Or something else? Went to Petsmart to get cuttlebone at advice from the forum to keep calcium levels up and saw shrimp! Never before have they sold any except ghosties. The label said they were "Marble Shrimp" that grow up to 1 inch.
This was extremely amusing since one of the shrimp in the tank was over 3 inches long . All the shrimp were not alike, not being able to resist I bought 2 of the 3/4 inchers in the tank, when the person caught them and I looked at em closely they seemed quite different, hence the question.
I took them, one looks exactly like the pics Mustafa put up of asian filter shrimp. The other is dark brown and has a broad tan/gold stripe down his back that continues so that it's entire tail is the same awesome color. Could this just be a color variation? Or is it Neocaridina cf. zhangjiajiensis? It did not appear to be a filter feeder. I haven't seen either of these guys since I put them in the tank, except for a moulted shell so I haven't been able to get a better look at their frontend yet.
I searched for Marble Shrimp on the Internet after seeing them, and apparently this name refers to a marine shrimp. I wouldn't trust the label (and neither would you, apparently!)
Do they do well in captivity? They sure are cool. Do they really grow as big as it says on the shrimp varieties page (8-12 cm)?
Petsmart is often wrong with their labeling and their employees rarely know anything more than the label states.
Sometimes it can be an advantage to a well informed customer. I bought a huge mislabeled Synodontis eupterus that was in a tank with the more common small Synodointis nigriventis (upside down catfish). Then the fish employee priced it as a small common pleco.
Thankfully, we have resources like this site to ensure that we know what we are getting.
I was at my local PetSmart today and as usual passed through the aquarium section and sure enough there were Atyopsis moluccensis for sale for a ridiculous price of $13.99. Guess they don't know that their major chain store competitor sells them for about half that amount. And like has been already posted, the information on the tag was totally wrong.
The Petsmart labeled "marble shrimp" were mostly asian filter feeders and Lady Friesian, I do believe that grow to the size Mustafa put in the shrimp varities section. As I said one of the ones in the tank was already 3+ inches long. BTW, they were only 2.99 each at my Petsmart.
I'm still wondering about the one shrimp I got with the golden/tan stripe and tail, is he a variant or something else? I moved some bogwood and he is a filter feeder now that I was able to observe him for a bit.
It's normal for these shrimp develope white lines down their backs. If you look closely at the pictures in the Varieties page you can see the line down the back and how the tail is also colored. In addition, they can also become more of a reddish color.
frugalfish, thanks for the input, but this guy is dark brown with a wide glittery golden/tan stripe down the back and it's entire tail is the same color so I'm unsure, the only shrimps with this pattern I've seen before were called wood shrimp, of course I don't know if that's what they were either .
With my bad knee I have to wait for my husband to hook up the camera cable to the PC, I'm bugging him about it!
Cool thing, the shrimp moulted this morning and he was crimson colored! Glorious! his squiggly lines were red and there was a red overlay on his stripe and tail. I thought I had the ugly duckling becoming the swan but he is slowly fading back over several hours. Is this just normal after a moult for the asian filter feeders? I am really becoming an idiot shrimphead, I just called a shrimp glorious
. All the shrimp were not alike, not being able to resist I bought 2 of the 3/4 inchers in the tank, when the person caught them and I looked at em closely they seemed quite different, hence the question.
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