tiger stripes

[retardo]

My question is related to a straggler baby that has made a life in my tank. I've mentioned before that I had a female amano in a 10G tank I had previously tried to set up as a amano grow out tank with full salt salinity, but I failed in the attempt. I then decided to try my amano experiment without the salt water content and just leave it as plain freshwater with some low light plants.

At about the same time the mother released her clutch, I got a batch of tiger shrimp from a friend and then turned the tank into a tiger only tank. The larvae of the amano was, thus, intermingled with the tigers. Soon I forgot about the amanos larvae and assumed that they had all died off since I couldn't spot any of anymore. A few weeks later, I observed a tiny shrimp baby about 2-3mm in length. I didn't have much time to observe it as it ran back into its hiding place among the java moss.

I managed to observe it at length today, since it stayed out much longer than normal. It's about 7mm in length now, and I am almost absolutely positive it's an amano and not a baby tiger that came in with the tigers and managed to survive. All that being said (sorry so long), does anyone here know when tiger shrimp begin exhibiting their stripes? It may be my best guide to figuring out whether it's a tiger or an amano. Thanks in advance.

rich

[Walter]

I think I heard cases of amano shrimps breeding in freshwater before, but I think the chances are very low and not many of theml would survive..

I am not sure when the stripes will appear, but looking at your case, the tiger shrimplets and the amano shrimplets' age should be about the same?

So why not you observe the tiger shrimplets and when you start to see them having stripes, observe the "amano shrimplet" if it really was a tiger? Hmm, but come to think of it if is it really a tiger shrimplet then you probably can't find it anymore when it grew its stripes.. :p

[Robert]

Hi,
it could be a tiger shrimplet. The stripes develop with a size of about 8mm+ normally. Younger tiger shrimps are greyish-colorless. To get yamato shrimplets is very unlikely because they have several larvae stages. You must have seen these free-swimming stages because they are several milimetres big and there must have been dozens of larvaes because of the amount of eggs a yamato shrimp female has. These lavaes are specialised in certain kinds of food and had to raise. So to get young yamato shrimplets in freshwater is very unlikely.

Regards

Robert

[retardo]

Yea, I guessed as much, but I'm holding hope that it may be an amano. Unfortunately, I don't have the benefit of baby tigers in the tank to compare to. I will in a few weeks though, and that will be quite an exciting time. I will continue to observe this straggler, and keep you posted on what it is in the end.

[STL]

My tiger babies took about a month before they showed their stripes.

[retardo]

Kewl! Can't wait for the hatch!! I recounted again this morning. I have an additional two that are pregnant, so I"m up to 7 right now. Can you imagine all the babies when they hatch?!