# shrimp dropping eggs...



## oceans0516 (Jul 23, 2006)

I've had a snowball shrimp tank for a few months. Population went from around 10 to 40 now and they are all very active in the 10g...For some reason, the females keep dropping their eggs lately. 5th one today. Some kept 1-3 eggs and others pretty much dropped them right away or in 2-3 days. I'm so sad.  

I thought perhaps it was not fertilized? But i witnessed them mate and the female go hiding right after. 

I've checked the water parameters and there are no signs of ammonia, nitrate or nitrite. Water changes every 1-2 weeks. Can someone tell me what else I can do to help this behavior. I'm out of ideas and beginning to feel like they are on strike or perhaps i'm giving them to much attention....

Food: hikari algae wafer and shrimp pellets, occasional zuchinni
Tankmates: 2 otos


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## fish newb (May 10, 2006)

My best suggestion would probably be to mix up the diet. Use some blanched spinach or something!

What's your temp? Maybe thats it... Or you need to do more WCs. I've read/talked with people about something similar to a "max size" shrimp population... I'm not sure how true that is though. I know that fish release some type of hormone and once it gets to a certain point it can stunt their growth. But in shrimp it might be that they're getting too stressed out. It sounds like it's starting to get crowded in there... Do you feed them enough?

-Andrew


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## Ankit (Dec 9, 2006)

I may be completely wrong about this, but I believe that until they are of a certain age, they will not be able to properly fertilize the eggs, this would apply to your most recent ones.

When you say you do a water change every 1-2 weeks, what is it usually? I'd recommend doing a weekly water change of some amount rather than every two weeks.


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## milalic (Aug 26, 2005)

If the eggs are fertilized and all of them dissapear, it means they are not fertilized or something in the tank is stressing the shrimp. For your 10G tank, I would recommend weekly water changes of 10-20% of the water. 

If some eggs survive, it mean that those eggs did not got fertilize. The shrimp might have lost them due to stress but some of them remain. 


Cheers


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## lilalex0145 (Feb 3, 2007)

What do snowball shrimp look like?


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## oceans0516 (Jul 23, 2006)

lilalex: if you do a search in the forum for snowballs shrimps i'm pretty sure you'll find photos. milalic has a few threads with snowball shrimp pictures. 

I do mostly 20% water changes every sunday. Sometimes i skip a week when i get too busy but rarely tho. 

I just spotted 2 more females with eggs and hopefully they will keep them. I moved the otos to see if that will make a difference since sometimes they freak out some of the shrimps when they get scared of my face. Perhaps that was causing stress? The otos are new.......i think i may be on to something. Will keep monitoring and update in a few days. Thanks everyone!


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## Ankit (Dec 9, 2006)

The oto's might be the problem, let us know how it goes. As much as I like oto's, I don't think they'd be the best tankmate for a shrimp breeding.


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## Shrimp&Snails (Mar 27, 2006)

Ottos are fine with shrimp of all sizes....their darting around might excite the shrimp but none will get eaten.


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## oceans0516 (Jul 23, 2006)

yes they do dart around a lot...thus snowballs are darting because otos are darting....hahaha

Observation after oto moved....next snowball kept her eggs....5th day now and looks like shes keeping them!!


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## oceans0516 (Jul 23, 2006)

2 more shrimp are carrying eggs now. Looks like it was the otos making them nervous.  

Took some pictures. The loaded one on red gravel and on the pennywort are the new moms. Hopefully they keep all eggs because it seems a bit too much to carry.


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## RESGuy (Feb 11, 2007)

Nice Snowballs  I am glad to here they are no longer dropping their eggs  Is that Whorled Pennywort in the first picture?


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## Kenshin (Feb 26, 2007)

I used to have oto. with my shrimps as well, but I realized the fish was intimidating the shrimps especially when it comes to feeding time. So I took out all of the oto. and guess what!? The shrimps start gathering together as a big happy family when it comes to meal time. Also they seem to be less stress and was breeding like crazy. 

The only time I would recommend using oto. is if you have a fully loaded/heavily planted tank. That way the oto. usually mind their own business even when it comes to feeding time for shrimps. 

However, just be very careful when carrying out plant trimmings. Your water ammonia level will spike up very quickly and will kill shrimps in no time. My advice is to carry out a 40% to 50% water change right after you trim your plants, and carry out at least a 25% water change daily for 1 week. That way, there will be no traces of ammonia in your water whatsoever.

It took me a long time to have a small colony of Snowball shrimps as well. I was basically having the same problem as you were in the first place.

Keep up the good work.


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## oceans0516 (Jul 23, 2006)

thanx kenshin. its nice to hear that it happened to someone else too because everywhere i read, otos seems to be great with everything and they are but just still stresses out the shrimp. They gather together to eat now which is one of my fav things to watch them crawl over each other. haha. 

I have 4 females carrying now. some of them only kept a few eggs but that should just be because not all got fertilized. 2 of which kept all eggs and the tiny little eyes are beginning to show. ^_^ And thanks for the tip with plant trimmings....probably explains why some cherries died when i pulled some plants out of my other tank...

ResGUY: That is actually brazilian pennywort. I wish i had the marsh but i can't find them anywhere when i wanted them...these are still cool tho


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