Confused... Berried Amano?

So I am confused. I have had three female amanos for the past few months, at least three, and I know they are all female. They all have saddles that move about every month. They all have the line structure of females. And there haven't been any signs of reproduction.... Until today.
I woke up to a berried amano. It's not the fullest berrying, but there are still probably 50 eggs on each swimmeret, I'd guess 100-200 eggs.
So I'm extremely confused, and somewhat excited. I've been planning on breeding them, I have marine salt, an extra air pump, and 2 1 gallon jars, as I was planning on trying both brackish and full marine, since I'm not 100% on the species.
So, how exactly did this happen? I know they're not fertilized and probably won't make it, but how did she get to be carrying eggs?

 

100% positive one isn’t a male? Lol
If you look at the second row of spots along the side females have more elongated spots... like a broken line and males have more of a dot... like a round spot....
Just a shot in the dark? Lol

 

100% positive one isn’t a male? Lol
If you look at the second row of spots along the side females have more elongated spots... like a broken line and males have more of a dot... like a round spot....
Just a shot in the dark? Lol

Yeah, I am 100% positive, checked them again. All of them have saddles and long lines, not dots, and the one is still holding eggs.
I've just never seen a shrimp holding unfertilized eggs before, so I'm jus confused, lol

Also I think I only have two left, and they're changing colors a bit? It may be related, idk. One is getting these nice, bright, white dots along her edges, sort of like an outline, and the other is getting some blue dots also.

 

Hmm I wish I knew more about shrimp... I’m sure someone will come along and can be of more help

 

The link below may help a bit, my knowledge on ammano is they must have brackish water for young to survive and i'm yet to read anywhere where this as been successful but no doubt as been done.

Breeding Yamato (Amano) shrimp

 

The link below may help a bit, my knowledge on ammano is they must have brackish water for young to survive and i'm yet to read anywhere where this as been successful but no doubt as been done.

Breeding Yamato (Amano) shrimp

Thanks, but I've already heavily researched it and I have marine salt just for this, I'm just confused as to how this shrimp is holding unfertilized eggs... Have you had any hold unfertilized eggs at all, or for longer than 24 hours? It's not a full batch by any means, but still probably around 100 or so. Real weird. And it can't be stored sperm since I've had them for over three months...
My pets are just weird, I've had baby mystery snails start to appear in my random tanks, I don't know how they're getting out, all of the tanks have lid and are on carpet (mistake!)

 

I think I read something about you I think that was going to try and breed ammano. Although I've male and female I've never had any berried, and from what little research I've done if the eggs did hatch the young would die or the berried eggs would go mildew, but for you to have no males in the tank is strange as you say. I did wonder if the female could hold back on sperm and fertilise when she was ready,and in your case that's the only thing I can think of if there's no male present,

And for your snails to start appearing in other tanks must be the reason they call them mystery snails lol lol lol............. Sorry about that one

 

Hi, amano young have a larval stage, the eggs you see will be fertilised & larvae will be released but they won’t survive in freshwater

 

Lol, I guess they can hold sperm for 3 months or so, weird.
From what I've read, the eggs have to hatch in freshwater and be moved to either salt or brackish depending on the species (apparently 2-3 species are commonly sold as amanos and each are slightly different) within 4-8 days.
Well, I guess I better get the little baby tank set up

 

I read that as the hatching process as well Retssy
I think! or dose the female go to brackish water to have the young then the young return to fresh

 

I read that as the hatching process as well Retssy
I think! or dose the female go to brackish water to have the young then the young return to fresh

The adults don't survive well in saltwater for very long, and the babies actually die if they hatch in saltwater (I feel bad for the person who tried that...). So they have to hatch in freshwater, then be dumped in salt/brackish (no need for acclimation). At about 30-60 days, some will start to metamorphosize (not all at once) and these will have to be removed individually and acclimated to freshwater, 50% changes a day for 3-4 days, and they don't live more than 18-24 hours in saltwater. Weird life cycle, right??

 

I really hope you are successful doing this, I'll follow with intrest
keep us posted with pictures

 

Hi!
Yes, as Richie said, really good luck with the baby raising, I'll be watching with great interest too.... I've seen a few people try here but without success, it'll be wonderful if you manage to do it!
My Amanos are constantly berried and it's so sad that their 'pregnancies' always come to nothing.

