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Post by Suzie Q (Lori) on May 30, 2012 9:39:33 GMT -5
I see all girls so far. The males don't have that much color. I'll see if I can't dig up a pix of a male from my photobucket account Lori
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Post by parker002 on May 30, 2012 9:40:45 GMT -5
Yeah, that was my other thought as well - that it was a separate species/hybrid. I'm crossing my fingers that it's a male though, I need babies! These 6 are actually making a dent in the algae - 20 of them would make quick work of it.
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Post by parker002 on May 30, 2012 9:45:51 GMT -5
I see all girls so far. The males don't have that much color. I'll see if I can't dig up a pix of a male from my photobucket account Lori Bummer. So how do I got about getting some males?
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Post by Suzie Q (Lori) on May 30, 2012 13:16:11 GMT -5
When I sale RCS, I make sure that there is one adult female and 1 adult male (this is with an order of 10 or more).
Where did you get them again? If it is a LFS, then it may be harder to get a male. Females sale better.
I sell mine for $1 each plus shipping cost and shipping supplies.
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Post by parker002 on May 30, 2012 13:33:48 GMT -5
I have at least 5 females - if this one is a female as well then I have 6.
I bought them at a local LFS and I suppose I could go picking and see if I can find 1 or 2 males.
How hard are they to ship given their fragility?
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Post by babygeige on May 30, 2012 20:59:15 GMT -5
I got both sets of my shrimp via mail. Once the bag the shrimp was in broke and got water everywhere, but the shrimp were fine.
I think they were shipped with moss, which helps keep them from getting too stressed out.
I haven't had any problems with getting them in the mail. I did try to make sure I didn't order them when it would be too hot or cold to leave them in the mailbox, but I lucked out both times because someone was home to take care of them. My brother even unpacked the ones I got from Lori and they survived!
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Post by parker002 on May 30, 2012 21:24:26 GMT -5
My problem is that I need males. The mail order places I've looked don't seem to have any mechanism for requesting a specific sex...
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Post by babygeige on Jun 13, 2012 20:36:57 GMT -5
I would hope that the place you order from would give you a variety if you ordered several of them. Get 6 or so. I'm sure you'd get at least 1 male.
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Post by Suzie Q (Lori) on Jun 14, 2012 10:22:53 GMT -5
Problem with places that want to make money off "critters" is that they will only send one sex. If you can't breed them, then you have to come back for more. I sale male and female RCS. I will only be selling Female RCS to my local pet shop. Males will cost 3x as much. I don't want them to reproduce and keep me from selling more. I will only sale male Endler's to a petshop (I'll sale both to a fellow hobbyist). I hope that makes sense Lori
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Post by parker002 on Jun 18, 2012 8:31:28 GMT -5
Makes perfect sense, it's a business. As far as my specific situation - I came back from vacation and two of the females are fanning eggs. So I think I may be fine without adding anymore shrimp.
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Post by Suzie Q (Lori) on Jun 18, 2012 14:44:35 GMT -5
If they are fanning eggs, then you have a male in there somewhere. Next time you see them molt, look for some of the shrimp zooming around the tank. These will be your males. I forget the name for it, but they can "taste" a female ripe for breeding.
Congrats!!! Make sure the filter intake is covered so the new hatched shrimp fry don't get sucked into the filter.
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Post by babygeige on Jun 26, 2012 20:31:25 GMT -5
Nice! Have your females let go of any babies yet? I love those little things. They're such tiny little clones of their parents! So cute...
Java moss and sponge filters are your friends! It's a pain in the butt to clean the tank with little ones around - they're just about impossible to see, so it can be a bit stressful to keep from sucking them up!
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Post by parker002 on Jun 27, 2012 13:27:45 GMT -5
I haven't seen any babies yet but the largest female has a saddle again, so they must be in there somewhere. I had to remove the pantyhose as they were getting too dirty and impeding flow.
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Post by Suzie Q (Lori) on Jul 5, 2012 9:26:09 GMT -5
I use an old green net, cut off wire frame, tie with fishing line around intake. Allows "nasties" to go thru but not baby shrimp fry.
Let me know if you still need males. I had a 3rd brood released Tuesday.
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Post by parker002 on Jul 5, 2012 10:03:55 GMT -5
I haven't seen any babies yet but I have seen another female absolutely loaded with eggs. How long do they take to hatch again?
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Post by babygeige on Jul 7, 2012 13:53:41 GMT -5
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Post by Suzie Q (Lori) on Jul 7, 2012 15:00:06 GMT -5
I think 21 days. I am not positive that the "carry eggs" means they are fertile. Do you see any of them zoom around the tank for like hrs at a time?
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Post by parker002 on Jul 9, 2012 10:48:21 GMT -5
I haven't seen any "zooming" but I don't watch closely all the time either...
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Post by parker002 on Jul 9, 2012 10:54:50 GMT -5
Thanks for the link, I found some reassuring information: Fertilization: As discussed earlier in the article the female contains tiny undeveloped eggs in the ovaries, also known as the "saddle". The male deposits the sperm into the female before the eggs are passed from the ovaries and into the undercarriage. As the eggs are passed down into the undercarriage they become fertilized by the previously deposited sperm. There is a big misconception that the eggs are fertilized after they appear in the undercarriage which is untrue. You will not see a female mate if eggs are present, you will only see a female mate when eggs are not present. It is believed that the male has a tiny "appendage" that it uses to deposit the sperm into the female. Below is a photo of the "appendage" as well as a zoomed photo.
Berried: A female shrimp is of course officially pregnant when the eggs are present. Sometimes the term "berried" is used to signify that the female is holding eggs, the eggs being the "berries". As stated before, once the eggs are present then they are officially fertilized. If the eggs have not hatched then the baby shrimp is not fully developed. If eggs have been dropped or it appears that the female has lost some eggs there can be many reasons for this. Some believe that young females that become pregnant for the first time are "amateurs" and will tend to drop some eggs. Others believe that when a female is unhealthy or unhappy then she will also drop some eggs. Also, it is believed that the older a female becomes the more eggs she can carry. All of these theories may be true. It is known though that when the conditions are right and the female is happy then she can constantly breed around the clock, hatching and once again becoming pregnant a few days later.www.planetinverts.com/shrimp_reproduction.htmlIf you read those 2 paragraphs, it's pretty clear that the eggs are ONLY fertilized when they are released from the saddle and they're ONLY carried by the female if they are fertilized.
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Post by parker002 on Jul 12, 2012 9:18:00 GMT -5
One of the females appears to be carrying a few "leftover" eggs, as if the majority of them hatched and she's just got a few bad ones left. I still haven't seen any babies though.
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