Protandry In New Zealand's Freshwater Shrimp!

[GunmetalBlue]

Hi guys, I thought this was interesting and thought I'd leave a link to "New Zealand's only freshwater shrimp..." http://www.nzfreshwater.org/shrimp.html

The reason I found it interesting is because of the following info:

Quote: "P. curvirostris is the only member of its family to exhibit protandry; a remarkable life history in which sex is defined by the age and maturity of the individual rather than at development. All individuals undergo a male phase of development before transforming to adult female forms. Therefore small females are rare, and almost all large individuals are likely to be female rather than the more immature males."

I've heard of sex changes happening with certain types of fish, but this is the first I've heard with shrimp! Also, female organisms turning into males (protogyny), strikes me as more common. Although I've heard some strange stories about guppies?!

I'd ask if anyone has kept or heard of P. curvirostris, but don't recall us having any New Zealand members.

Well at least you know a new word, if you didn't already!

-GB

[chlorophyll]

That's interesting. I didn't know any shrimp did that. Nature is something screwy isn't it?

If more hobby shrimp did that, it could be pretty useful. Or, you'd only be able to get large females from exporters.