Basically, the life cycle in the wild, which you'll be replicating is,

•Adults live in a freshwater river/stream

•Eggs are released in the freshwater, the adult doesn't leave the river as they can't tolerate the salt bit

•The larvae get washed along the freshwater river, which they can tolerate for a short while (hence the fact that you have a day or so to transfer them-the larvae, not the adults!) down to the estuary where it's brackish or a bit further where it's more fully salt water

•The larvae live there until they metamorphosise into young adults, which then have the strength to swim back up stream to the freshwater river. That's the stage where you'll (with luck!) be transferring them back to your tank!

Looking forward to your first update ☺

 

Well, bad news. Went out of town for literally two days last week, came back and no berries. I hadn't seen eyes or anything, so she shouldn't have released them yet, I have no idea what was going on with all that.
I'll get a male and some more soon, hopefully something happens

 

Sorry to here that, how long do you think she was berried before this happened?

 

Hi!
Well, we'll never fully understand the mystery of her being berried without males (!) but, from what I've observed in my Amanos (the females of which are never NOT berried-poor things!) they hold 100s of eggs rather than the 10-20 that a Cherry would so it's hard to see eyes even when they are very close to being released.

The eggs are just so much smaller-the larvae that 'hatch' are like tiny specks of dust floating in the aquarium, you'll see them when it's dark if you shine a torch on the tank as they're attracted to the light. They move around in kind of jerky patterns, that's about the only way to tell that they're not bits of dust!

What I'm saying is, she could well have just released the eggs while you were away.
Anyway, what I was going to say (eventually! ☺) is that as you said you are going to get a male and try again, I read someone here previously thought his larvae (all in the correct amount of saltwater) died because he hadn't prepared 'green water' so they basically starved to death.

I'm assuming this is some sort of algae filled water and was thinking that it might take a while for a good amount of algae to grow so you might want to start making this green water well in advance.

Hope this thought helps-and sorry for the long post!

 

Sorry to here that, how long do you think she was berried before this happened?

Probably 1-2 weeks

Hi!
Well, we'll never fully understand the mystery of her being berried without males (!) but, from what I've observed in my Amanos (the females of which are never NOT berried-poor things!) they hold 100s of eggs rather than the 10-20 that a Cherry would so it's hard to see eyes even when they are very close to being released.

The eggs are just so much smaller-the larvae that 'hatch' are like tiny specks of dust floating in the aquarium, you'll see them when it's dark if you shine a torch on the tank as they're attracted to the light. They move around in kind of jerky patterns, that's about the only way to tell that they're not bits of dust!

What I'm saying is, she could well have just released the eggs while you were away.
Anyway, what I was going to say (eventually! ☺) is that as you said you are going to get a male and try again, I read someone here previously thought his larvae (all in the correct amount of saltwater) died because he hadn't prepared 'green water' so they basically starved to death.

I'm assuming this is some sort of algae filled water and was thinking that it might take a while for a good amount of algae to grow so you might want to start making this green water well in advance.

Hope this thought helps-and sorry for the long post!

Yeah, she had like a solid 150ish
So the basic plan I've come up with is actually to use 2 separate one gallon containers. It seems there are around three species of shrimp commonly sold as amanos, and I think two of them need full saltwater to develop while the other needs brackish. So my plan is to try both. My LFS sells super dark green phytoplankton, so I plan on using that as well as golden pearls past a certain point. I plan to use 24 hour lights also.
And I'm still scratching my head on how she got berried, it's the strangest thing! I did ty turning off the tank lights amd shining a light to try and find the zoea, but no luck
Edit: was it Texasguppy's thread? I followed that one

 

Tell me Rtessy us it natural for the female to get berried then fertilised after or do they go through this process naturally every few months whether there's a male present or not

 

Tell me Rtessy us it natural for the female to get berried then fertilised after or do they go through this process naturally every few months whether there's a male present or not

to pop
They do need a male present to reproduce, and generally become "berried" a few hours after mating. So I'm super confused, lol

 

HI again!
Yes, it was TexasGuppy''s thread, now you mention it, that's right, I just couldn't remember the name of the person.

