Red Rili Shrimp Sex Identification

[Baccus]

Just had to show you the latest pictures (just taken this evening) of my baby cherry shrimp fathered by a black cherry over dark red female.

 

[snazy]

Thanks. It would be lovely to see how they turn out.

And I have a berried chery female with a big belly

 

[Baccus]

Congrats,

in around 30 days you should have shrimplets.

 

[snazy]

Here is a pic from today:

 

[Baccus]

Yep she certianly is berried

, if you can get close enough to her when the eggs are getting closer to hatching you can see the shrimplets tiny eyes in the eggs.
Here is some trivia for you, did you know that a cherry shrimps eggs can be either orange or green, but that as far as people can tell the egg colour has no bearing on the offsprings colours. It seems to be just a residual survival trait, that is not harming the shrimp so its staying in the genes of the shrimp.

 

[snazy]

Yeah, I saw the ones with green eggs while browsing pictures. The green ones look really cool in contrast with the red.
The berried cherry female is the less coloured of the two. The other one is really red but not preggo yet

I was a bit worried in the beginning seeing the shrimp so active as I thought they are supposed to graze most of the time but mine seem to swim around quite a lot and play gymnastics on the floating plants too, taking a ride around the tank from time to time

I don't know if it's normal but they are surviving so far

. They try to land on the corys backs too

 

[Baccus]

Honestly I only worry about the cherry shrimp if they are all clustered around the surface otherwise they are always either stuffing their faces or looking for the next meal

. The males are usually the most active in my tanks always off looking for their next conquest, while the females are more ho-hum

oh look here's something to eat

.

 

[snazy]

Before I forget, I noticed today my second cherry is berried, yey. Now I need to be prepared for little shrimplets in a few weeks time. Do they need to be fed anything special?

 

[Baccus]

Nothing special for the shrimplets they eat exactly what the parents eat.
Congrats on now having two berried females, sounds like I was right that the males going nuts where just looking for the females.
You can speed up the growth/ development process by increasing the tank temp, but I would not really reccomend this as the higher temp, produces quicker metabalisms and even sooner death. Cherry shrimp really do live life in the fast lane.

 

[snazy]

Thanks. It certainly seems the males were dancing around looking for females. And it does seem like you said the males are a lot more active. I have them at 25 degrees at the moment and I don't want to change because I want the cory babies in the same tank to grow at the same temperature as the main tank. All I need to see now is if any shrimplets will survive and then separate them based on colour

I kind of don't want to take out the pregnant females to stress them. They seem quite happy. I'll see what comes out first.

 

[Baccus]

25 degrees is fine for cherry shrimp, they can handle both higher and lower temps.The shrimplets should survive without any problems. The hard part will be sorting/ grading the shrimplets

but hopefully by the time they are big enough to easily decide which are Rili, potential rili and normal you will have had a few more shrimplets born to keep the process going.

 

[snazy]

I think one of my berried females dropped the eggs after I did a rush water change today. I was in a hurry so I changed the water using the python which means I poured water from the tap straight into the tank instead of premixing it with dechlorinator.
When I came back later I saw one of the cherries walking around with just a couple of eggs left in her belly. It's a bit too early for birth so I am guessing I stressed her. I haven't been able to see the other one yet, hopefully she didn't too.

That will teach me a lesson not to be so lazy, but hate changing water using buckets

Edit: There is another very strange thing. I am pretty certain yesterday I saw her with a saddle and eggs and today she had a saddle too although she still had a couple of eggs in her abdomen. Is that normal?

 

[Baccus]

She may have actually had the shrimplets, tank temp can influence the development of shrimplets. Eggs can get stuck behind in the legs, its not all that common but if she is saddled again then the remaining eggs in her swimmerets will get shed the next time she moults.
Cherry shrimp are tough, so I would think she actually had the shrimplets. Remember they are tiny when first born, barely bigger than a daphinea and hide well.
I hope you have a hundred little bubs racing about your tank.

 

[snazy]

That's giving me a bit of hope.

The moss has grown so much that I doubt it I'll see them easily if she did give birth. I'll keep my hopes up, if not, there's always more time. On another hand I looked at the rest of the shrimp if they lost colour or indication that something is wrong and they all seemed their usual selfs.

 

[snazy]

I haven't been able to see any shrimplets so I am guessing she dropped them.
The other cherry was still berried the day after and I saw her today too. She's the nicer looking one anyway. The one that dropped the eggs is kind of pinkish.
And I think one of the red rili males has a bacterial infection or I have no idea what that is. His body in the middle is white, not translucent as it was, although he hasn't lost any colour and the red looks very red in contrast with the white. From what I read he may have an infection, and if that's true he's about to die? I only saw this 2-3 days ago and he behaves normal otherwise, comes for food when I feed the corys along with the other shrimp.