What Macrobrachium?

[gabs]

Hello all, I'm new to this forum.

Just bought these Macrobrachium selling as spider shrimps from a local fish store. Decided to buy these shrimps as I had a 100 litre tank that has been cycling for over a month. The only other inhabitants of the tank are 3 siamese alga eaters.

I bought one dark coloured Macrobrachium which I assumed to be a male, and 2 other lightly coloured (almost transparent) shrimps which i assumed to be females. One of the latter was even carrying eggs.

Can you plese help me identify these Macrobrachium?
Are they Macrobrachium assamense?
Are they different species?
If they are different species, would they hybradise?

Macrobrachium before being released in the tank




Macrobrachium in the 100 litre tank

[xerxeswasachump]

The dark male looks like a rusty macro and the others look like red claw macros. I don't know whether or not they would hybridize. Check out the shimp varieties page, both of these shrimp are listed there.

[gabs]

Thanks xerxeswasachump. I looked at the shimp varieties page.

Wish one of the red claw macros was a male. The other red claw is surely female as it is carrying eggs.

[Mustafa]

I concur with xerxes. The rusty macros are *much* more aggressive than the red claws, so I would put that shrimp into a different tank if possible. It looks like you do have a male red claw in there. The one in the second picture should be a male.

[gabs]

Thanks Mustafa, glad to have a pair. You are absolutely right about the Rusty claw. It is very agressive and won't stop roaming around the tank looking for trouble. I managed to get a female rusty claw as well from the same fish store.

What is the minimum tank size recommended for a pair of rusty claws?

I'll post some pictures of the female rusty claw as well soon.
The shimp varieties page helped a lot. Thanks again

[xerxeswasachump]

Wow. You have one awesome LFS. I wish we could get shrimp that easily in New Jersey. Although, i guess we have it better than some.

Hey Mustafa, what species are the Macros that are often sold as "Long Arm Prawns." I've seen them all over the place recently. They have a 6" long body (not including claws), and really long arms with blue markings near the claws.
I also saw some enormous, lobster-looking crayfish that were at least 12" and were tourquoise and orange. Do you have any idea what these could be or what their care requirmenets are?

[Mustafa]

Many macros are called "long arm shrimp" by various people. From your description it seems like in this case it's Macrobrachium rosenbergii. They can get a whole lot larger than only 6 inches.

[gabs]

This is the best picture I've managed to take of the female Rusty claw.

The male Rusty is always on patrol hence the female draws back into some hiding place.

[gabs]

This is a picture of the same male shown in the second and third pictures above. The macrobrachium has been housed in my 200 litres tank for the last month or so.
The shrimp is an excellent scavenger and hasn't eaten or damaged plantas.

[Neonshrimp]

Looks great, how big is he now?

[FISH WORLD ERIE]

Nice pic. It looks like he wants to shake my hand.

[Neonshrimp]

I forgot to ask, what happened to the eggs being carried?

[gabs]

He's 6 cms long excluding the claws.

All the eggs hatched Neonshrimp

Here's the link: viewtopic.php?p=12579&highlight=#12579

And here's another link of the shrimps during feeding time:
http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f149/ ... p_0001.flv

Thanks for watching.

[gabs]

Had to share..

Macrobrachium assamense in 200 litre planted tank.


The alpha male macrobrachium jeleously guarding the female just before she sheds the exoskeleton and mating takes place. He literally makes the female his allowing no one to approach.



The male guards the female with so much determination since mating between these shrimps is only possible soon after the female molts. This behaviour is very interesting.. The day after the female is berried with eggs.

[Neonshrimp]

Thanks for sharing and updating with great pictures !