotigirl]

Ten days down and another twenty five to go. Looking good.

[shrimpy4]

Well, Over the course of the last few months, I've had three berried shrimp, they dropped almost all their eggs, but last week I finally saw my first larvae. A successful birth!

There's even two new berried shrimp as well, we'll see how many eggs they keep.




Two other interesting developments: the vast majority of the chaeto I had in there has finally died off and fallen into the substrate. From the large tuft I used to have, that slowly wilted, this set of strands is all that's left. Should I be concerned? Should I get more chaeto, or if conditions are right for this to grow more it will?



There are also a bunch of small, white, about 1 mm long...things in there. I can see them swimming around and running across the surface. Too small to take pictures of. I never noticed them before I got my hermit crab so I'm guessing they were in that water. I'm wondering if they're the reason the dying chaeto finally broke down, it happened right about the time I added the hermit and angel hair moss (with foreign water). These little guys may have finally broken down the dying organic matter, and with that gone, I've had about 5 berried shrimp in just a couple of months. Healthier ecosystem?