Shrimp Berried... Now What?

[ianeberle]

I noticed this morning that one of my female shrimp is berried with many eggs. Do I need to do anything special to make sure she doesn't drop them or anything? Extra water changes or anything of that manner? I know it'll be about a month before they hatch. Thanks!

 

[jackwagon]

Nope. Just let nature take its course. Keep your parameters steady and you will be rewarded with baby shrimp!

 

[Autumnsky]

Thinking a few good cleanings before would make life after babies easier you can let it rest a bit after they start moving around in the tank and when they are easier to see you can resume substrate cleaning.

I use a white bucket so I can see if I accidentally suck up a baby.

Congrats! I recently in the past month have had babies in both of my shrimp tanks....SSSOOOOOOOOOO exciting!

 

[severum mama]

Nice job! I agree with everyone else, just leave her be in the tank and you'll have babies soon. If you have any fish in the tank, you can expect some of the babies to be eaten.

A white bucket is a great suggestion- I found this out by lucky accident! I siphoned one of my small tanks last year and found baby CPOs in the bucket. If I had been using my Python, I would have sucked them down the drain!

 

[jcolon]

Let nature take it's course ... I recently added an oak leaf to my RCS tank ... Apparently RCS love to eat off the microbes ... Really helpful for babies. Funny enough though my RCS seem to leave the leaf alone. Oh well. In a few weeks you'll see 1mm sized miniature shrimp moving about.

 

[creic38]

All said is great advise. If you want to syphon out some water for a pwc, you can rubber band a nylon stocking over the syphon as well. Make sure any filter intakes have something like this as well. Congrats......it definitely is exciting. Just had my first bunch about two weeks ago. They are real hard to see at first, especially if you have moss, which is a good idea for the little buggers.

 

[jcolon]

Ah yes ... A sponge over a canister or HOB intake's a great idea unless you just have a sponge filter.

I just had 10-12 babies hatch the night Sandy hit. They're easy to miss, yet once you realize they're there, they'll be impossible to miss while they're out. When they feel like hiding ... Good luck finding them.

 

[jcolon]

BTW ... Don't let their small size fool you. Within a month of hatching, my first batch of babies which hatched within a week after the mother went in the tank are now 0.25 inches. The adults are now at 0.75 inches ... They were closer to 0.5inches when they first arrived. The babies become juveniles rather quickly and I did nothing special with the tank, I just fed as I normally do.

 

[creic38]

BTW ... Don't let their small size fool you. Within a month of hatching, my first batch of babies which hatched within a week after the mother went in the tank are now 0.25 inches. The adults are now at 0.75 inches ... They were closer to 0.5inches when they first arrived. The babies become juveniles rather quickly and I did nothing special with the tank, I just fed as I normally do.

Yup.....after just 2 weeks, I see them much more. They grow pretty quickly in the beginning. I have these in a tank with endlers, and one of them gave birth a couple of nights ago while the power was out and the temp in the tank was dropping. Now I have 2 other prego endlers and 3 berried rcs after these births. I think I'm going to have my hands full real soon. You will be in the same boat, I'm sure!

 

[ianeberle]

I have had a sponge over the filter ever since I put the shrimp in there. Thanks for the replies everyone. I appreciate it!