Shrimp with eggs??? - With pics and video!!

[Mr Bee]

Doing my weekly w/c today, and saw one of the shrimp sitting under a leaf, with what looks like loads of eggs under it.

I was always under the idea that with RCS, the females were bright red/pink coloured, and the males were a darker, browner colour?? But it's a darker coloured one which I assumed to be a male that I saw with the eggs.

Here's some pictures:-

A Female


The Male-looking one with eggs





And every so often, while he/she was sitting there, it would wiggle its legs and flick the eggs about a bit - see the video below (30secs):-




I also found a little baby shrimplet making an appearance 😀



So is this a shrimp with eggs which will hatch?
Is this a female or a male shrimp?

 

[JamesM]

Its a female. She'll hold on to the eggs until they hatch.

 

[Mr Bee]

Cool, some baby shrimps on the way 😀 😀 😀

They just gotta hide well enough to avoid the tetra's once they hatched!!

Is there anything I can do to help or assist their development or growth? - I put some crushed crab cuisine, and brine shrimp onve or twice a week, is that ok for newly hatched shrimplets? there is also some spiky moss and a cladopharia ball in there, which is supposed to have microscopic things in which they can eat.

So can females be dark coloured too?? I thought the colour was a sure-fire way to tell the sex, with bright being female and dark being male.

Obviously, this shows that's not always the case, is there a foolproof way to check the sex?

 

[JamesM]

Yup, females can vary in colour. Depends on their age too - they darken as they get older. Males tend to be more spotted red rather than a full red.

The baby shrimlets don't need any special treatment as they eat the same foods as the adults and hide when feel threatened.

Congrats 😀

 

[thebullit]

congrates mate. 3 weeks then there lil ones, but may be long for you to see them. the males have more of a hump on its back and the females sides with be thicker. 🙂

 

[Wolfenrook]

Your browny coloured one isn't really an RCS, it's just a standard brown neocaridina heteropoda (same species, but not the colour variation that cherry shrimp are), usually these pop up where your source has kept them together with either other neocaridina shrimp, or wild types.

Females are ALWAYS better coloured than males, the males are usually pretty much clear with just a few coloured spots.

Ade