PlanetCatfish.com

hello everybody
This is nothing to do with catfish but i was just wondering if anybody know's anything about singapore shrimp?? I have a couple in my tank and have had them for around 6 months. For the last day they seem to have been fighting but this afternoon have noticed one of them has got red coloured eggs on the fan thingys??? under their belly. Does it take special conditions for their eggs to hatch. I dont really know anything about these so would be greatful for your input. Many thanks

As far as know the singapore shrimp (Atyopsis moluccensis)has not been bred in captivity, all are coaught from the wild.

Many fresh water shrimp will lay eggs even if there are no males present. To sex the shrimp look at the first pair of walking legs are much larger. On the female the carapace (the main shell segment on the body) is longer and reaces to the pelopods (the swimming legs on the tail section) to make room for the eggs. So once you have at least one each the eggs can be fertilised. As with many fresh shrimp the eggs/juviniles live in a brackish/salt water environment other wise they will not hatch. Recreating this in your tank will be tricky.

I've never tried breeding them my self so I'm not sure how you would do it, perhaps setting up a species tank and gradually increasing salinity over several weeks/months might be a start. youll be looking at salintities from 15-20ppm.

Apparently the shrimp migrate down river to esturies lay eggs which hatch in to a larval form rather than plankton then move back up river as they get older. Dont hold me to this as I could be wrong, try digging about on the net, look for Wood Shrimp, Bamboo shrimp, singapore shrimp or Atyopsis moluccensis, you might be able to find some more info

from 15-20ppm.

You presumably mean 15-20 ppt, otherwise I'd say regular Surrey tapwater would do perfectly, as it's got about 48 ppm Cl- and 25 ppm Na+.

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Mats

You presumably mean 15-20 ppt

yes I do

I've just noticed another mistake.
My sentence on sexing shrimp isn't very clear. On male shrimp the first pair of walking legs are larger.

I am going to have to learn how to type!

I have some of these too. They're very cool shrimp. There's an in-depth thread on someones breeding attempts (plus other info) on petshrimp.com.

ok many thanks everyone. Ill have a look at that website now cheers