What are these?

[On_a_dishy]

White under-the-shell and along-the-spine bits of white on a couple of my shrimps’ back?

 

[On_a_dishy]

More photos. The marks are on 3 of my 6 shrimp, inside the shell.

 

[seangee]

They are females and in about a month you will have shrimplets

 

[Slammin’ Aquascaping]

Those are saddles

 

[Slammin’ Aquascaping]

You will have babies soon enough

 

[On_a_dishy]

This is so lovely to hear! I spent ages trying to find information online but I think my question was so basic that the answer was buried deep in the pages I had to scroll through to find!
Babies are coming!

 

[Essjay]

The saddle is the eggs developing in the ovaries. The next thing to look for, assuming you have male shrimps, is the eggs hanging between the swimmerets under her abdomen. They could be white, yellow or even green. It looks like a bunch of tiny grapes and is called being berried. The fertilised eggs will stay there until they are fully developed, then they'll hatch. The shrimplets are tiny and easily sucked up with the siphon tube. I use a bucket to do a water change on my shrimp tank, and I empty the bucket with a jug, a translucent plastic jug so I can see the tiny baby shrimp and I rescue them with a 1 ml plastic pipette with the narrow end cut off leaving a wide mouth.

 

[On_a_dishy]

That's all good advice @Essjay - I'm having flashbacks to the fresh hell of not sucking up betta fry. I'll also try not to assume that the eggs are a parasitic army and go into chemical manoeuvres.
I'm really looking forward to it. I had no idea that shrimps could be so much fun - I just got them to clean the algae.

 

[Slammin’ Aquascaping]

I'm having flashbacks to the fresh hell of not sucking up betta fry

It is the worst feeling when you have to delicately take the betta fry out of the water change bucket with a turkey baster

I just got them to clean the algae.

Just goes to show that algae can go a long way! I started breeding otos because of algae

 

[On_a_dishy]

I’m really torn between a new Betta or bottom feeders. I need to get something in the tank soon (I have 6 cherry shrimp but need more to keep my bacteria happy).
I’ve just looked at https://www.aquariumcarebasics.com/freshwater-aquarium-fish/otocinclus-catfish/
They’re so pretty! Like the deer of the bottom feeder world with their big eyes!

 

[Slaphppy7]

I’m really torn between a new Betta or bottom feeders. I need to get something in the tank soon (I have 6 cherry shrimp but need more to keep my bacteria happy).
I’ve just looked at https://www.aquariumcarebasics.com/freshwater-aquarium-fish/otocinclus-catfish/
They’re so pretty! Like the deer of the bottom feeder world with their big eyes!

What is the tank size? How long has it been set up?

 

[Essjay]

Don't forget otos are algae eaters so the tank needs plenty of algae. Some otos will eat algae tablets but some never do.
They are also shoaling fish so you need a few of them.

The problem with another betta is you cannot know in advance whether that particular betta will eat the shrimps or not.

 

[On_a_dishy]

I’m leaning towards bottom feeders. I have a 34L Fluval, fully cycled, and 6 cherry shrimp who are about to all be parents
I have a quarantine tank set up ready - I just need to decide on what to put in there!

 

[Essjay]

The snag with bottom feeders is that most of them are shoaling fish and 34 litres is quite small for shoaling fish; and if the tank is a Flex, it has a small footprint limiting the choice of fish.
If you have soft water and sand substrate, pygmy cories could be an option thoough this cory species does spend a lot of its time swimming in the middle of the tank.

 

[seangee]

Why not just wait. Shrimps are fascinating, especially when you have a lot of them. In a few months you are likely to have over 100 with no predators. Unlike some livebearers they won't breed out of control so you don't have to worry about getting rid of the surplus.