RCS Eggs (Photo Heavy)

[Madmerv]

My Quarantine tank has gone nuts!! I'm sure you old hands will be chuckling under you breath but for me this is all new and really a bit unexpected.

There is some kind of RCS orgie going on in my tank with every female, including the smaller ones, berried as well as shrimpets everywhere. I know they are a beginners shrimp but i haven't even got them into a dedicated tank yet.

Well onto topic and a few photo's. I noticed a larger female acting a bit strange this morning so stopped to watch for a while. She would sit still for a bit and just pick away on her perch for whatever food was there. Then she would arch her back and really start fluffing away at the eggs for about 1 min, then settle down. This was happening every 5 min or so and was only interrupted when another shrimp came within 2cm or so of her. I could see lots of micro shrimpets around her on the glass and sponge so i thought Wow, she is hatching eggs. I grabbed the camera and started to shoot away and was surprised at what i got.

I hope i have built up the excitement for you to be thinking i have photo's of eggs hatching. Well actually i dont. Sorry.

As it turns out she was moving her eggs from the front of her belly to the back in a re-positioning exercise. Bummer hey. I had adrenaline going through my system thinking i might have photo's of her hatching eggs. All you photographers out there will know how hard it is to set up your camera, flash settings etc with adrenaline in your system and a short time frame to do it. 

Got a couple of nice shots anyway so here they are.

 

The next series is of her moving an egg.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the last one of a shrimpet on the glass. Not one of the new ones but he is a little older.

Edited August 4, 2016 by Madmerv

[jayc]

1 hour ago, Madmerv said:

All you photographers out there will know how hard it is to set up your camera, flash settings etc with adrenaline in your system and a short time frame to do it. 

And then you realise, doh, I should have video'd it rather than taken still photos.

Good stuff Merv.

I can hear the excitement in your words. 

Looks like that female shrimp was recently fertilised and is now laying her eggs.

 

[Madmerv]

Wow. So i was that far off the mark.. Lol  Laying them and not hatching them.

Well it was a pretty exciting thing to see for me and my daughter. 

Another 3-4 weeks and i'll see if i can get the hatching shots to go with them then i can have the complete set.

[jayc]

Yeah. Laying.

 

The female shrimp starts with a "Saddle" - you can just see unfertilised eggs at the top part of the head but towards the tail.

 

When the Male shrimp X with the female shrimp and the eggs are fertilised inside the female, she will "Lay" the eggs, and move the fertilised eggs to her swimmerets. 

This is what we call a "Berried" shrimp. When the female is carrying the fertilised eggs.

 

After 25-30 days incubation, the viable fertilised eggs will "hatch" into little shrimplets.

[NoGi]

Great shots there. BTW it's RCS not CRS 

[Madmerv]

1 hour ago, NoGi said:

 BTW it's RCS not CRS 

Sorry. Changed it.

[Zoidburg]

I have yet to see a shrimp "giving birth", but I have seen at least a couple "laying eggs". It looks rather uncomfortable, too... they arch their backs and tails in an odd way, as if they are squeezing the eggs out of their ovaries and down into their pleopods. (swimmerets)

 

Would *love* to get that on video! Closest I got was with an amano, but unfortunately I had to leave for work. By the time I got back, she was berried... Second time she went through that, I didn't even bother.... she became berried while I was asleep!