I've been watching this forum for a long time and have learned a lot. I kept hearing everyone talking about a "saddle", I finally got some pictures and I've posted them at PhotoBucket.
I watched a female RCS giving birth, I guess that's what you call it. (is it a litter?) The little things are really little. I'll post a Pic when I get one.
http://photobucket.com/albums/a200/lennyoides
My Thanks to GunMetalBlue
Lennyoides
RCS pics
Moderator: Mustafa
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GunmetalBlue
- Shrimpoholic
- Posts: 263
- Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 11:10 am
- Location: CA
Hi Lennyoides, thanks for sharing your pics with us, I enjoyed them all! I've always been amazed at how bright yellow those saddles can sometimes be - sort of surreal looking. And I see you got a baby pic, isn't it something that they're born looking like shrimp already? 
Congrats on your first shrimplets hatching - I too did see a baby "spring" away from the belly area once and presume it was just being born. Is that what you witnessed or did you see something different?
-GB
Congrats on your first shrimplets hatching - I too did see a baby "spring" away from the belly area once and presume it was just being born. Is that what you witnessed or did you see something different?
-GB
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lennyoides
- Egg
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2005 4:21 pm
- Location: NJ
Hand out the cigars!
Hi GM 
This little ball dropped out of the Rear-end (technical term)
of the mother and suddenly it opened up and off it went. I saw this happed at least three times and then she moved out of my line of site. I know she was full of eggs but so far I've only been able to see a couple at one time. I hope the rest are hiding someplace. What is the infant mortality rate? The few that I do see seem to be just fine and like everyone has said they're exact dupes of the adults. Hard to believe till you see it.
Lennyoides
This little ball dropped out of the Rear-end (technical term)
of the mother and suddenly it opened up and off it went. I saw this happed at least three times and then she moved out of my line of site. I know she was full of eggs but so far I've only been able to see a couple at one time. I hope the rest are hiding someplace. What is the infant mortality rate? The few that I do see seem to be just fine and like everyone has said they're exact dupes of the adults. Hard to believe till you see it.Lennyoides
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GunmetalBlue
- Shrimpoholic
- Posts: 263
- Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 11:10 am
- Location: CA
That's fantastic info - I wish I could have witnessed that portion of it. It brings up questions to wonder about too, like does the mother initiate releasing the egg (and how does she know when?) or does the egg "fall out" due to a change in the egg?
It would be hard to know infant mortality rate; each case would be different and we don't start out knowing how many eggs there are. Additionally, any unviable eggs or dead newborn is not something that can easily be seen and would probably be eaten before we might notice it. I did see someone's picture of a non-surviving egg still attached to a molted exoskeleton though.
Once born, it seems they have a good chance at survival, at least in my experience. So yes, I think most of yours will be hiding someplace. I thought the numbers would decrease as the babies got older, but now that I can see them better, I'm finding that at each count, there's even more than I thought! So I separated my adult male and female in an attempt at population control - but now, some of the youngsters are right around the corner from maturity. It will be rather laughable, if I were to attempt to separate them all.
Once those RCS get going, there seems to be no stopping them...
-GB
It would be hard to know infant mortality rate; each case would be different and we don't start out knowing how many eggs there are. Additionally, any unviable eggs or dead newborn is not something that can easily be seen and would probably be eaten before we might notice it. I did see someone's picture of a non-surviving egg still attached to a molted exoskeleton though.
Once born, it seems they have a good chance at survival, at least in my experience. So yes, I think most of yours will be hiding someplace. I thought the numbers would decrease as the babies got older, but now that I can see them better, I'm finding that at each count, there's even more than I thought! So I separated my adult male and female in an attempt at population control - but now, some of the youngsters are right around the corner from maturity. It will be rather laughable, if I were to attempt to separate them all.
Once those RCS get going, there seems to be no stopping them...
-GB