Two of My Peppermint Shrimp are Pregnant??

[martinojon]

I just bought 4 peppermint shrimp and the guy at the store said that two of them are pregnant. Is there anything I should do, with they hatch? With the offspring survive? Any Info at all.

I have a 46 gallon tank with 23lbs of live rock (I am buying more my goal is to see what it looks like with 100Lbs) I also have a Strawberry Psedochroma, Royal Gamma, and a Bellini (sp) will any of those fish eat the baby shrimp?

Thanks

John

 

[oranje]

i have 4 peppermint shrimp, and i believe they are indeed peppermint shrimp. a mated pair are in each of two tanks... and at any given point, one of each pair is pregnant.

i doubt any of the offspring will live. my friend witnessed the blessed event one evening, when artificial sunset started, the pregnant shrimp climbed up to the highest point in the tank, and let her young loose into the currents.

the fish had a feast.


i've had no problems whatsoever with peppermint shrimp and coral of any kind... they tend to hide under my liverock eternally, coming out only to grab a bite to eat, or ocasionally to find a new cave at night...

so yeah, to sum it up... the shrimp may be pregnant, and will repeatedly become pregnant, but dont expect to have a shrimp hatchery if you have anything with a mouth in the tank. at least its nourishment for the masses.

 

[Mike02]

My peppermint shrimp caused no problems for 4 months, then one day it ate my one and only FL green ricordia polyp. I saw the whole thing. I had one orange polyp, now 4. It hasnt tried to eat the orange ones nor any other coral besides the green ricordia. but i feel i have to feed it to keep it from eating the coral. i got it to clean out the aptasia, which it did.
Peppermint shrimp have 6 antennas. i think the camels have 4. if you look on the web, there are sites that tell you the difference.

 

[martinojon]

So What is the verdict Should I get rid of two of them, especially if I get more critters. Are there any compatibality problems with other janitorial crew?

JOhn

 

[martinojon]

Are 4 Pepermint shrimp to many? If so what can happen?

JOhn

 

[danmhippo]

Depends on how much you value your yellow polyps, green star polyps, and sometimes button polyps........Or, do you have any?

 

[danmhippo]

They grows too slow on top of the survival rate are low as well. The comment above still stands unless what you have is not peppermint shrimp, but instead camel shrimp. Some LFS makes that mistake!

 

[martinojon]

What is the difference between the two?

 

[MFisher]

Peppermint shrimp are mostly red with white stripes, camels are mostly white with red stripes--a kinda rule of thumb. Search the web, you'll find pics. The new Advanced Aquarist reviews a book about raising peppermints if your're really interested (Plug, Plug

).

Oh, and FWIW shrimp are never pregnant. A female may be gravid-full of unfertilized eggs or she is carrying fertilized eggs attached to her pleopods (swimming legs on the abdomen). When the female "gives birth" she is actually shaking the tiny larvae off of her abdomen.

 

[sistergolden]

I am a new reefkeeper and am doing a pretty good job, I guess. One of my two peppermint shrimp is carrying some green eggs. I've recently added a couple of cleaner snails and 2 hermit crabs. I am still waiting to add fish since this new aquarium was only started 3 weeks ago... already have the algae blooming and some coralline algae growing. The shrimp has molten twice in the 2 weeks I've had her.

I was planning to add 2 maroon clowns in coming weeks but am trying to take my time - don't want to kill anything. Should I go ahead and get fish to eat the 500 - 1000 possible new baby shrimp? Any suggestions?

 

[Anonymous]

I have two pepermints in my 10 gal. One or the other is ALWAYS preggers. I just think of it for foods for my corals.

FWIW,

I think I read that once a pep lets go of the eggs, it molts and becomes the male to fertalize the next set of eggs on the female. (who was the male whom fertalized her eggs) Then she lets the eggs go and then molts, then fertalizes the eggs that the other one is now carrying. (does that make any sense?) So they change gender every time one lays eggs. Cool. I'm sure someone will have a more concise and understandable explanation.

I wouldn't take them out of your tank unless you need more room for other species.

B

 

[Reefman150]

I have 5 in my 150 for 1 1/2 years now and they regularly "feed" the rest of the tank mates with offspring. Some end up in the sump/refug but none have ever matured.