Maybe someone in here can help me out.

[AquaReeferMan]

Hello anyone who is reading this. Let me give you a run down of my situation. I recently, for reason unknown, lost my Female Harlequin shrimp(Hymenocera picta). Ive talked to a couple of customer service people numerous times and they keep telling me they can not offer me a female. I also spoke to a few people at MACNA and I gave them my information and they said they would contact me. Well I never heard anything back so I figured I would try and talk to someone in here. The reasons I got from the customer service people didnt make any sense to me. They said they cannot determine the sex of the shrimp. I see male and female pairs in the DD every now and again along with single males. I was just wondering if you could contact me if yous come across a female. I know yous have people there that can tell which is a male and which is a female. I usually never see them locally and when I do they are males. Just wondering. Please get back to me.

TIA
Doug

 

[dfs/la2]

Doug,

We apologize for any inconvenience. These items are offered both on Diver’s Den and LiveAquaria in pairs or as single specimens. The distinguishing characteristics between the male and female are the size and color of the plates under the abdomen or pleopods. When grown the females are almost twice the size of the male and the male have clear or yellow pleopods and do not have the blue/purple spots under the tail that the females will have.
It is very difficult to obtain only the female Harlequin Shrimp. We find that in the shipments we receive 1 out of 25 Harlequin Shrimp are female and when pairs are naturally made we feel that this bond should not be broken. We apologize that we are unable to obtain a single female shrimp for you.


Joyce F.
LiveAquaria
Drs. Foster & Smith

 

[AquaReeferMan]

Well, thank you. That was the best explanation of gotten so far. Its such a shame I lost mine. My male seems lost. Do you think a trio would work or would the males end up fighting? I dont know if for some reason yous come across a single female please contact me.

 

[dfs/la2]

Doug,

We would recommend keeping the Harlequin shrimp singly or in mated pairs only to avoid aggression issues between the males.

We apologize, however we are not able to offer you a single female as females quickly bond with an available male.

Tina C
Technical Support
Drs. Foster and Smith