How long do amano shrimp live?

[Shrimp&Snails]

The female is fairly large but I wouldn't have a clue how to measure her. I would hazard a guess at around 2 inches.

[Neonshrimp]

We can all guestimate the size but I agree that the only sure way is to sink a ruler next to the shrimp

[badflash]

Better get a ruler. Men have lied about length so long that women have no way to judge by sight any more...

[Shrimp&Snails]

Better get a ruler. Men have lied about length so long that women have no way to judge by sight any more...

Hahahaha that's just too funny.

I did use a ruler but she wouldn't come up to the front of the glass. I'll drop one in the tank and wait patiently.

[JK]

I put 20 in our show tank at work in 2001, and its only recently that the last ones have died off. So I would say that in stable conditions, five to six years is is about right. Out of interest ,the last ones to go were all males by some distance.

On a slightly different note, has anyone else noticed that the ones available now have comparatively poor markings to the ones around five years ago?

[Neonshrimp]

Wow, so in your experience some of your shrimp lived 5-6 years in your tank. How big were the males and females before they died?

On a slightly different note, has anyone else noticed that the ones available now have comparatively poor markings to the ones around five years ago?

Please tell us what you mean as I don't have experience with the earlier amano shrimp.

Thank you for sharing your information here

[JK]

Hi Neonshrimp,

I wouldn't say they were anything special size wise. The tank is a very heavily planted one, and they pretty much had to scavenge for a living. There were a very large number of emperor tetra's in with them that bred like flies. Subsequently the shrimps never really got a look in at feeding times. I believe like most animals they could well live longer, when kept slightly on the lean side.

When we first starting getting amano's (around 10 years ago) they had a really nice stripe down the back and very distinct slightly reddish spots. But now the don't have the stripe hardly at all, and the spots are fewer and quite hard to see.

[badflash]

The last ones I got were last year, and these seemed the same as always. I've posted pics of mine, are yours different?

[badflash]

Better get a ruler. Men have lied about length so long that women have no way to judge by sight any more...

Hahahaha that's just too funny.

Get your mind out of the gutter girl! I was talking fish stories! After all shrimp are in the same category. " I once caught a fish (substitute shrimp) THIS BIG! <============================> "

[Neonshrimp]

Sure badflash, we believe you

[DatDamWuf]

I have had this one female amano a little over 3 years, she was a just under half an inch when I bought her.

I rearranged some plants and was telling my husband she must have died because I had not seen her in a long time she crawled up and over the new batch of java moss. Interestingly, to me, she is very dark in the head area now, did not used to be.

anyone else have them live so long, I thought 2 years was the norm?

I wanted to check back in with you guys on the amano shrimp I posted about because she's still going as of Jan 2010, so she's at least 6 years old now. Other than snails, the only other creature in with her is another amano I bought in 2007. The seaclear tank was not well suited to be a shrimp tank and I keep putting off replacing it because of the 2 shrimp in there (silly huh?). Anyhow, I have not done a water change on the tank in at least 3 years, I just add water to keep the pump going (bioball/builtin). No siphoning, or cleaning, nada. My well water is extremely hard but there is a lot of bogwood in there, water has a brown tint, some low light plants that grow fine, some java moss and lots of algae, slime, thread and bearded. I also have not fed them in the last 3 years, plenty of food without it.

Only down side to my report is that when one of them dies I won't know which it was, they look identical to me, I'll try to find something to differentiate them.

[Neonshrimp]

Well, I think we can document that your amano shrimp has lived to be 6 years old in not so ideal conditions. I too have found them to be very hardy and have some still arounf after almost 4 years, not counting their age before I received them.

Enjoy them while they are still with you and treat them kindly

[Mustafa]

Thanks for updating this thread! This is very useful information. Amano shrimp are definitely very long lived...i've had some for 4-5 years now myself. They keep getting bigger and bigger (especially the females) over the years, too.

[DatDamWuf]

Welcome Mustafa. The 6 yr old is only a little bigger than the 3 yr old but she's much darker, she is not as active as the younger one and she eats snails when she finds little ones but this could be because she lived with dwarf puffers in her youth and learned to scavenge the shells.

Neo, I'm not sure the shrimp agree on the conditions, they seem to thrive, in fact it's the reason I've not moved them to a small tank, I'm afraid the change might kill them since I'd have to do water changes in a 5 gal that I don't have to do in a 45 gal with only 2 shrimps. Dam, I am crazy

[Neonshrimp]

Looks like you do have a hardy pair of amano shrimp, and since they are doing well for you in that tank I would leave them there. Hope they do well for you for a long time more