Fire Shrimp Sprung a Leak!

[ryan820]

So last night I came home-- late as usual but thankfully I had the foresight to offset my photo-period to the night hours so I can enjoy my tank before hitting the sack-- and I proceeded to feed the flock.

While everyone was frantically feeding, I went off to get a drink and I came back to find my fire shrimp's tail in the "air" spewing this junk!

Upon closer inspection, they were itty bitty shrimp!!!!! Craziest thing I've seen with my tank yet.

Needless to say, the feeding frenzy continued on! I doubt any shrimp survived but wow, what a weird thing to see.

 

[ChrisB]

pics or it didn't happen

 

[ryan820]

Aw come on... seriously, you don't believe me? Well I guess it didn't happen then because I was without a recording device. It took all but 30 seconds for her to do her thing. She frantically flapped her tail and her tiny legs moved like mad and it was over. The clowns were pigs...eating so many.... even my bicolor blenny partook of the feast, which I thought was odd because I thought they were plant-eaters only.

The shrimp is less than a week old to the tank-- bought it off Stuart of Mile High Aquatics. I love the color of the thing but damn if it doesn't hide 95% of the time!

 

[Off The Deep End]

I have seen them do it before and your right..... very cool!

 

[KhensuRa]

That would have been cool to see.

 

[Cherub]

My shrimp is always hiding too. So lame.

 

[Off The Deep End]

All of the shrimp in our systems will do it. If you look at there belly section with a light and see what looks like little gold balls than they are prego Most of us just dont get to experience the birth because it can take from 5 minutes to 45 minutes and typically at night, very few will do it during the daylight hours.

 

[KhensuRa]

Wish I could have a shrimp again, however my six line a jaw fish eat them the second I put one in the tank... Big jerks...

 

[ryan820]

Wish I could have a shrimp again, however my six line a jaw fish eat them the second I put one in the tank... Big jerks...

How small are your shrimp?! Or maybe I should ask how big your sixline is? My shrimp dwarfs my wee sixline. Granted, he's not full grown but the fire shrimp is pretty big.

 

[asn-naso]

I had that happen to my cleaners many years ago. I believe they had green eggs. It was pretty cool to see.

 

[KhensuRa]

my six line is full size. When it was small she never messed with my shrimp. But once my shrimp passed and the sixline grew up, she developed a taste from them.

 

[Cherub]

Six line = mmm them scrimps is geeeewd!

 

[ryan820]

OK so not only did my fire shrimp have a few hundred children, this morning I woke up to find she had changed her exoskeleton! A pile of scales, legs and plates were resting on the bottom of the tank while she was busy preening herself by her cave.

This shrimp has been quite entertaining and she's only now been in the tank one week!

No if she'll only go clean my clowns! Some days it looks like they could be developing ich and then the next few days, they seem clean and happy (they're always happy, but figuratively speaking). Maybe she IS cleaning them but I haven't seen it.