My M. pilimanus is breeding

[fatboy]

He is either trying to breed or he's trying to kill another shrimp. It's hard to tell. :p

I have 3 long-arm shrimp in my 20 gallon tank, one m. pilimanus and 2 other macrobrachium shrimp that look similar. Normally the shrimp avoid each other, running away at the firstsight of another shrimp. The m. pilimanus, called Prawny Bob, has very long claws, one of which is covered in fine hairs.

Today I noticed Prawny Bob hugging a shrimp and trying his best to climb on top of it. Surprisingly the other shrimp seemed happy to let him do this. It would walk away and Prawny Bob would hug it again before climbing on. He'd stay on top for about 10 seconds, with his swimming legs moving very quickly, then drift off.

I don't know how long this has been happening. I saw them do it for 10 minutes before the other shrimp walked away. Now Prawny Bob is running around the tank and digging a bigger cave for himself. I've never seen him this active before. He's inspecting every inch of the tank and the other shrimp are ignoring him.

IfI see any eggs, I'll post pictures. :)

[Veneer]

It would be quite interesting to see whether hybridization is possible.

[dwaffer]

Awesome!
I hope we get to see the pics!
Good luck.

[GunmetalBlue]

Hi Fatboy, what kind of music were you playing for them that induced such activity? lol :joking: Wonder what he's up to? Yes, hope to see some pics if there are eggs.

> "He is either trying to breed or he's trying to kill another shrimp. It's hard to tell."

From my experience I should warn you that it's advisable to keep a close eye on them especially after a molt. Very unfortunately, my bigger Macrobrachium killed the smaller one after her molt. What they do is remove their appendages and thus literally disarm them.

I had plenty of cover in the tank and watched all morning after the molt; everything seemed okay, but I had to leave for 3 hours. When I came back, the deed had already been done and she was already dead :cry: . Sorry for the depressing story, but would hate for anything to happen to your shrimp, so just a friendly warning not to underestimate them, especially as they get older.

Prawny Bob has quite the claw and a very nice stripe down his back! :) You said in a previous post, "Here's a picture where you can see his big hairy claw better. It was on the left side previously and now has grown on the right side." I'm curious as to how that came about and what's the story behind it? Is that something that's normal for this species?

-GB