aquasteph
04-22-2009, 05:56 AM
I'm currently keeping a journal of the daily progress of my pregnant shrimp. I thought you guys might like to hear it, too. :)
FYI:
-I use the term "Baby Mama" if they still have the eggs inside their body.
-And they are "Mama Shrimp" if the eggs are outside, under the pleopods.
A few months ago I had a Mama shrimp and put her alone in a breeder, and things went downhill from there. She ate her eggs so obviously she wasn't happy.
On 22 Mar 09, I noticed two Baby Mama shrimp developing at about the same rate. I did my research and read that you have to remove the eggs from the Mama shrimp in order to keep her from eating them. Since this was the product of my last attempt, I decided I'd do it.
I went on vacation and let the eggs produce, and when I came home they both were Mama shrimp.
On 12 Apr 09 I carefully extracted 102 eggs from the two shrimp. I removed 50 from one, and 52 from the other. I left 5 in the second Mama because I was afraid of hurting her. I did this by removing the Mama shrimp from the tank and using a small rounded tool I scooped the eggs out from underneath them. Both of the Mamas were unharmed and are still alive and healthy.
I had doubts that this method wouldn't work because I wasn't sure if maybe they were attached to their Mama via some kind of fish umbilical cord? Or perhaps they needed constant movement from Mama because she was always juggling them around with her pleopods? Or would they die if I put them in stagnant water without having Mama there to clean them?
I put the 107 eggs (I got the last 5) in a critter keeper and put it in my crab tank, because the water was a few degrees warmer than my main aquarium. I left them there until 19 Apr 09.
On 19 Apr 09 I removed the critter keeper from the crab tank and noticed that half of the eggs had turned pink and expanded. All of the shrimp had two small black dots, which turn out to be eyes.
I noticed some kind of white layer over one cluster of the pink eggs. I figured this was algae due to the fact that they were in stagnant water. I decided to leave it and keep my eye on it.
20 Apr 09 - No movement yet from the eggs. Eyes are bigger. Some more are pink.
21 Apr 09 - New Baby Mama shrimp! She is still young, at least according to her size but I can see a small amount of eggs inside her.
New Mama shrimp! When I came back from vacation on 11 Apr I found a Baby Mama, so I can't quite be sure when the eggs first appeared internally. She is HUGE with babies.
The eggs all have eyes already but 11 are still green, 1 is orangeish, & 3 are white or really, really light pink. Now all of them are covered in the light algae.
I made a DIY womb for the shrimp eggs. I cut the foot off of an old pair of nylons. It's holes are tiny enough that the eggs can't escape but the water flow can still go through. I put the eggs inside the nylon and hung it over the edge of my floating breeder. Then I put the lid on so the eggs won't come out of the nylon.
Still no movement yet.
I SHALL KEEP UPDATING!
FYI:
-I use the term "Baby Mama" if they still have the eggs inside their body.
-And they are "Mama Shrimp" if the eggs are outside, under the pleopods.
A few months ago I had a Mama shrimp and put her alone in a breeder, and things went downhill from there. She ate her eggs so obviously she wasn't happy.
On 22 Mar 09, I noticed two Baby Mama shrimp developing at about the same rate. I did my research and read that you have to remove the eggs from the Mama shrimp in order to keep her from eating them. Since this was the product of my last attempt, I decided I'd do it.
I went on vacation and let the eggs produce, and when I came home they both were Mama shrimp.
On 12 Apr 09 I carefully extracted 102 eggs from the two shrimp. I removed 50 from one, and 52 from the other. I left 5 in the second Mama because I was afraid of hurting her. I did this by removing the Mama shrimp from the tank and using a small rounded tool I scooped the eggs out from underneath them. Both of the Mamas were unharmed and are still alive and healthy.
I had doubts that this method wouldn't work because I wasn't sure if maybe they were attached to their Mama via some kind of fish umbilical cord? Or perhaps they needed constant movement from Mama because she was always juggling them around with her pleopods? Or would they die if I put them in stagnant water without having Mama there to clean them?
I put the 107 eggs (I got the last 5) in a critter keeper and put it in my crab tank, because the water was a few degrees warmer than my main aquarium. I left them there until 19 Apr 09.
On 19 Apr 09 I removed the critter keeper from the crab tank and noticed that half of the eggs had turned pink and expanded. All of the shrimp had two small black dots, which turn out to be eyes.
I noticed some kind of white layer over one cluster of the pink eggs. I figured this was algae due to the fact that they were in stagnant water. I decided to leave it and keep my eye on it.
20 Apr 09 - No movement yet from the eggs. Eyes are bigger. Some more are pink.
21 Apr 09 - New Baby Mama shrimp! She is still young, at least according to her size but I can see a small amount of eggs inside her.
New Mama shrimp! When I came back from vacation on 11 Apr I found a Baby Mama, so I can't quite be sure when the eggs first appeared internally. She is HUGE with babies.
The eggs all have eyes already but 11 are still green, 1 is orangeish, & 3 are white or really, really light pink. Now all of them are covered in the light algae.
I made a DIY womb for the shrimp eggs. I cut the foot off of an old pair of nylons. It's holes are tiny enough that the eggs can't escape but the water flow can still go through. I put the eggs inside the nylon and hung it over the edge of my floating breeder. Then I put the lid on so the eggs won't come out of the nylon.
Still no movement yet.
I SHALL KEEP UPDATING!