Skunk cleaner shrimp eggs?

Sdbuehler1 · Apr 25, 2022

I have three skunk cleaner shrimp in my tank and noticed one of them now has a bright green belly. Are these eggs? If so will be interesting to see what happens. They are currently in my 100 gallon display tank and there are no fish right now while I'm going through a fallow period for the next couple months.

Bucs20fan · Apr 25, 2022

That shrimp does appear to be pregnant, Congrats!! Although it is unlikely any fry would survive to adult hood this is still awesome to see in your tank. They will make great treats for your other fish and inverts and suggest a healthy tank or the shrimp would not spawn,=.

Sdbuehler1 · Apr 25, 2022

Awesome, it's too bad that there wont be any fish anytime soon to enjoy them but my pod population is going through the roof right now so the day I do add fish its going to be a smorgasbord for them.

Bucs20fan · Apr 25, 2022

Lots of pods is a good thing! How long have you had the cleaners?

ISpeakForTheSeas · Apr 25, 2022

Yeah, Skunk Cleaner Shrimp larvae remain in the larval stage for ~150 days, so unless your tank is fallow for six months, the baby shrimp will almost certainly all be eaten.
If you feed enriched rots, enriched BBS, and some kind of phyto (the BBS being by far the most important), though, you should be able to watch them grow pretty well for a while in your tank.

Cool stuff!

Sdbuehler1 · Apr 25, 2022

I got one of them about a month and a half ago and I thought it had died when I saw evidence of a molt and then it didnt reappear after about 4 days. My tank parameters seemed fine so I decided to get a pair of them a couple days later. A day after adding the two new ones to the tank, the original one decides to make an appearance lol, so now I have three. Fast forward a month and now one of the newer ones is preggo. I have seen three molts since adding the shrimp but the pregnant one has not molted since being added. I thought not having fish for a while was going to be boring, but having these shrimp has been fun and entertaining. They are hilarious to watch at feeding time especially with no fish for competition.

Bucs20fan · Apr 25, 2022

Believe it or not they are fairly smart as far as shrimp go, when I peek around the side of my tank to get a good look at him daily he always come out to investigate my face through the glass, that is truly hilarious.

Sdbuehler1 · Apr 25, 2022

They do have a lot of personality. The one that is pregnant is so friendly that she climbs on my arm and tries to clean it when I'm working in the tank. At first it freaked me out but now I welcome it.

Bucs20fan · Apr 25, 2022

Very interesting creatures. I believe you said she has not molted yet. If that is true could be just fine, but she will die if she needs to molt and cannot. A 5% water change will usually induce a molt if she is ready, Could be worth a try if you are worried.

Sdbuehler1 · Apr 25, 2022

I have a Neptune DOS configured with AWC that changes out 2 gallons a day. Based on this calculator https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/EffectiveWaterChange.php (for 120 gallons total volume) that works out to about a 10% change weekly. If you're suggesting that I need a more drastic change all at once to induce the molt, I could certainly give that a try. I cant say for 100% that she hasnt molted, it just seems like the carcasses from the previous molts were probably too small but there has been at least three molts I have seen evidence of since all three shrimp were added in the past month or so.

Bucs20fan · Apr 25, 2022

I wouldnt bother then, Its just the added iodine from the salt that makes them want to molt. I'm sure everything is going swimmingly ROFL, but Ive lost two cleaners to failed molts. Its hard to combat a failed molt, but it usually happens because mother nature just does that sometimes, or less likely not enough iodine in the water.

DaJMasta · Apr 25, 2022

Don't try to do anything to get it to molt, molting is tied to egg maturation so the night it releases the eggs it has (provided they are fertilized and come to term) will be the night of the next molt. Typical incubation time is about three weeks, and if you have more than one shrimp, the fertilization of the next batch of eggs happens right after the molt, so they can appear to continuously have eggs.

Eggs start out greenish/yellow, turn yellow, then in the last few days before hatching become sort of a tan to white color. The day of, they will inflate somewhat and usually are visible just barely sticking out from under the shrimp, and they'll probably be released just after dark.

Also worth noting, in a tank with reasonable flow, you'll have all of 5 minutes or so if you want to save any of them, so if you want to see them at length, turn those pumps off for an hour or so the night of around dark.