Cleaner shrimp carrying eggs?

[Ostridge]

Hello,

I was feeding my fish, when one of my cleaner shrimp turned upside down to get some of the food, and i noticed that there was a bunch of white things under its tail. They look like eggs to me but im not sure.

If my shrimp is carrying eggs, how long do they carry them for? Also does the female shrimp carry the eggs or is it a male? And is there anything special i need to do if i wanted to let the eggs hatch and grow up?
Thank you in advanced!

 

[greenbean36191]

Yep, those are eggs. These shrimp are hermaphrodites, so this animal both genders, but it's acting as the female in this case. If the eggs are fertile, they were fertilized by another shrimp acting as the male. The larvae are extremely fragile, and very hard to raise (I'm not sure it's even been done to adulthood yet). I would let them become coral food.

 

[tangyreefer05]

Are peppermint shrimp hermaphrodites too?

 

[LeslieH]

Yes.

 

[Twisted]

I agree, I don't think anyone has raised them in captivity past a few months. Just before or during the main molting staes they tend to die off.
To attempt it, you would need a seperate tank, with the same water in it, and then the night they hatch you have to siphon them all into the new tank, from there you feed them rotifiers. Make sure you document everything, because the first one of us to actually get more then one successful batch to adult hood is going to have to answer a lot of questions...

 

[seapug]

I have a pair of skunk cleaner shrimp in my tank that spray thousands of their little kids in the tank every 3 weeks. The adults immediately molt each time. The fish and corals FEAST on them. They have the exact same body shape as the adults, about 1/8 inch and transparent. One of these days I'll try capturing some and growing them out, but I have read they are tricky to get past a couple days. For now they are free food for everyone.