Red Rili Shrimp Sex Identification

[Baccus]

Yes, the swimmer legs, the females are usually more noticable since that is where they store the fertilized eggs .

 

[Baccus]

Here is a better picture of a juvi cherry shrimp, ignore the black male to the left and look under the ledge of the piece of wood

 

[snazy]

Thank you very much. I feel stupid now. I found the info with body parts online
Anyway, the shrimp are very active now and I was able to take a closer look at 3 of them. They grow so fast I can't believe it. And to be honest I have the awful feeling they are all males. I see no belly in neither of them and they are quite upcurved. I've been looking today for my cherry female in the other tank but couldn't find her. I looked in the coconut caves and everywhere. She's red so she couldn't be so hard to find, but naah What I found was a whitish thing looking like a dead shrimp so I thought she is a gonner and was feeling bad all day. Then just a couple of minutes ago it dawned on me it could have been the exoskeleton. What I found looked like the stuff on the picture below, exactly the same. Anyway, if she's alive I can't find her. If I do, she's moving to the shrimp tank with the rilis. I am not buying anything from those thieves that sold me the red rilis.

 

[Baccus]

The first time you see a shrimps exoskelaton it comes as a nasty shock, and tends to make you feel like its gone and died on you . I wouldn't worry about her to much she will hide really well for a couple of days until her new shell is nicely hardened up, just like crabs who are easy targets after they have shed their old skin.
The rili's are so young it should be another month or two before they are capable of breeding, by then hopefully it will be easier to tell any males from females. I was thinking maybe you could breed the red to the rili's but as the offspring colour up only leave the rili patterned shrimp in the tank and rehouse the reds in another tank. At least then the rili gene shouldn't end up getting swamped and diluted by the stronger "normal" red.

 

[snazy]

The first time you see a shrimps exoskelaton it comes as a nasty shock, and tends to make you feel like its gone and died on you . I wouldn't worry about her to much she will hide really well for a couple of days until her new shell is nicely hardened up, just like crabs who are easy targets after they have shed their old skin.
The rili's are so young it should be another month or two before they are capable of breeding, by then hopefully it will be easier to tell any males from females. I was thinking maybe you could breed the red to the rili's but as the offspring colour up only leave the rili patterned shrimp in the tank and rehouse the reds in another tank. At least then the rili gene shouldn't end up getting swamped and diluted by the stronger "normal" red.

I found her The lights were off and she walked right in front of me. She's already in the shrimp tank
The worst I could end up with is red cherry shrimp only if they breed. I'll see how it goes

 

[snazy]

The rilis look to be 3 different sizes with the biggest one over a "shrimp tail" longer than the first. I've been comparing them to the cherry shrimp this evening and the biggest rili is almost her size The last time I saw the cherry shrimp she was saddled I can't see in the dark now, but will have a look tomorrow. However this means my rilis are not so small after all and are males but one male is almost her size They were a lot smaller looking when I got them first

Anyway, the cherry shrimp feels like home I think, already playing ball with the sand grains

 

[Baccus]

One good thing about cherry shrimp they seem to settle into new abodes readily I think their stomaches rule their lives . they are always eager to have something to munch on. If your female red cherry shrimp is full grown (roughly 4cm) and one of the rili shrimp is the same size then I would expect it to also be a female. However if they are both hovering around the 2-3cm mark than the rili could still be a male but closer to adulthood than the other rilis.

Cherry shrimp basically moult and grow every month once mature, but shrimplets for the first week or two shed pretty much daily. My little shrimplets in my black cherry shrimp tank are now much easier to find but are still only a few mm in size.

 

[snazy]

No, I'd say the red cherry is about 2.5cm-3cm long and the largest rili is slightly shorter, maybe 2-2.5cm. I'll have to take out the measuring tape today . I know it's easier to see the shape of the belly on the cherry as these rillis have see through ones, but at the moment looking at them I think it will take a miracle to have a female amongst them. I don't know how fast the cherrys grow, but the rilis do seem to grow rapidly and I read they grow way faster to adulthood sizes than the cherrys. I can swear that a couple of weeks ago the cherry looked huge compared to the rilis.
I can breed the red cherry anyway, and as you say separate the offspring depending on what comes out. I'll plant some moss in the platy tank too. I saw some little platys with already black tails there(it was supposed to be a female tank only for no offspring until I noticed a late developing male ) So it seems some shrimp may survive too. And if I run out of space one day, there's always the betta tank to chance a few. It's a 7G tank, so plenty of room for some little creatures, although I don't trust the betta too much. He never seems to show immediate interest but then starts poking at his tankmates.

