Thursday, May 29, 2008

Now that is what I call multi-tasking!

Biology lesson for today: Cleaner shrimp (the kind we have in our tank) are hermaphrodites.

Both of our cleaner shrimp are now carrying eggs. Even better than just the inherent biological advantages of being a hermaphrodites, it seems that even though one is carrying eggs, it can still provide sperm to the other one. Isn't nature excellent?!?

2 comments:

mama biscuit said...

That's cool!

Do you have seahorses? The Tennessee Aquarium has a big seahorse exhibit. The first time I saw it I fell in love with Seahorses. Did you know that they generally mate for life and the male is the one that gives birth?

Nature is most definitely excellent!

Sylvia said...

Tysgirl: We don't have seahorses. According to the fish store staff, they move too slowly to compete with other fish in the tank for food. So they usually need to be kept in a tank alone. We do love them though. They really beautiful. I did not know they mate for life.