HockiumGuru

I have several saddled cherries in my shrimp only tank - and today I noticed that one is berried, and the another appears to no longer be saddled and isn't berried. I also noticed 1 yellow egg? lying alone on a leaf, and a clump of about 10 yellow eggs? attached to another leaf. Are these actually eggs, and why would they be lose?

Thanks.

JohnPaul

Usually, when a female "drops" the eggs, it's one of three things:

1. Perhaps if she is a very, very young female (just reaching maturity), she might lose her eggs her first time for that reason. If this is the cause, it's nothing to worry about, as she continues to mature it won't happen.

2. Is there anything in the tank besides shrimp? If this is a mixed shrimp-fish tank, or a tank that mixes peaceful shrimp (RCS) with more aggressive shrimp (ghost shrimp, whisker shrimp) it could be that the RCS female was startled/attacked/harassed and dropped her eggs as a result of the stress.

3. Last possibility, and probably the most likely if neither #1 nor #2 applies, is there is something the female doesn't like in the water chemistry. If nitrate levels are creeping too high, or the pH is fluctuating, or for example if a water change was done with water temp significantly different from the tank water temp, any of these sorts of things could cause a female to drop her eggs.

That's what I can think of offhand. Hopefully it's helpful.

Sunstar

not sure where I read this, but someone had a berried shrimp that died. he removed the eggs from the dead female and kept them in a dish with clean water and swished them around. They hatched. He had something like 12 hatch and 10 survive. So you might want to try to collec the eggs and see if that works. I would.

HockiumGuru

Given the options its likely that she is young - which I would suspect becuase I did not think she was sexually mature when I saw her saddled which surprised me. I checked for the eggs this morning, they are gone.... (maybe another one picked them up to love them )

They are in a shrimp only tank, so option two is a definite no, and today is the scheduled water change date, so I don't know that #3 is viable, although I will double check nitrate and ph to be sure.

cwilfinger

Twice I've had rcs drop their eggs and twice now they have sat around for a day or so and then disappear. And then I would see babies here and there in the tank. So eventho she has dropped them, there is still a chance that they might hatch. Check around your tank for little white things about 2-3mm in length (less than 1/8th of an inch). My babies usually come out at night when the main lights on the tank are off and the room is dark - I usually have a desk light next tank and I leave that on.