Prego Amano?

[pinsonpa]

I have 3 amano shrimp in a 10 gallon with live plants and 6 Cardinal Tetras. They've been in there (and happy as far as I can tell) for about 4 months now. While away for the weekend, I noticed the biggest one has gotten bigger. As in a bigger belly. I've been watching it for the last 2 days and sometimes it keeps it's tail curled under it's belly and sometimes it is all stretched out and generating a real pulsating motion around the belly (fanning the eggs?).

I'm going to assume at this point that this shrimp is pregnant until I hear differently from someone here in the AC. If this is the case, do I need to do anything to prepare (brackish water tank, tank divider, etc.) or should I just assume the rate of survival is too slim to bother?

Any idea (based on the above stated activity) how much longer?

[squirt_12]

The way to tell is she is pregnant is that she will hold the eggs in her swimmerettes (sp?), little leg like thigs under tail, and she will carry them for about 6 weeks then they will hatch. With Amano shrimp though, the larvae have to go through a bunch of larvae stages and they need to be in saltwater which is green [phytoplankton (sp?)] in order for them to survive.

[Fishalicious]

The eggs should be quite visible at the back ... she will constantly move them and fan them...

If you do want to attempt hatching and breeding them this is an excellent site:
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

[pinsonpa]

Thank you squirt...and Jess, thank you very much for the link...several very good articles in there. It seems like a bit more of a process than I can take on right now (2 year old twins at home and my wife is 6 months pregnant with number three...wooohoooo!). Anyway, I'm going to have to hope that I got lucky and ended up with the type of amano shrimp who's larva can survive fresh water. I may get a divider to keep the Cardinals from eating the larva and if they make it, super. If not, it sounds as if my female shrimp will likely continue to lay eggs and I can give it a go when things calm down a bit.