Cherry shrimp sex

[Niccobacci11]

So I have around 50 cherry shrimp from high grade


To pretty low grade


So I have this shrimp that is about an inch long looks like a boy but is too big for a boy and I always hear about they develop a saddle when developing eggs and I don't know if this is a saddle or not but then I look at my for sure boys and they don't have it and some of my other clearer females don't have it.
This is the suspected girl



And this is a boy they are almost the same color


If you need any clarification just ask

 

[maxwellag]

That is a female- any with the yellow saddle are females. Females will get a bit larger than males. I've noticed that the females tend to have slightly better coloring, but that could have just been the specific ones I had.

 

[Niccobacci11]

Does the saddle meant hat she has already mated or does it mean that she is getting ready to mate?

 

[maxwellag]

The eggs in the saddle are undeveloped, so they're likely unfertilized. Once they are fertilized, they will move to the female's "belly" area and they usually get bigger. Here's a picture of the eggs in the "belly" area (this isn't my picture- I'm just using it for reference).

 

[Khuligirl93]

Yes I agree that the one you suspect is a girl is indeed a girl and she is saddled.
In my experience the females are brighter colored as well. I raise fire red shrimp- I think that's what your first picture may be actually. Fire red or painted.

 

[Niccobacci11]

I bought 20 super high quality fire reds from invertobsession and then I bought 40 from theshrimpfarm that was super cheap and this is what I get
And this is the lightest color out of all the males and females I think it is just this one

 

[Fishfur]

The appearance of a saddle on female shrimp simply means they are sexually mature. Those are immature eggs you see, but they shrimp will not mate until after a moult. Then she sends out pheromones, and the males will all come after her to mate with her.

In the Neo shrimps, females are nearly always better coloured and larger at maturity than males are. Higher grade males have better colours, but the girls usually outdo them even then. If you want to maintain the best colours, cull the babies when they are about a half inch or so. Don't necessarily get rid of them right away, as sometimes culls will colour up later on, but certainly cull those that show little to no colour.

Over some time, the very red genes will be expressed more often and babies will have better colour overall.

Because you diluted the high grade stock with the cheaper, low grade ones, you are seeing degradation in their colours. If you don't cull the poorly coloured ones, you will end up with hardly any that have good colour.

The strong colours are obtained by constant culling & selection. They're recessive, so they will be overridden by the lower grade shrimp's colour genetics, which are more dominant.