I looked on the shrimp varieties page and couldn't find anything about this so I thought I would post. I bought these at a petstore they were labeled as being ghost shrimp but I knew right away they weren't. I have raised this type of shrimp before and it got very large around 7-8 inches long. I am worried though because the largest shrimp that is in the tank has a totally different coloration and might possibly be a different species?
It has a different "personality" than the others, it is afraid of feeder fish and spends most of it's time hiding.
I thought it was the same kind as the smaller one in picture 2 but it doesn't have stripes, doesn't have a red nose, nor the red and blue arms of the 2nd shrimp. I have read before that the 2nd shrimp that I have is some sort of long armed shrimp.
If these are two different species should I be worried about them being together? BTW the lighter larger shrimp is around 5 and half inches long...and that is a rock that it's sitting on lol. [/img]
The 2nd looks like what is normally called an M. rosenbergii. The other is definitely a Macrobrachium species. It is possible it is an adult female, whitel the other is an orange claw male. I have a female that is a year old and is colored much the same way.
There are several Macrobrachium species that are very similar. At one time I had some amazon shrimp that were very similar. They were also very shy.