mating behavior?

[Coluber42]

Two days ago, I noticed that a couple of the smaller shrimp were tearing around one area like crazy, maybe chasing each other, but it was hard to tell. All the shrimp have generally been pretty calm, just hanging around browsing, and all the rest of the shrimp in the tank were still doing that. The tank hadn't been disturbed or anything.
It definitely crossed my mind that maybe I was seeing some sort of male competition over mating rights, but I don't know much about their actual mating behavior.
And yesterday I saw that one of the shrimps is carrying eggs - yay!
So, assuming that the eggs are fertilized when they are laid, the appearance of a berried female after seeing that furious activity would support my guess about why those little dudes were chasing each other around.
Was I right? Or was I seeing something else? Does anyone know more details about their courtship/mating behavior? I'm just curious.

[Mustafa]

Looks like you *did* observe mating behavior. After the female molts the males frenziedly search for her to mate. And yes, if you have males in the tank (which is almost guaranteed if you have at least 10 shrimp) then the eggs are fertilized after such activity. But sometimes the female still drops them. You'll find out in a few days.

[Coluber42]

I have 15 shrimp, and while I wouldn't bet on my ability to tell them apart, I have some that I'm pretty sure are female and others that must be either juvenile or male. The ones going nutzo were the latter sort.
I did see a fresh molt in the same vicinity as all the action, so now I'm sure that's what I was seeing. I know the female might still drop the eggs, but it's still cool and exciting to get to observe the behavior. If I don't see babies this time around, there's always next time.

Gotta say, I'm really enjoying my workshop tank!

[Coluber42]

The expectant lady has been mostly hiding in the center of a little pile of rocks, but today she did venture out enough for a good egg photo:

[Arquisto]

That's a great photo! Good luck.

[Coluber42]

Actually, I have two females with eggs and didn't even know it! Either I hadn't seen them both out and about at the same time until today, or a second one just laid recently. But I fed the shrimp today and they all came out to get at the food, and saw that there were two berried females. Cool!

[Arquisto]

That's great!

How often do you feed them and how long have you had them for now?

[AnotherKevin]

Neat! Yesterday, we just noticed that one of our opae ulas has eggs, too. (I didn't get a chance to observe any mating behavior, though.)

We have 10 shrimp in a ~1 gallon bowl (with crushed coral sand and some lava rocks they can hide between). We got them about two and a half months ago from petshrimp.com. We have fed them once, a week ago, one little granule of fish food.

[Coluber42]

I've had them for maybe three months, and I've fed them twice, a tiny crumble of a shrimp pellet each time. I thought maybe one of them had dropped her eggs, but then today I saw both egg-laden ladies too. We're having an open house at work this weekend, so hopefully the extra commotion won't freak them out too much.

[Coluber42]

Quick update: I now have at least 15 larvae floating around, and four or five more females carrying eggs - this is out of 15 shrimp I bought in late February or thereabouts. It's a population explosion!

[Mustafa]

Quick update: I now have at least 15 larvae floating around, and four or five more females carrying eggs - this is out of 15 shrimp I bought in late February or thereabouts. It's a population explosion!

Congrats! Always nice to hear/read about reproduction in people's tanks.