A question about Bloody Mary shrimp

[Jessie J.]

Hi everyone. My bloody Mary shrimp is berried, does this mean she's pregnant? I only have three shrimps (blue velvet, bloody Mary, neon gold) so how else can I tell what sexes they are?
Thanks.

 

[Colin_T]

A berried shrimp or crayfish is a female with eggs attached to her pleopods/ swimmerettes (the little things under her tail that move back and forth).

 

[Jessie J.]

Really? I don't see any eggs under her tail.

 

[Colin_T]

If you post a picture of the shrimp we can have a look at it.

 

[Jessie J.]

Okay; how do I resize my pictures? It won't let me upload the size I currently have.

 

[Colin_T]

Set your camera's resolution to 2MB or something low and take a few pics. They should then be small enough to put on here. If they are still too big put them on an image hosting website and put the links here and we can view the images at the other website.

 

[Jessie J.]

I can't change the size on my camera, I don't think; it's a digital finepix. Where can I get the photos resized?

 

[Colin_T]

Fuji Finepix cameras can change the resolution in the menu options. Otherwise you should have some software that came with the camera to edit images. You can usually resize them with the software.

If you can't do that then put them on an image hosting website and put the links here. We can view the images at the other site.

 

[Essjay]

The word 'berried' is used to describe a female shrimp which has eggs between the swimmerets. If you can't see eggs, she is not berried. That word is used because the eggs look like a cluster of berries.

There is lots of free photo software that can be used to resize photos - I use Irfanview. There are plenty of guides on-line about how to do this.

 

[Jessie J.]

I though berried was when the color was mottled or unclear.

 

[Essjay]

No it isn't.
There are two terms used with female shrimps
The first is saddled, or having a saddle. This is a lighter saddle shaped patch on the female's back and occurs when the ovaries are filling with eggs.
The second is berried, which means she has a cluster of eggs looking like berries between her swimmerets.


If your shrimp is looking mottled, you really need to post a photo. Try using some photographic software to resize the photo to make it small enough to post.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Pic of a berried shrimp which should help you.



Eggs on shrimps are found in their abdomen area. Also the eggs are usually yellow or green in colour.

The “saddle” essjay speaks of is directly behind the shrimps eyes on shoulders really, sometimes darker or lighter than the rest of its body. This usually an indicator that the shrimp is going to be berried soon.

To sex shrimps, females are usually larger than males but the easiest way is to look at the abdomen area, females are much rounder and males tend to be much flatter in abdomen area.

Male -

Female -


Practices makes perfect, soon you’ll be able to tell the difference fairly easily before you know it

 

[Jessie J.]

I do have a large neon gold shrimp with a plump rear end (no eggs yet) that has a saddle. Is she pregnant?

 

[Jessie J.]

No it isn't.
There are two terms used with female shrimps
The first is saddled, or having a saddle. This is a lighter saddle shaped patch on the female's back and occurs when the ovaries are filling with eggs.
The second is berried, which means she has a cluster of eggs looking like berries between her swimmerets.


If your shrimp is looking mottled, you really need to post a photo. Try using some photographic software to resize the photo to make it small enough to post.

The mottling isn't really that thick, just like red dots along the entire body instead of being completely red.