This is a pregnant japonica shrimp in my 20g aquarium. They carry their eggs for approximately 5 weeks, and then their young (hundreds, if not thousands, of them!) are released in a larval form. In the wild, the larvae would be swept out to the ocean; to breed them in an aquarium, they need to be transferred to a saltwater tank until they mature. This female was approximately 1-1/2" long.

09.05.04