I was wondering, if the cherry shrimp does get berried, is it wise to move her temporary into a large breeder box before she gives birth. I got one of the hang on marina breeder boxes that provide flow from the main tank all the time via an airpump and is large enough for a shrimp and shrimpletts for quite a while. I am afraid that the currently 2 days old cory fry will spend quite a bit of time in the shrimp tank and they'll probably eat the shrimpletts once they grow. Or is it very stressful for pregnant shrimp to be moved because I read they can drop the eggs.


Your little shrimpletts are so cute. Are the black cherry offspring colouring faster than the cherrys?

 

[Baccus]

Yes female shrimp can abort/ dump their eggs if stressed but that is usually if you totally change their water stats say from one type of tank to another completely different tank with totally different water parameters.

I don't think I know what a marina breeder trap looks like but as long as its getting fresh tank water through it then it should be fine, I would just add some weed to the trap to help the shrimp feel secure and if possible set it away from any tank lights. Being "stuck" close to the surface with bright lights with no escape could really stress the shrimp out. If keeping shrimp in a trap I often use a suspended net type breeding trap and just set it up where the return of the HOB filter runs through it.

So far can't really see any colour in the shrimplets, but here is a fun test for your shrimplet spotting skills, see how many shrimplets you can see in these photos

Now if you want to see some cute shrimpm check out my Caridina zebra a north QLD native shrimp

These guys are so small and cute, way smaller than a cherry shrimp.

 

[snazy]

Oh, I can definately see 5-6 shrimplets in there. The zebra ones are really cute. Aren't they more sensitive to water conditions?

The marina hanging trap is normally connected to the outside side of the tank with tubes running in and out to the main tank providing the water flow, so it's not close to the lights at all. I'll set it up like a mini tank with floating plants, moss and sand.

Here she is. You can see the yellowish saddle on her on the first picture:

And a couple of the rili shrimp. These two are the bigger ones. The third is the smallest and he was hiding somewhere.


I love the way you can see this one's insides around the head. Sometimes it's brown, sometimes neon green and sometimes yellow:

And this one has very strange markings, there's a big yellow part on his head surrounded by red.

 

[snazy]

Guess what, I found a second cherry female in the platy tank. I thought 2 out of the 3 cherrys got eaten, so far 2 accounted for. She joined my breeding project in the other tank. The way it's going I may find the third one . I don't think I bought a male that day, although I picked a very pale small one but looking at these having just saddles and not berried, I kind of doubt it. Here is a picture of the "new" red cherry:

I wouldn't have bought the rilis if I knew these survived

 

[snazy]

Just wondering, but what is the big orange stripe along the whole lenght on the back of one of my female cherrys? It starts from her nose and the line ends at the end of the tail in the middle? The rest of the body is red and this line is fairly visible.

And this is her with one of the two bigger rili shrimp:

 

[Baccus]

The stripe is nothing to worry about, its just a natural pattern some cherry shrimp get. I have both types in my tanks mat stripe down the back and no stripe.

Yep Caridna zebra are fussier about water quality than cherry shrimp, but they have the right too their natural habitat is tropical rainforests in pristine waterways in North Queensland, so they are pretty used to wonderful cool and clean water.
Congrats on finding another survivor who knows you may yet find number 3

 

[snazy]

I think I won't have the patience to fiddle with ideal water quality although I bought a TDS meter in case I do one day My Ph is pretty high(7.4) and I'll need some amazonia aquasoil or something of the sort to keep a lower Ph for the caridina species.

 

[Baccus]

The biggest asset I have for the Caridina zebra shrimp is my bag of purigen, I was told by the collector and eventual breeder of these shrimp that they need the purigen in the filter. I wouldn't be surprised if the purigen is also why my collection of Borneo Suckers are thriving in the tank as well.

I have never used any of the shrimp soils (they have only just started to be imported and even then only by specilist shops), but from what I have read the shrimp soils as they break down can really muck up pH in the tank. Mind you that could also be down to the people using the shrimp soils also adding Co2 and fertilizers to their planted tanks. Me I go with the KISS method......Keep It Simple Stupid . So I just use washed river sand that was destined for being under pavers or mixed into mortar and a blend of tumbled creek gravel for the plants to root in and then allow the fish, shrimp and snails to supply the nutrients. It works a treat and my Amazon swards have gone crazy.