New Shrimp

[mrshrimpy]

Went to my LFS today and they had these for a buck each so I got 5 of them. They were called Whisker shrimp. They are quite wild looking with their eyes perched high above their bodies and long antenna or whiskers. I am assuming they are an Indian macro shrimp from what I can find out but I do not see any claws. They are about 1 1/2" in size. I got them to see if one of my 10g tanks are compatable for shrimp but I am a little concerned now because what I have learned they are not compatable with other dwarf shrimp. Any thoughts?

[animal1998]

Ghosties. American Glass. Glass. Ghost. Pick your poison you got one of these: http://www.petshrimp.com/glassshrimp.php

They are sold as feeders. Mass bred and sometimes wild collected here in the USA! I get mine 3 for a dollar or 50c each and have 5 right now. They have tiny little claws on their front legs. I only have them but they are dwarf shrimp and should be able to go with others, I assume.

[Mustafa]

That may actually be Macrobrachium lanchesteri. As long as you have a well structured tank with lots of hiding places, dwarf shrimp will be fine with them (the Macros may eat some of them here and there, though, especially after the dwarf shrimp molt.)

[mrshrimpy]

Ok these guys are absolute carnivores. They have been in the tank for about a month and have cleaned the tank completely of ramshorn and MTS snails. Nothing but empty shells left. No algae or plants have been touched. The only food they seem to go for is carnivore pellets. These guys have been better than assassin snails!

[Mustafa]

Yes, most Palaemonid shrimp (i.e. Macrobrachium, Palaemonetes etc.) eat snails. That's part of their natural diets. They are still omnivores....M. lanchesteri loves to munch on hair algae, and even eats moss once in a while. They are very active and interesting shrimp.

[mrshrimpy]

They are very interesting. One night I had thrown a few pellets in and a crushed ramshorn snail. The largest shrimp grabbed the snail in its mouth and had a pellet in each claw running all over the tank. Had me laughing so hard.

[Mustafa]

Yeah, they are very greedy. All Macrobrachiums are that way actually. I have 3-4 different species here and they try to carry away as much food as possible during feeding, even if it's more than they can actually eat (they'll just drop the food when they're full).