edinjapan wrote:
I agree, very nice pics! Now, on to the 1,000,001 questions about TLC&F of these guys. What about the care and feeding of these guys? How about attitude? Most Macrobranchium tend to be scavengers with a penchant to make sushi/sashimi out of any fish or invert they can lay claw to. Are these naps so inclined? Breeding? Have you seen any females in berry? Plus the 1,001 other questions concerning water H2Q, habitat and habits good & bad....
Care and feeding is about the same as for other small Macrobrachium species such as Macrobrachium assamense/dayanum ("Red Claw"). I feed mine little sinking pellets. Their attitude is pretty peaceful in general. They get along very well with each other but they are very assertive if they need to be. I keep them in a 55 gallon with my Red Claw shrimp and they totally dominate the Red Claws. These shrimp love to dig holes under stones where they spend most of their times during the day since they seem to be mostly nocturnal (this is especially true for females). I do see my male run around a lot during the day though..especially during feeding time when he dashes through the tank to find out where the yummy smell comes from. I have algae eating shrimp in that tank, too and the shrimp leave them alone. This is probably due to the fact that the tank is relatively large with a lot of hiding places and plants and the algae eating shrimp can easily escape. So my Macrobrachiums don't even bother trying to grab them. In a tiny 10 gallon tank the situation would probably be very different.
I just got the shrimp..so there is not much to say about breeding. I have an ovigerous female right now which I separated. I am hoping that some viable young will hatch out of those eggs. The eggs are large so the young will be benthic and pretty much miniature versions of the adults (if they hatch and survive that is).
edinjapan wrote:
I agree, very nice pics! Now, on to the 1,000,001 questions about TLC&F of these guys. What about the care and feeding of these guys? How about attitude? Most Macrobranchium tend to be scavengers with a penchant to make sushi/sashimi out of any fish or invert they can lay claw to. Are these naps so inclined? Breeding? Have you seen any females in berry? Plus the 1,001 other questions concerning water H2Q, habitat and habits good & bad....
Care and feeding is about the same as for other small Macrobrachium species such as Macrobrachium assamense/dayanum ("Red Claw"). I feed mine little sinking pellets. Their attitude is pretty peaceful in general. They get along very well with each other but they are very assertive if they need to be. I keep them in a 55 gallon with my Red Claw shrimp and they totally dominate the Red Claws. These shrimp love to dig holes under stones where they spend most of their times during the day since they seem to be mostly nocturnal (this is especially true for females). I do see my male run around a lot during the day though..especially during feeding time when he dashes through the tank to find out where the yummy smell comes from. I have algae eating shrimp in that tank, too and the shrimp leave them alone. This is probably due to the fact that the tank is relatively large with a lot of hiding places and plants and the algae eating shrimp can easily escape. So my Macrobrachiums don't even bother trying to grab them. In a tiny 10 gallon tank the situation would probably be very different.
I just got the shrimp..so there is not much to say about breeding. I have an ovigerous female right now which I separated. I am hoping that some viable young will hatch out of those eggs. The eggs are large so the young will be benthic and pretty much miniature versions of the adults (if they hatch and survive that is).
Mustafa, we bought this shrimp under the name "Otorongo shrimp". Otorongo is a lake in Peru, in a strictly reserved zone. Is it possible that they catch shrimps in a reserved zone? It's in the Manu National Park in Peru.
"Otorongo" just means Jaguar in the Inca language so it does not have to have anything to do with a lake necessarily. My animals are supposedly from one of the Amazon tribituaries around Iquitos. One of my females has been carrying eggs for more than a month, too (two females died mysteriously before) and hopefully I can see some babies hatch soon.
Also...my peruvian glass shrimp female is carrying eggs as of today...8-10 *very* large eggs.
Mustafa
Last edited by Mustafa on Mon Mar 07, 2005 8:58 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Mustafa wrote:"Otorongo" just means Jaguar in the Inca language so it does not have to have anything to do with a lake necessarily.
I didn't think of this, although I knew the meaning of the word "Otorongo" (to everyone - I swear I don't know Inca language, I just read about this on the net)
Mustafa wrote:My animals are supposedly from one of the Amazon tribituaries around Iquitos. One of my females has been carrying eggs for more than a month, too (two females died mysteriously before) and hopefully I can see some babies hatch soon.
Lets see what happens, I can't wait to see the babies, yours as well as ours
Newjohn wrote:Are there any updates on these Shrimp ?
The old post are very interesting. And the pictures are even better.
John
Hi John,
I still have a few of these shrimp. The problem with them is that they nocturnal and don't run around much during the day. Hence, there is not much opportunity to observe them. They have bred for me before, too, and they produce benthic young, which are tiny and might still go through a few non-floating larval stages before turning into miniature versions of the adults. Unfortunately, my young did not make it due to water quality problems in their tank.
It takes a lot of space to breed Macrobrachium species, as each batch of young needs to grow up in their own tank due to predation by both the adults and older young. As I am lacking space right now I cannot dedicate as much time as I would like to breeding macros. They are fascinating creatures, though, and once I expand I will definitely dedicate more space for these amazing shrimp.
TKD wrote:So i guess you will be selling them for 30$ (or more) each then lol
TKD
--No, I am not going to charge $30 or more each, but if I did they would be worth every single penny. People don't realize how much time, money and effort it takes to locate these shrimp and arrange their import, especially if you do not want to import trillions of them but just enough to establish a breeding population. Then you have to establish several tanks for Macrobrachium species to try to breed them, since they do not lend themselves to colony breeding. Also, most of the time it is MUCH more difficult to keep wild shrimp alive and get them to breed than domestically bred shrimp.
It's a little different from just driving to the petstore and buying some animals. Considering that you do not have to go through all this, you can be happy if you can get shrimp like that for $30/each without having to go through all that trouble.
Having said that, they won't be $30/each since I am trying to spread these shrimp in the hobby and not make them impossible to purchase for most people. On the other hand, if they are too cheap, people won't appreciate them and treat them badly according to their price. Just look at what's happening to the local "ghost shrimp" (Palaemonetes paludosus), which people kill carelessly on a daily basis since "they are only 10 for a dollar and I can always get more..." That kind of attitude makes me sick.
Mustafa
im too tight fisted to have that attitude even if anything i liked was only 1 penny im still too tight fisted.