I'm really looking forward to your attempt next time she's berried as I'd love to have a go myself-if you discover the winning formula!

Just thinking about what Richie said about females getting berried without males has got me thinking. I used to have a lone female ghost shrimp (after all her friends had died off) She used to get berried every time she molted but would then pull the eggs off after a day or so. Since Amanos are similar 'lower order' shrimp, I wonder if they do this too? But, your eggs did seem to be fertilised, as she held onto them...

'Tis a mystery! An interesting mystery though! ☺

 

I must have had 30+ Ammano over time and not one of them ever got berried. I wonder if it's all down to the water to kick them into gear

 

That's weird that yours have never been berried Richie, mine are never not berried, currently all three girls are at varying stages of pregnancy.

When I bought a new young female recently, as soon as she developed her first saddle/molted that was it-males chasing her all round the tank, and in the morning= pregnant!!!

I think it must be something in the London tap water that agrees with them, it'll be interesting to see what happens over the coming weeks as the water gradually switches over to the RO water.

 

I've heard they berry up real easy. My tap water is TDS 30, and I buffer it up with just calcium and ferts.

 

You are so lucky mine comes out at 400ish that's why I installed a RO unit

 

I've got a m/f pair in a 10gal and this last time, as soon as her last batch of eggs hatched she molted and then bam, she's berried again. I think the frequency that a female gets berried depends mainly on how much they are being fed and of course the water quality. My shrimp have been getting fed a little extra because I've got some BN pleco fry that really need food 24/7.

Also, even if there isn't a male the females will get berried. At least this is the case of cherry shrimp, the females will be berried for a few days before the eggs start to decay and then shed them. My amano has always been kept with her man so I can't say for sure it is the same for them.

 

Its strange, my Amanos have always been extremely fertile, back when I first joined Fishlore to ask for help as to why my Cherries were never getting berried, my Amanos were always pregnant.

It turned out that my nitrates were 80!!! No wonder the Cherries weren't happy-Amanos? No problems!

The eggs have always hatched out and, as I mentioned the tiny larvae can be seen swimming around near a bright light.

That's why I'm so keen to see if you have success Rtessy as I'd love to have a go trying to raise babies if I've got a successful guide to follow.

(I successfully hatched some Cherry eggs-which is obviously much easier-and am in the process of writing up what I did as I thought it might be useful since I often see people ask questions about doing it)

 

That's why I'm so keen to see if you have success Rtessy as I'd love to have a go trying to raise babies if I've got a successful guide to follow.

Hi, try this guy's video as a guide,

.

 

Hi!
Well, he certainly makes it look incredibly easy, and without the need for lots of specialist equipment, I may well give it a go!

 

Yes, it is really that simple, you probably already possess all the leftover equipment to set it up.

My advice which will increase your success is to set up the grow out tank to culture the algae now. Do not wait for them to hatch and quickly set up up a sterile tank thinking they'll survive before the algae grows or use supplemental feeding which will require too much maintenance and may kill them from too high nitrites and nitrates. They will end up starving and you'll have a low success rate.

This is the last form before it morphs to adult form. That's when they can start moving forward. The macro lens and the focus makes the quality bad, it's from my iPhone 7. I have new batch of over 100+ now and their growth is about a week to more than a week. They don't all hatch at once.

Just for reference, these are about 5mm long, I suck them out with a 5mm pippette when they're ready. I'm not sure what I'd do this time with this much.

 

Can't seem to edit my above post, but this is a video of it just morphed into adult form.

It has the swimmeretts that the previous forms don't have. This is an indication it is ready to be transferred for S/W to F/W transitioning.

There's another morph after in F/W where it will lose those flailing legs and change to the 6 legs that you are use to seeing.

They will lose their red coloration during the transition time. I never had any that swam like his and never lost any transferring them in that state.

 

How long have you been breeding these mach6 your the first person I know to have bred these in captivity well done

 

Thanks, this is my first successful batch but only a small amount. I can't tell you how many failed attempts I had through at least 5+ years of wanting to do this with on and off attempts.

Watching his video, gave me some pointers that the articles didn't and made me rethink what I was over complicating my process as well.

The ironic thing was the batch before this failed.

 

I admire you for sticking with it