Saddled Opae's

[ShrimpGuy]

Hi All!

I've had a long struggle with my Opae's It had been a couple of months and still there wasn't much activity. After trying everything in the book to try to get my supershrimp out of hiding, I decided to try different light types. I was told in the past that the lighting didn't matter. So... I removed my 50/50 and replaced it with the clear test tube shaped bulb that came with my 5.5 gallon aquarium. Boy was it awful. The very deep yellow tint it put on the water looked like urine. Ewe. However.... my little Opae's came out of hiding. After a couple days I found a white daylight bulb and put that in. Much better. Still not as nice as the pretty 50/50 bulb. But close. The shrimps seem so much happier now. There is lots of activity all day long now.

I've suddenly noticed about half the shrimp have a dark area just behind the head. Does that mean they are saddled? It's different than my other shrimp types.

So if they are saddled, does that necessarily mean they will become berried?

How long is the process?

[Mustafa]

Congrats! I'm glad that your shrimp are doing much better! Lighting *may* make a difference if: 1. your light is not strong enough for sufficient algae growth 2. different lights have different spectra, and algae may prefer one spectrum over the other, and, hence, grow more vigorously. As for the "saddle"...search this forum for recent posts where I posted pictures of females with developing eggs in their ovary. That'll give you an idea about what a proper "saddle" should look like. As for being saddled being an almost guarantee that your females will start carrying eggs...unfortunately, that's not the case. I've had tanks in the past where females ran around with saddles for months and months and months. Unless conditions are right (fully established nitrifying bacteria, not too much organic pollution, not too much and not too little available food etc.) they just won't successfully breed. And by successful, I mean: you have fully formed baby shrimp running around in your tank. Even if your shrimp start carrying eggs, that's no guarantee that the larvae will actually survive beyond hatching...even if larvae have been floating around for a few days, that's still no guarantee that they will actually survive to postlarval stage (i.e. mini-shrimp). It can take a while until the tank gets there.

Do you have any snails? I'm starting to realize more and more over time how crucial the role of snails (not nerites, but Tarebia granifera or Melanoides tuberculata) is in keeping the cycle going (snails produce way more ammonia than shrimp) and eliminating surplus organics.

[ShrimpGuy]

Congrats! I'm glad that your shrimp are doing much better! Lighting *may* make a difference if: 1. your light is not strong enough for sufficient algae growth 2. different lights have different spectra, and algae may prefer one spectrum over the other, and, hence, grow more vigorously. As for the "saddle"...search this forum for recent posts where I posted pictures of females with developing eggs in their ovary. That'll give you an idea about what a proper "saddle" should look like. As for being saddled being an almost guarantee that your females will start carrying eggs...unfortunately, that's not the case. I've had tanks in the past where females ran around with saddles for months and months and months. Unless conditions are right (fully established nitrifying bacteria, not too much organic pollution, not too much and not too little available food etc.) they just won't successfully breed. And by successful, I mean: you have fully formed baby shrimp running around in your tank. Even if your shrimp start carrying eggs, that's no guarantee that the larvae will actually survive beyond hatching...even if larvae have been floating around for a few days, that's still no guarantee that they will actually survive to postlarval stage (i.e. mini-shrimp). It can take a while until the tank gets there.

Do you have any snails? I'm starting to realize more and more over time how crucial the role of snails (not nerites, but Tarebia granifera or Melanoides tuberculata) is in keeping the cycle going (snails produce way more ammonia than shrimp) and eliminating surplus organics.

Thanks very much for all the info!

Yes I purchased 10 of your snails from you a couple months ago.

[Mustafa]

You're welcome. Sorry for forgetting about your snail purchase. It's hard to keep track of who got what after a while. Especially since I don't immediately connect online names with people's real names. Well, in that case you're set. Just sit back and relax while trying to find out the right amount to feed every few weeks.

[ShrimpGuy]

wOOt wOOt.... I have my first berried Opae!

Never thought it would happen..... but it finally happened.

I've very excited.

I wonder how far along the eggs are?

Then how long for larvae to hatch?

[KenCotigirl]

Great news. Need pictures. 35+/- days to 'hatch' and 14+/- 'baby' shrimp. Should be written somewhere. Doing this from memory. I will update when I find out for sure.

Ken
(Edited the larval stage)

[Mustafa]

Congrats! Ken's numbers are about right (there is variation depending on temperature). Now make sure that you do not change anything in your routine due to excitement. Getting them to be berried is the first step, keeping the larvae alive is another challenge altogether if one is prone to overfeeding and constantly disturbing the tank. Keep the updates coming!

[ShrimpGuy]

Congrats! Ken's numbers are about right (there is variation depending on temperature). Now make sure that you do not change anything in your routine due to excitement. Getting them to be berried is the first step, keeping the larvae alive is another challenge altogether if one is prone to overfeeding and constantly disturbing the tank. Keep the updates coming!

Update:

At one point I had 6 berried females. It was hard to tell, as they don't show themselves very often. Every once in awhile
the all come out to feed at once and it gets lively.

Now I have at least a couple dozen larvae floating about. It's been several days, and so far they look ok. I'll keep my fingers crossed that
they all make it .

[Mustafa]

Alright!! Are they still alive? If so, they should settle any day now as they float around for only about 2 weeks, give or take. Congrats!