Jump to content

Only Female Cherry Shrimp in Tank - Any long-term health risks?


walruseggman
 Share

Recommended Posts

One of my tanks has just 3 female neocaridina in it. I was going to grab a couple males from another tank, but I started to wonder - is there any negative health effects on the females to repeatedly not have their eggs fertilized?

 

Understanding the basic neo reproductive cycle and that it's different than fish, even still, something like egg bound female bettas crossed my mind. Would some invertebrate-version of something like that occur? Or would the repeatedly unfertilized eggs be benign and the females would otherwise live a normal life?

 

I get breeding neos is half then fun, and I do breed them. Just a curiosity of how the females would be impacted.  Googling turned up little, so I was hoping someone could share some practical experience.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When a female Neocaridina is ready to breed, she releases pheromones to signal males to mate. The male deposits the contribution and then the female releases the eggs from the saddle to pass through that contribution to be fertilized. Without males around in the tank to provide sperm, the females should not continuously be releasing unfertilized eggs.  I have heard of them carrying unfertilized eggs before, but have never seen it. I occasionally toss a few shrimp in other tanks to see if it works out and ended up putting 4 females in a guppy tank. They were in there for about 2 months. None of them carried eggs until I put males in. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...