Cleaner Shrimp's Black Belly
 

Hi Everyone. Need your opinions.....
I have two cleaner shrimp in my tank.
Up until a few days ago, they both had a "transparent" lower belly/tail.
Recently, one has developed something very dark in its lower abdoman.
I thought it could be eggs, but I'm too new at this to really know.

Any ideas what the dark stuff is?

Thank you.

Mike

Your gonna be a dad!

It's eggs.

Good food for the rest of the tank every few weeks or so. :smile:

:confused: Eggs? They should be yellow/green IIRC... not black ...

Got any pictures?

Green is what my cleaners have all the time.

But sometimes fairly dark green.

I think food can sometimes be seen, and that's definitely dark.

If it is eggs, they are between the swimmorets, and under close scrutiny should be obvious as a mass of little itty-bitty spheres.

I don't know, I guess I just don't have the power of imagination going here, or maybe the opposite, too much, but it just seems to me it could be more than one thing based on the description so far.

A picture would totally help clear things up! Hint, hint. :biggrin:

I'd say your right Tony. I had a female up to just awhile ago and her eggs were greenish in color when she was carring.

Always green for me as well...

I found that the eggs change color, kinda from light green to greyish? Two large adults, and constant eggs. Even tried growing the little buggers, was working too...for about three weeks! God only knows what happened, I progressed them to as much as a 1/2", and starting into their third stage, they died off, one by one. (there must have been a thousand) I guess maybe there are things in the ocean they need? I don't know, but it was kinda cool to try. It made me feel better knowing that raising them is basically impossible, I think Teevee quoted that only one place in the world has ever done it successfully

Thanks for the comments on this one.

I'm sure it was a load of eggs. They looked black (dark) due to the light, but now they are no longer visible and I suspect they have been deposited in a safe place somewhere in my tank by "mom".

Everyday is a new adventure....what a great hobby.

Mike
(see you Saturday).

The eggs develop completely and hatch while they are attached to the parent animal. Therefore your corals and fish have just enjoyed a bit of gourmet.