Cherry Shrimp Question

[benjoey]

Hi Ihave just bought 5 cherry shrimp, unfortunately though the lfs assistant thought they are all females, (thy were the last 5). I was just wondering if theres any chance they could be pregnant from previous males in the tank? Not sure on there reproduction cycle so any help would be great cheers

 

[shroob]

I would say there is a good chance that if the shrimp are mature enough to be sexed then they will probably be pregnant. If you can see a 'saddle' then theres a chance they are fertile, if the shrimp are 'berried' then I would say its almost certain you will have shrimplets in the future (in my experience young/first time shrimp mothers sometimes drop their eggs so just because they are berried doesn't guarantee shrimplets).

Here are some pictures to help with the terms.

The 'saddle' are infact eggs - it is where females store them while they wait to be fertilised. You will see it as a yellow (sometimes green) band in Red cherries. The saddle I think is so called due to its location and shape (like where you would find a horses saddle). In this picture you can quite clearly see the yellowy saddle across the shrimps back.

'Berried' refers to the eggs being carried underneith the shrimp like in the photo below.

Any pictures would also help determine the gender of your shrimp.

 

[Gillette1985]

i bought 6 cherry shrimps yesturday, how can you sex them?? is there a noticable difference?

 

[shroob]

When mature females will be larger and much, much redder. They will also develop a 'saddle' and carry the eggs. Males lack the saddle and don't carry eggs, as well as being much less colourful and smaller when mature.