New sulawesi shrimp, brand new to the hobby! :)

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New sulawesi shrimp, brand new to the hobby! :)

Post by Mustafa »

Ok folks, time to bring some excitement into the "room." I have been breeding (and establishing) the shrimp you can see in the pictures below for about a year now. It is supposed to be from Lake Poso in Sulawesi and appears to be an undescribed species. It was imported a few times before under various names, but I have manged to actually breed them in larger numbers and established a captive-bred colony. Haven't seen them on import lists for a very long time now. In any case, enjoy the pictures:

Most common color and pattern on females:

Image

They can also get quite dark:

Image

Here is a rare red individual . She is, unfortunately, dead now, but she did reproduce a few times so there should be some red ones popping up here and there. Sorry for the blurry picture, she was hard to photograph as she hung out in the back of the tank most of the time....

Image

The males have beautifully red antennae, although their bodies are not as ornate/colorful as the females' :

Image




This is just the beginning of a whole bunch of species I will be introducing to the hobby in the near future (or introducing in large numbers as healthy, robust captive-bred animals)....more to come!
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Re: New sulawesi shrimp, brand new to the hobby! :)

Post by Newjohn »

Hey Mustafa,
It is Great to hear that there will soon be another Shrimp available to the Hobby.

Less ornate/colorful Males with RED antennae.
and
Variable Colored Females.
This will be a interesting species to work with.
I can see having 2 tanks for these. One for Selective Breeding and One for Colony Breeding.

Looking Forward to seeing these Shrimp in the PETSHRIMP STORE.

Seeing that they may be a undescribed species,
Are you going to name them ?
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Re: New sulawesi shrimp, brand new to the hobby! :)

Post by Mustafa »

Newjohn wrote: Seeing that they may be a undescribed species,
Are you going to name them ?
Hi John,

They are most probably undescribed, but may turn out to belong to a described species. I can really only give them a scientific name if I write a paper officially describing them. For that I would have to kill a few animals and look at them under the microscope...I have a problem doing that. So, no scientific names from me unless I am co-authoring a paper where someone else already did the killing.

If you think you need at least 2 tanks for this species, wait until I post pictures of my blue C. sulawesi that I separated from the main colony where you got your shrimp from. C. sulawesi is one of the most variable species I have yet to encounter.

The great thing about this new species is that they are very active and out there as opposed to some other sulawesi shrimp from the lakes.
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Re: New sulawesi shrimp, brand new to the hobby! :)

Post by demonte1997 »

That's fascinating. Very beautiful shrimp Mustafa. :)
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Re: New sulawesi shrimp, brand new to the hobby! :)

Post by Newjohn »

Do the Females of " New sulawesi " keep their color ?
or
Do they change with substrate color or Mood ?

Do the Males have any Color / Marking Variations ?
If you think you need at least 2 tanks for this species, wait until I post pictures of my blue C. sulawesi that I separated from the main colony where you got your shrimp from. C. sulawesi is one of the most variable species I have yet to encounter.
Well, I do have plans for a Rack System them will hold 10gal & possibly a few 5gal Tanks.

Seeing the Color Diversity of the " New sulawesi "
I will have to make sure to have enough tanks available for some selective breeding.

How fast do the " New sulawesi " reproduce ?
Compared to RCS.

Sorry for so many questions.
Ok folks, time to bring some excitement into the "room."
But, I have not seen a NEW Wild Type Shrimp brought into the Hobby for some time now.
And when you try to do a Google Search with " New sulawesi Shrimp "
Not a lot of information pops up.

Looking forward to seeing this Shrimp in the
Shrimp Species Description Page.
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Re: New sulawesi shrimp, brand new to the hobby! :)

Post by Mustafa »

Newjohn wrote:Do the Females of " New sulawesi " keep their color ?
or
Do they change with substrate color or Mood ?

Do the Males have any Color / Marking Variations ?
--Pretty much all shrimp change coloration with mood and/or substrate. These guys are no exception. The best color in shrimp actually seems to come out when they are literally scared for their lives and do the utmost best to try to "blend in" with the dark substrate. Egg carrying females seem to do that automatically without an immediate threat to their lives (like fish swimming around). On the pictures I showed above they weren't scared, though. That's just their normal coloration and normal variation in color.
Well, I do have plans for a Rack System them will hold 10gal & possibly a few 5gal Tanks.
--There we go, that's the serious aquarist speaking! :)
How fast do the " New sulawesi " reproduce ?
Compared to RCS.
--Theoretically Sulawesi shrimp from the lakes (as opposed to the rivers) should reproduce much faster than your usual river shrimp (like the red cherries) as they produce eggs constantly and only need about 14-15 days for the eggs to hatch (at about 82-83 degrees Fahrenheit). However, they are more sensitive to bad water quality and the survival rate of the young may not be as great. Having said that, I am looking at a few hundred young of this species in one of my tanks right now. If the right conditions are given you will get a population explosion even with the most difficult shrimp. The difficult part is providing an established, biologically balanced tank.
Sorry for so many questions.
--No problem at all. That's why I posted this topic. How else would you know more about this shrimp if you don't ask questions?
But, I have not seen a NEW Wild Type Shrimp brought into the Hobby for some time now.
And when you try to do a Google Search with " New sulawesi Shrimp "
Not a lot of information pops up.
--Not much information is going to pop up. Even the known species of lake shrimp from Sulawesi are very difficult to import (and establish) so most people don't even get to import and establish new stuff. All the shrimp from sulawesi (river or lake) arrive in the US (and Europe) in absolutely terrible condition. It's a miracle any of them survive actually...after all these years the exporters still have not learned how to package them properly. The more important it is to spread the captive-bred animals in the hobby. Not everyone has the resources and patience that I have (tons of tanks and thousands of dollars spent on just receiving half-dead shrimp to get a species established), so it's just best to wait for captive-bred specimen instead of going through the frustration of buying half-dead and about to die wild-caught animals. I'm sure you've experienced this kind of frustration a few times in the past when you bought wild-caught, imported animals.
Looking forward to seeing this Shrimp in the
Shrimp Species Description Page.
--Yes, they'll show up there soon...along with the long overdue updates and additions of quite a few more species.
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Re: New sulawesi shrimp, brand new to the hobby! :)

