Amano Shrimp (advice Required)

[Livewire88]

Hey everyone,

I have had 3 amano shrimp in my tank from the very beginning, one of them has had a belly full of eggs for about six months and she seems to be getting bigger and bigger all the time.

As she is in my fresh water tank I know she will not be producing any baby shrimp and I feel a little sorry for her having to carry all these eggs round.

Should I mix some Brackish water up and put her in a small tank of brackish water so that she can empty herself of eggs?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated

 

[mike455555]

Hey everyone,

I have had 3 amano shrimp in my tank from the very beginning, one of them has had a belly full of eggs for about six months and she seems to be getting bigger and bigger all the time.

As she is in my fresh water tank I know she will not be producing any baby shrimp and I feel a little sorry for her having to carry all these eggs round.

Should I mix some Brackish water up and put her in a small tank of brackish water so that she can empty herself of eggs?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated

you could try. but i thought the eggs floated down into brackish water and the shrimplets swam back up stream. can the adults survive in brackish?

 

[Bugdozer]

It's a myth that the eggs need brackish water to hatch. They don't. They hatch in fresh water and the zoes are carried into brackish water, as Mike says. The difficulty in breeding amano shrimp has usually been caused by the gradual transition from fresh to brackish and back to fresh (as they develop to adulthood) that the baby shrimps need, not because the eggs won't hatch.
The reason amano zoes need brackish water is that they simply cannot swim well enough to stay in one place in the wild, and will inevitably be swept downstream. However, since adult amanos are found in much fresher water, logic dictates that's where their eggs will be to hatch. However, I don't know what the usual carrying time of eggs is for amanos. I was hoping to try and breed some myself, but I think all five I have are male!

 

[Essjay]

Have the eggs always been the same colour? I have one female, her eggs vary from white to olive green. I read somewhere a couple of years ago that they change colour as they mature but I can't remember which way round. I've had my shrimps for over 3 years and I've never seen her without eggs, just different coloured eggs. Since I often don't see the shrimps for days at a time, I've always assumed the eggs hatch, the larvae die, then she lays more eggs within a day or two so she's carrying more eggs by the next time I see her.
She's a huge shrimp, she's about the same size as my dwarf chain loaches, the males are only half her size.

 

[Livewire88]

Thanks for all the replies

I am not interested in the babies surviving as I am aware they are difficult to raise so I was just relay thinking of the Females health. As I am colourblind it is difficult to say but the eggs do look darker sometimes so I guess she is just constantly full.

And essjay the female I have is also huge she even takes algae wafers away from my adult BN plec!! She bosses the tank on her own

 

[DrRob]

Mine always laid their eggs in freshwater, never seemed to have a problem. I'm pretty sure that the tetras enjoyed the snack.

 

[Livewire88]

Well here is a picture of her, I see her everyday and have never not seen her full of eggs! I assumed that she would empty herself of eggs now and again.

(yes I know the glass needs a clean lol)