Crap! Berried female croaked

[loverland]

I have a small group of 5 neo blue pearls. The very saddled female molted yesterday, and was hiding last night. Came home to find her berried, and dead. Any guesses as to why that would happen? How can a shrimp be healthy enough to go through that process and die within 24 hours?

 

 

[Revaria]

I don't know why she would pass, but you can still save the eggs. 

 

http://www.planetinverts.com/Artifically Hatching Eggs.html

 

[loverland]

Well, here goes. I had read that article before, so I figured I'd give it a try. Instead of putting the eggs in a separate container, I'm going to try tumbling them. I don't know how long the female has been dead of if the eggs were properly fertilized at all, but I guess it's worth a shot.

 

You can see there were quite a few little eggs. They definitely were not easy to remove from the female, so it's also possible they were damaged in the process. From my past egg tumbling experience with cichlids, I have my doubts about these surviving. Guessing they'll be covered in fungus by tomorrow.

 

[Revaria]

Good luck with the tumbling, and who knows you may be able to hatch them. 

[Greenteam]

I've hatched several batches of eggs either the result of early molts or dead female like yours. 

 

This product was my favorite from all the one's I tried and successfully hatch about 90% of the eggs I place into it.

 

 

[loverland]

I'm using a Cobalt. I've had good luck with these with cichlid eggs, but these are decidedly NOT cichlid eggs. Tiny buggers.

 

[Greenteam]

It might work but my concern when I did it was the size of the young shrimp. 

 

Here's a picture of 2 eggs that I found left behind in a molt after the female release most of the eggs. You can see one hatched 24 hours later and his so tiny that having a large tumbler might cause problems. With this shrimp egg tumbler the force of the current it light enough to not harm them once they hatch from been tossed around. 

[loverland]

As I feared, these eggs were covered in fungus within 48 hours. Boo.

[TheGlassBox]

I wonder if adding a couple of drops of methylene blue would've helped?  I always add it when hatching fish eggs, along with an air stone to provide a little current.  You'd have to have it in a separate little tank so the MB wouldn't hurt the biofilter.   Just a thought....

[Greenteam]

22 hours ago, loverland said:

As I feared, these eggs were covered in fungus within 48 hours. Boo.

 

That sucks. All mine attempts failed for me with my DIY egg tumblers till I got the one I showed in the picture. Not sure why but hasn't failed me yet.