Post by zapisto »

Nice to see those shrimp Mustafa.

Sulawesi was a big disapointement for me , not because of shrimp , but more because of many people was seeing them as a "money machine".
these are less colorful but for me and probably many serious hobyist here , there more attractive then the very "popular colorul sulawesi shrimp".

I do like the male looking , and the red antenna seems so great.
They are coming from Lake Posso you say, hmm interesting

Cant wait to be ready to work with all those beauty again.
Thanks for your contribution to the hobby.

Z.
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Re: New sulawesi shrimp, brand new to the hobby! :)

Post by Mustafa »

Hi Z! :)

zapisto wrote: Sulawesi was a big disapointement for me , not because of shrimp , but more because of many people was seeing them as a "money machine".
these are less colorful but for me and probably many serious hobyist here , there more attractive then the very "popular colorul sulawesi shrimp".
Sulawesi shrimp have been a big disappointment for most people out there actually for various reasons. You're right, lots of shady people tried to milk serious hobbyists by presenting pictures of colorful sulawesi shrimp and then sending them half dead shrimp that would die within a day or two (or three or four if you're lucky). It's not because these shrimp are impossible to keep, it's because many exporters from Indonesia *still* try to send 200+ of these shrimp in already bad shape in tiny bags so that mostly dead and half-dead shrimp make it into the country. Then, unethical "sellers" in various forums and auction websites (and unknowledgeable store clerks, too) try to sell these dying shrimp as soon as they can to strike a quick profit. The hobbyist carries the cost of this type of behavior.

Although I have access to all the shrimp I can possibly get from Sulawesi (and elsewhere) it's still very hard even for me to establish a new species, as I have to take losses of hundreds and thousands of dollars, before I get lucky and get halfways ok shrimp in a shipment that I can work with and possibly breed. Most of the time, the shrimp don't even survive long enough until they are able to breed. This is not only the case with Sulawesi shrimp but all wild-caught shrimp. And as you know now, a lot of people out there are not really *serious* hobbyists and don't seem to be interested in establishing colonies of wild-type shrimp but chase only the next great "new" color form (new to them as some of those color forms have been around for years in either Germany or Asia) of the crystal red shrimp.


Anyway, having said that...I do have some of the "colorful" species currently, too, but many of them actually stay hidden most of the time during the day as they are highly nocturnal. Only if you have maybe 50-100 of them in your tank will you see more of them during the day. With 10 of them in your tank...good luck finding a single one peeking out its hideout during the day. That especially applies to Caridina dennerli.

The species that I am going to introduce to the hobby soon is actually active during the way and runs around all over the place like most other shrimp already in the hobby. I may put a video of them up soon.
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Re: New sulawesi shrimp, brand new to the hobby! :)

Post by darkhail »

I was wondering if you had any update on the topic of potential the crossbreeding of these shrimp with Malawa shrimp. I was hoping to have a shrimp only tank with these two species ( I currently have a Malawa only tank), and I don't particularly want them to successfully breed with each other.
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Re: New sulawesi shrimp, brand new to the hobby! :)

Post by Mustafa »

The shrimp are doing well and breeding. The population has tripled since the last time I have posted about them. I have kept all of the offspring so far to enlarge the size of my breeding population, but the next batch of offspring will be for sale.

I'm pretty sure that this species won't interbreed with the Malawa shrimp. Although I have not done specific experiments, the morphology of both species is quite different. In fact, I have not found a single species that has, so far, successfully interbred with Malawa shrimp. Even species that are supposed to be *very* closely related and from the same island have proven to be reproductively incompatible so far....(and yes, I am actually experimenting... :) )
darkhail wrote:I was wondering if you had any update on the topic of potential the crossbreeding of these shrimp with Malawa shrimp. I was hoping to have a shrimp only tank with these two species ( I currently have a Malawa only tank), and I don't particularly want them to successfully breed with each other.
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