Hello everybody - i love shrimps ;)

kingkano · Post by **kingkano** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 12:39 am

Hello, my names Ken and I am a shrimp addict haha. Do lots of intros here start like that??

Anyways, I have been keeping several varieties of shrimps for about a year now in various tank setups. With varied success

Currently I have 6 red cherry's (just gotten), lots of amano's, 3 small tigers somewhere, 3 red crystal, 3 bumblebee's and probably HUNDREDS of Macrobrachium lol (I think they are assamensis). I've also had bamboo filter feeders, but they didnt work out in my community tank, and I know why these days. I want some more but will wait till I can provide for them.

Can anyone confirm my Macrobrachium's??? Can you tell me how actually aggressive they are?? I keep a mated pair in my 4ft long tank. They seem to get on fine but I have to keep removing babies constantly (they must breed every 8 wks or so atleast). So far I must have had a good couple hundred babies in the 9mths or so I had them. And thats just what I saved. I have lost plenty of tetra in this tank tho and wonder if thats down to when I didnt remove all the babies, and had about 10 adults *whoops*. All sorted there now though.

Would a Macro attack dwarf puffers??? kuhli loaches??

Anyways onto the pics. Sorry they arent the best quality, but they do show them off

babies - some good pics

At first I was excited they bred now I wish they would stop!! lol. I sell some to local fish shops, but in the end I was over-run. I have a polypterus in another tank and sadly alot of them have to end up as food for him. waste not want not eh.

Sorry for the long post. Hope you enjoy the pics and its ok to post them

Ken

amanda_h · Post by **amanda_h** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 12:55 am

Awww, those babies are so cute with their little pincers! Great pics of the babies, too. Welcome to the forum!

ming · Post by **ming** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 3:04 am

They actually do look cool, but I think they're too aggressive to put with much other fishes.
It reminds me of scolley in the plantedtank
The shrimp ate most of his livestock and he eventually got rid of it
I'd probably like some just for fun in a 10G tank. It'll be fun to watch him eat. Although I think I have enough tanks
Heres the posting for scolley
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showt ... hp?t=11886

kingkano · Post by **kingkano** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 3:56 am

They are very cool fellas lol. Thanks for that Ming. They are about 3" excluding claws max, so not as big as the one he had. I suspect he had a different Macro. because his was huge. Mine seem full grown. will measure them tonight just to confirm tho. Mostly they have been well behaved for me except for when I let them over-run, and the odd tetra disappearing. (but these are cardinal tetras and cardys are known to be weak and rubbish. plus I did go 4-6 mths with about 6 adults this size and no tetra disappearing at all - so not sure I can blame them). So I hope they are ok there. But I did lose an SAE and 2 dwarf puffs in my puffer tank with 1 of these guys. so might remove the one from there for safety.....

If anybody wants any and lives nearby.... haha

kingkano · Post by **kingkano** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 9:34 am

Okay I take it all back. after coming home and finding a floating tetra minus face and tail I panicked. I decided to remove my Nanna and Grandad to the shrimp box too. I cant say whether they ever did attack any of my fish or what. But I will say after removing them, within 10mins, the fish seemed much more alive?? The tetras started crusing the whole tank, as did the other fish (three striped african glass cats and clown loaches) - when normally they arent all that active. So maybe the shrimp ruled the other fish by fear? I dunno....

Maybe its all in my imagination!!!!

Anyways.... for anyone who has these kind - they can take more temp variation than you realise. I have been keeping my babies and several spare adults (and now all of them) in a plastic box (think you call them rubbermaids??) that holds about 15g or so, no heater but a small internal filter. The water temp holds at about 21 (room temp) and they survive fine. They grow slower and eat less, as expected, but otherwise no side effects. I think aggression is lower too - the adults seemed to fight less....

Anyways thanks for the insight peeps.... and scaring me to remove them hahhaa.

ta

ken

Post by **Mustafa** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 9:54 am

Welcome to the Forum, Ken!

Those guys you have belong to the Macrobrachium assamense species complex and occur in India and southeast asia (yours or the ancestors of your are most likely from India).

I have the same animals and they do breed readily. Since they are typical Macrobrachium, you can't really trust them with little fish or shrimp but they have very awesome behavior. However, Macrobrachium assamense types are nowhere near as aggressive or destructive as the macrobrachiums commonly sold as "Chameleon Shrimp." I would say Macrobrachium shrimp are the Cichlids of the invertebrate world in therms of their interesting behaviors.

I would not recommend putting them together with any cichlids though. The dwarf cichlids would get harrassed and the rest of the cichlid world would make a snack out of *any size* crustacean. I can attest to that after having observed a Jewel Cichlid (Hemichromis sp.) systematically kill a 5 inch Red Swamp Crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) which had huge pincers. The fish was only 3.5 inches and it bit off all the legs of the poor crayfish and then the pincers. That was about 8 years ago when I was living in Arizona and had a 125 gallon with relatively small cichlids in it and thought it might be a good idea to intrude a large crayfish (I had a LOT of rock hiding places, but it did not help). Obviously, I have learned a lot since then....

Anyway, most Macrobrachium shrimp species need brackish/saltwater for their larvae to survive, but these guys are some of the few that actually produce benthic, almost fully developed young.

I am so thrilled with mine that I am going to probably put up another rack of tanks just for Macrobrachium shrimp. I am about to get some dwarf Macrobrachim species from Peru that supposedly only get to be about 1.5 inches long and have never been imported. They have very unusual tiger stripes on their bodies and also reproduce in pure freshwater (we'll see how readily they will do that).

Most Macrobrachium are not your typical "community shrimp" species, but due their interesting habits, they do deserve to be kept. Plus, they provide a great alternative to most crayfish as they never or rarely eat plants (although my Macrobrachium assamense do snack on Java Moss like it's candy if they have nothing else to eat). They also like "snacking" on my hand when I put it in the tank. They come on mass and "forage" for good and start pulling some skin (does not hurt) and even the odd hair (that hurts a little). Very interesting animals indeed for people who can provide them with a good home (instead of ignorantly buying them, sticking them into a community tank where they harrass other fish and then *MURDERING* them as a punishment, as in the link to the thread on plantedtank, because of of one's own irresponsibility and recklessness in careful selection of tank mates.)

I might offer some of these guys on this website soon, as I have two more females carrying tons of eggs again....

Take care,
Mustafa

kingkano · Post by **kingkano** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 10:38 am

cheers for that.

Yes I agree they are very interesting little guys. and for the 9mths or so they been in that tank I must say I have come to love them. I couldnt bare to get rid of them altogether. These most definitely did breed lol, constantly.

Thanks for the extra info. I wont be trusting them in my community tanks again, just to be safe, and have fished them all out except one (no pun intended).

The shrimp box has gravel, pots and bits of plant. SO barring the fact its a bit foggy to look thru, its just like a room temp tank

And they do fine in there so I am glad I can keep them.

Cheers again for the info. You can be sure I will be coming back for more lol.

ken