Red Claw Shrimp berried!

[Soothing Shrimp]

As usual, when I fed today my red claw shrimp tank, everyone came running. It was then that I discovered what I had thought was a male, was actually a female and berried!

YAY!

[dougolasjr]

How big do they get? How long have you had them? and more pictures plz

[Soothing Shrimp]

I bought them as juvies in December, and they get around 2-3" long. Super active. Not much flying, but love to climb and look for food.

Very little info about them on the net, and what I have found contradicts each other often.

Two facts that seem to be common is that they don't eat plants with the exception of hair algae occasionally, and that adults can fend themselves from larger fish such as angelfish.

Excellent cleaners of food on the floor and eat pest snails.

I'll try to get some more pics later. Still trying to understand how to tell the difference between male vs female, but they may not be old enough to have fully developed claws yet.

[ravensgate]

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYY Bryce! That's awesome! Any idea on gestation time?

[Soothing Shrimp]

Remember I said the info I found contradicts each other? The lowest time I found was 2 weeks, the longest 6 weeks. That's quite a variable and makes me wonder if some of these people ever kept red claws in their lives?

More pics



here's another of different color


I really like the tiger stripes. colors I have range from brown to clearish green.

[Soothing Shrimp]

Oh, and yes- the plant in the tank is hair algae instead of moss. I figured if they occasionally eat hair algae, I'd kill two birds with one stone.

[dougolasjr]

What size tank do you have them in? Are they aggressive towards one another?

[Soothing Shrimp]

I have 5 in a 20g tall. The only aggression I've seen is one will raise claws and walk up to another and the other turns and walks away. FAR different from what is in some care sheets.

From what I have read, they can be considered much like bettas. Supposedly males are territorial and will fight in too small an enclosure. Basically a large amount of fems can be kept together with one male if desired. if the females fight, the male breaks it up and that's it.

As said though, it appears most of what I've read are people speculating or repeating sources. I haven't seen any true fighting at all. Maybe time will tell?

Also people seem to give params all over the place. So I've had to experiment with what seems to work for me.

Remin RO to GH 6 and PH 8+. TDS under 200. Seems to work for now. Time will tell if I need to adjust or if I have problems.

They are SUPER curious. They'll walk up to the tank glass when I go by it and will even eat out of the hand (or so I've read.) Their pincers don't hurt at all.

[wicca27]

a friend of mine has some he had a hard time when he takes them to swaps and auctions cause like crays they tear each other up when in bags. hes had them a while i will see if i can get any info from him im pretty sure they breed for him.

[Soothing Shrimp]

That would be appreciated. Also what are ways to tell males from females. The saddle method doesn't work on them, and their pincer look about the same size for everyone.

[nvladik]

Originally Posted by Soothing Shrimp

Two facts that seem to be common is that they don't eat plants with the exception of hair algae occasionally, and that adults can fend themselves from larger fish such as angelfish.

Unfortunately that's what I thought also and the answer is no. An adult survived in my angel tank for a whole whooping 4 days. Lost him 3 weeks ago.

[Soothing Shrimp]

I appreciate the first hand account, nvladik. Thank you! The care sheets are so warped I can't even trust what they say!

I'm feeling around in the dark, paving a way for myself.

[Soothing Shrimp]

I took a couple more pics...

here's three of them together. To give you an idea how big, the berried fem is around 2".



Here is a little closer on her. Can't see a saddle, so that method doesn't work.


Here's a closer look at the safari patterning. Very pretty.

[Soothing Shrimp]

Still berried...

[GreenBliss]

That's..almost 6 weeks berried?