Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

Hi I am wondering at what point do the eggs get fertilized? are they usually fertilized by the time you see them in the swimerettes. And how many eggs or babies usually come from a shrimp? I just bought 10 cherrys last thursday and two of them had eggs I could see, On one they were green and on the other they were yellow.
Thanks
Dan

I've found berried females in my purchases, and they are likely already fertilized considering the crowded conditions the shrimp are raised and held in, in the market.

IF they are like other shrimp I know about, the eggs become fertilized as they come out of the female (right before they are settled and visible under her tail). Males sense these fertile females and place a sperm packet on her prior to eggs actually coming out, so that as the eggs come out, they are fertilized.

I really don't know how true this is, but I was told that in some Macrobrachium species, sneaky males may remove a sperm pack already on a female and place their own pack there instead

Cool thanks, do you know how many babies there usually are from a female?

"Clorophyll" gave a nice description of how it really works. As to number of shrimp hatchlings from a female....it all depends on the species and individual female. Somewhere between 20-80 for shrimp that produce benthic young and up to severl thousand for shrimp that produce free floating larvae.