First Silly Question : Saddles??

[newbreed]

Hi All, Just a couple of questions on saddles and moulting. 1. My Red Cherry shrimp females are showing their saddles, do these disappear once their eggs are fertilised or will they always show? 2. Also, what is the general gestation time for a cherry shrimp? 3. Moulting is a good thing yes?? 2 days in the tank and two moults to be seen. Thanks in advance................

[torface]

1. Yes. When the eggs are fertilised they will travel downwards and you will see them under her belly.

2. It depends on your temperature. There is a chart somewhere but I cant find it. Mine take about 3 weeks but they cant take up to 4 weeks.

3. Yes :) If shrimps do not moult they will die...

[torface]

P.S. No such thing as a silly question :)

If I find the chart i will post it for you if someone doesnt get there before me :)

[newbreed]

Great news, thanks for the quick response. Looking forward to disappearing saddles then......

[torface]

Yep, when a saddled female moults it usually means she's ready to breed. So saddles+moult=good. Hopefully you'll see some eggs soon :)

[ineke]

It's always a great sight seeing a newly berried mama. Cherries seem to carry a huge number of eggs too, I'm always amazed with my Red Cherries-when I had them- they had so many eggs they couldn't keep them all tucked under and often had a few trailing along under them. It is also possible for a shrimp to be berried and have a saddle ready to mate again after the babies hatch.

[MrShrimp]

Once you see the females carrying eggs, that means you have about 3-4 weeks to prepare your happy dance when they drop :)

[shrimpstan]

P.S. No such thing as a silly question :)

If I find the chart i will post it for you if someone doesnt get there before me :)

i remember seeing that chart.. although tbh i didnt try to find it... but i think i remember noticing that at 24 degrees it takes 24 days per cycle.. if its colder say 22 degrees than might take 26-27 days.. 26 degrees might take 22 days... something like that anyway :p

[torface]

This is it! I don't know where it is originally from so I can't reference the original creator, sorry.

It's for CRS but it'd be similar for cherries.

[OzShrimp]

thats interesting i havent seen that before :)

[HelvinHT]

Great chart. I heard about it, but never see the details.

I am doing this experiments : When i see a crs female with saddle, i will put them in the Pure Red Line tank so it can be fertilize by a good quality male. Hope to better the color. Already did the cross of crs and misc.

[newbreed]

Awesome information and great chart. Have them at 22 degrees so 4 weeks it will be, once the boys do their work. Am concerned, of the 10 I purchased I can easily say 7 are female. Hope there are a couple of boys in there. Thanks again everyone for the info.

[torface]

Well let us know if there aren't any boys as im sure someone will be able to help you out :)

[Squiggle]

Awesome chart Tor, very cool indeed :victorious:

[newbreed]

@torface - Cheers mate, think I spotted a couple of potential males this morning, so hopefully all is well.

[ineke]

Could be why my crystals aren't breeding I've got them at 22.5 have turned the heat up a bit now:encouragement: