Blue Zebra Shrimp?

sstimac · Post by **sstimac** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 7:45 pm

Is this for real? It is called Blue Zebra Shrimp. That blue just does not look natural. The seller claims is it wild caught.

Baby_Girl · Post by **Baby_Girl** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 8:31 pm

oh man, I recognize that trademark in the lower right corner. They're the same folks who are selling the 'orange glass shrimp' I asked about viewtopic.php?t=2807

They also said those were wild-caught and all of them look like that, when it's actually just shrimp which are harboring an internal parasite. I bet they have no idea what species they're dealing in, and just lump all dwarf shrimp with those parasites into those shipments

After learning that, I personally am hesitant to swallow anything that seller offers. But since I have not kept zebra shrimp myself, I hope someone else will be able to tell you whether that one is natural or not. It certainly is gorgeous, but so were the orange glass shrimp (I thought).

Post by **Mustafa** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:49 am

This is a blue tiger shrimp. People use the name "zebra shrimp" for all kinds of shrimp (bumblebee shrimp, tiger shrimp, bee shrimp, indian zebra shrimp etc.) from all kinds of places (like China, India, South America...etc.).

However, it's anyone's guess if the offspring of these shrimp will be blue or just normal tiger shrimp (see shrimp varieties page). There is a blue tiger shrimp in the hobby that produces blue offspring at a certain percentage (i.e. many offspring are not blue = the species/variety does not breed true for the blue trait..yet), but those blue tigers have golden eyes. I have not yet heard/seen a blue tiger shrimp with normal eyes that produces blue offspring. It may produce blue offspring or it may just turn out to be like the blue Neocaridina sp., whose offspring aren't blue (see shrimp varieties page again).

As for the Neocaridina sp. with the parasites...the shrimp are wild-caught alright...the parasites can only be found in wild-caught animals. Also, these parasites are harmless, as war as we know, as they do not kill or harm the shrimp in any recognizable way and cannot infect other shrimp without a suitable intermediate host.

shrimpbaby · Post by **shrimpbaby** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 5:24 pm

Mustafa wrote: As for the Neocaridina sp. with the parasites...the shrimp are wild-caught alright...the parasites can only be found in wild-caught animals. Also, these parasites are harmless, as far as we know, as they do not kill or harm the shrimp in any recognizable way and cannot infect other shrimp without a suitable intermediate host.

I want to say that I read somewhere that the parasite can infect humans. I don't know if that's true or not, and I can't recall where I read that either. Do you know anything about that, Mustafa? It bothers me enough that I'm not willing to keep any wild caught N. palmata.

Baby_Girl · Post by **Baby_Girl** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 7:40 pm

Mustafa wrote:these parasites are harmless, as war as we know, as they do not kill or harm the shrimp in any recognizable way

but since they are classified as 'parasites' and not some sort of commensalistic relationship, that means they must have some negative effect on the host. At the very least, they are deriving nourishment probably from the shrimp's food and taking up space inside the body which could go toward organs and other body parts. Right?

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 9:33 am

It is almost always better healthwise not to have a parasite attached.

My question is what is the suitable intermediate host?

Cactus Bastard · Post by **Cactus Bastard** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 6:05 pm

shrimpbaby wrote:It bothers me enough that I'm not willing to keep any wild caught N. palmata.

At least you wouldn't have people making jokes about eating your shrimp

zapisto · Post by **zapisto** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 8:09 am

Neonshrimp wrote:It is almost always better healthwise not to have a parasite attached.

My question is what is the suitable intermediate host?

any superior animals

Post by **Mustafa** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 1:42 pm

Alright...This is what's the deal here: The shrimp are actually the intermediate hosts for an intestinal parasite that is host specific. In other words, the parasite needs to get into the intestines of a fish, or bird or mammal etc. to reproduce. These host animals need to eat the shrimp with the parasitic eggs/larvae in it to acquire the parasite.

So those orange things in the shrimp are the eggs/larvae of the parasite and it reaches its adult form (and reproduces) only in its final host (See above). Unless you decide to eat your shrimp, you'll be fine.

Werner Klotz from our forum (wklotz) and Andreas Karge have written an excellent article about this...but again, it's only available in German:

http://www.wirbellose.de/klotz/nektarinen.html

But lucky you...because what I wrote above is basically what the article says.

shrimpbaby · Post by **shrimpbaby** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 2:03 pm

Mustafa wrote:Alright...This is what's the deal here: The shrimp are actually the intermediate hosts for an intestinal parasite that is host specific. In other words, the parasite needs to get into the intestines of a fish, or bird or mammal etc. to reproduce. These host animals need to eat the shrimp with the parasitic eggs/larvae in it to acquire the parasite.

So those orange things in the shrimp are the eggs/larvae of the parasite and it reaches its adult form (and reproduces) only in its final host (See above). Unless you decide to eat your shrimp, you'll be fine.

Werner Klotz from our forum (wklotz) and Andreas Karge have written an excellent article about this...but again, it's only available in German:

http://www.wirbellose.de/klotz/nektarinen.html

But lucky you...because what I wrote above is basically what the article says.

Here it is translated, sort of.

[removed by admin]

Copied and pasted through babel fish.

There are some really cool pictures in the article.

Post by **Mustafa** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 2:45 pm

shrimpbaby, thanks for trying to help but automatic translations do more harm than good when it comes to technical topics. People trying to decipher the "translation" inevitably come to the wrong conclusions and spread their newfound "knowledge" and a new myth is born. I've seen it too many times. Hence I have removed the babelfish "translation." Being from Germany myself I can tell you that there was more gibberish than translation.... I just don't want my forum to contribute to misinforming hobbyists.

shrimpbaby · Post by **shrimpbaby** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 3:48 pm

That's fine.

Baby_Girl · Post by **Baby_Girl** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 9:57 pm

thank you for summarizing what you know of the situation, Mustafa. I was hoping you might enlighten us to that effect, given you speak German and all

Unfortunately, I linked an automatically-generated translation of a similar article as well in my 'orange glass shrimp' thread. It certainly didn't help me, simply due to the poor quality English. I will go back and delete it, too.