Help sexing my shrimp

[Newday]

I'm never any good at it unless there's an obvious saddle. I lost two and I'm afraid all the rest are females. A shame, because I really wanted them to breed.

There are file size restrictions, but pics of the shrimp are saved here: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1yZoROeDw3z_8mE8cd03W1O_L-TOOY1sJ

 

[jayc]

BTW, when trying to sex shrimps, it is best to take the picture from the side, rather than top down.

Pic#1 cannot be certain from that angle, looks like a female.

Pic #2 - Females, but cannot tell with the one that has the racing stripe. Wrong angle.

Pic #3 - female.

 

Having more females is a good thing compared to a tank with all males. All you need is one good quality male. One male can breed with dozens of  females. 

[sdlTBfanUK]

You can get some useful info on this video so it is worth watching!

As with JayC they are PROBABLY all females but it is difficult to tell from those photos.

Simon

[Newday]

Thank you all for your comments. Of course, I would lose internet access after posting. Meanwhile, I got better pics and I, too, am leaning towards all females. The one with the black eggs(?) was questionable to me but now I think it has a female's body shape.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1yZoROeDw3z_8mE8cd03W1O_L-TOOY1sJ

I guess I gotta go find a male.

[sdlTBfanUK]

That does look like another female to me as well!

Simon

[Crabby]

I agree

[jayc]

29 minutes ago, Crabclaw said:

I agree

me too.

 

12 hours ago, Newday said:

I guess I gotta go find a male.

A good quality male will improve the quality of the whole tank.

[Newday]

Thank you all for the advice. I bought two males for the tank a few weeks ago. Since then, I've checked every day for berried shrimp with no luck. But yesterday, I saw one of the females picking over what looked like tiny yellow dots in the substrate. Definitely nothing I feed them. I siphoned out a few to take pics and I'm leaning towards eggs. Do you agree?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QZHX4f5KxhW-DH_65vsZLmgHdrwvBg6g/view?usp=drivesdk

[sdlTBfanUK]

Those do look like eggs to me but shrimps carry the eggs to hatching unless something causes them to 'drop' the eggs!

Hopefully the new males will mean they start breeding starts soon.

Simon

[Newday]

Thanks, sdITBfanUK. Something most be going on, because I found more eggs today. Not sure why they would be dropping them, though I noticed more moults in the tank, as well. Perhaps they are shedding the eggs, too. The water quality is ideal for them and I feed sparingly. Perhaps I change too much water at a time? It's a 7 gallon tank and I change about 2 gallons once a week. Any other tips?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jSxAni4p84fK9AyRBmE5q-nG3rG1e3Ao/view?usp=drivesdk

[jayc]

3 hours ago, Newday said:

It's a 7 gallon tank and I change about 2 gallons once a week. Any other tips?

Try cutting that back to 1 gallon of water change.

[sdlTBfanUK]

Shrimp don't need much of a water change as they are low bioload! I have 30L and only do 2L per week so as with JayC cut back on the water change amount, even .5 gallon would be ok! Large water changes tend to trigger moulting so they may be moulting too often?

They may drop the eggs if they aren't fertilised and therefore unwanted!

Have you seen any that look to be able yet?

Simon

Edited October 14, 2019 by sdlTBfanUK

[jayc]

You can do large water changes, I do it every 6 months to reset the minerals in the water, but you cannot just dump the new water back into the tank. It needs to be fed in slowly. I drip in the new water after adjusting it to match previous parameters.

[Newday]

Hello, again.  I really appreciate everyone's wisdom on this topic.  Since I last posted, I lost my 29 gallon tropical freshwater aquarium to a sudden leak. ?  Thankfully, I was able to save and rehome all the fish.  But, that means my 7 gallon shrimp tank received an upgrade wrt live plants and gravel.  I was hoping that would inspire some mating behavior, but I actually witnessed a female discharging what must be unfertilized eggs just this evening.  The male shrimp (I thought I had two, but now I'm questioning the other's sex after some weeks) is not doing his job and I can't figure out why.  I had to siphon out 50% of the water to move it from it's prior location beneath the 29 gallon.  I have not performed another water change in the nearly 3 weeks since the leak happened.  I check the parameters in the 7 gallon once a week and ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite are 0ppm.  Temp remains at a steady 72 degrees.  The shrimp are as active as ever but that male is unexcited by a tank full of females.  No clue what to do next.?

[jayc]

2 hours ago, Newday said:

male is unexcited by a tank full of females

Ahhh ... the age old question of how to trigger your shrimp to breed. We will have to assume you have at least 1 male.

What are you feeding them?

Feed frozen bloodworms twice a week. The additional protein will give them more energy.

Add more Indian Almond Leaves (aka Cattapa leaves) to the tank to promote more tannins and biofilm.

Try raising temps to 23C or 74F.

A 10% water change might help the females moult.

[sdlTBfanUK]

Do you know what the water parameters are of this tank?

Is the new male old enough to breed, assume it is as they only need to be 3 months I think but is that a possibility?

Simon

Edited October 14, 2019 by sdlTBfanUK