# Saddled shrimp, what's that mean exactly ?



## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

I know if I see a saddle on my shrimp, it's a female. I know that when a female gets old enough, she will moult and afterward send out pheromones to attract males to mate with her, and if all goes well, she'll become berried. At what point in this sequence of events does the saddle appear ?

Until someone asked me, I'd never really thought about just exactly what the appearance of the saddle means, other than the fact it allows me to tell female from male. Clearly, once a saddle appears, it remains.

Does the appearance of the saddle simply mean the shrimp is now sexually mature and able to reproduce ? Appreciate any clarification on this.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Here is an image (not mine).










You can see that the saddle is comprised of undeveloped eggs - when these eggs are fertilized, you see them move to the belly of the shrimp ("berried") where the female shrimp uses pleopods to fan the eggs.

So to answer your question in one word:


Fishfur said:


> Does the appearance of the saddle simply mean the shrimp is now sexually mature and able to reproduce ?


Yes


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## WiyRay (Jan 11, 2009)

I always thought that the saddle were the unfertilized eggs inside the shrimp. And once they mate, the now fertilized eggs are moved into the shrimp's tail underside area. And eventually the shrimp will produce more eggs which form the saddle all over again.

Ha. Darkblade beat me to it


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Thank you both.. that definitely clarifies things for me. I'd always more or less assumed it meant sexual maturity, but someone asked me a question and I realized I really did not know for sure. 
Now I know, and many thanks for that great pic, Darkblade.. great closeup !


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