Atyidae shrimp - photographs

[Callatya]

A few pictures for chlorophyll

I bought 150 of these from a hatchery on the central coast (that closed 3 months ago! I'm devastated!) and sold a lot on to friends.

these shrimp cost approx $3 each from pet stores, and thats if you are lucky enough to find someone that stocks them.

I had them for approx 12 months, and the girls held eggs often, but I am unsure if any ever hatched. I imagine if i had kept them at lower temperatures they would have had a longer lifespan, but they tolerated the temperate/tropical temperatures well, the only downside being an increase in appetite and moult rate.

[Mustafa]

Thanks for the pictures. This shrimp looks like it's Paratya australiensis.

Here is a link:

http://faunanet.gov.au/wos/factfile.cfm?Fact_ID=74

[Callatya]

Thats the one

Have you ever heard of them being tinted blue (very slighty tint)?

I was unsure when I bought them if it was naturally occurring or if they had been eating the plastic storage tub they were being held in.

[chlorophyll]

Thanks for sharing the pics, Callatya!

Those do look like ghost shrimp, as somebody mentioned in the past. But do they have claws at all, or are they really like atyids?
Who knows what makes a Paratya a Paratya?

[Mustafa]

Thats the one

Have you ever heard of them being tinted blue (very slighty tint)?

I was unsure when I bought them if it was naturally occurring or if they had been eating the plastic storage tub they were being held in.

Never heard about them being tinted blue. But then, who knows? Most scientific literature never talks about the colors of these animals when they are alive. That has something to do with the nasty habit of scientists of putting any shrimp speciment they catch into alcohol right away. And in alcohol all shrimp look pretty much the same color...first orange...and then white.

I don't think they would eat anything plastic, so that would not be a reason for any blue tint.

[Mustafa]

Thanks for sharing the pics, Callatya!

Those do look like ghost shrimp, as somebody mentioned in the past. But do they have claws at all, or are they really like atyids?
Who knows what makes a Paratya a Paratya?

Tiny little differences in anatomy only visible under a microscope.

[Callatya]

they have... er... white dots *lol*

I always assumed they were claws, they used them in a similar fashion to my cray, for eating and grooming and jousting.

If i had any left i'd get a good photo and blow it up to check.

What else could the 'claws' have been?

[Mustafa]

Their "claws" have little outgrows that look like brushes which they use to pick up the algae. They are very different from the claws of crayfish or Macrobrachium shrimp which are designed to hold on to larger items.

[edinjapan]

From checking other sources it seems these shrimp have a wide tolerance to water conditions and can even survive in brackish water. The young have a pelagic lifecycle and need to live in water without any appreciable current (slackwater) for the first 2-3 weeks of their life.

Overall they seem to have similar habits and lifestyle as the Amanos without the need to have their offspring raised in saltwater. I'd definately like to see if they could be raised in a breeding setup...

[raggamuffin]

i bought a couple of these shrimp one day, only to get them home to discover one was carrying eggs! i poped her into this great little 4 Litre tank with one other shrimp, tons of plants including lileopsis, java moss, pearl weed, and an airstone hoping the little dudes would hatch. the mother carried the eggs for a few weeks then they turned white then one day they were gone. i cant see any little shrimp in there... i believ i came across a post somewhere sometime after that suggested that the young need brackish conditions to develop. but then i was under the impression the species was completely freshwater. oh well. maybe next time!

up until recently i was just throwing in a bit of flake every now and again. i have begun putting a few baby brine shrimp in there about once a week in the hope it conditions them to try to spawn again!

edit: for those interested here is a post containing the tank these guys live in.

[Mustafa]

This species *is* supposed to complete its lifecycle in complete freshwater. However, if even a tiny disturbance affects the shrimp tank negatively the larvae die off almost instantly after they hatch. That's why some people who try to breed shrimp with free floating larvae (mostly amphidromous shrimp) never see larvae despite their females carrying the eggs "to term."

[raggamuffin]

i dont suppose anyone has any tips on how to get them breeding, how to raise fry, etc? i would be very grateful to hear them!

i am still not even sure what their ideal ph, temp and gh is. there doesn't seem to be a lot on the net regarding this particular species. where did you get your info mustufa? can you recomend any sites, texts, or books?

[Callatya]

Ragamuffin, Crayhaven (now closed down) put out a book years ago, it has some basic info on breeding them in a dam. I'd get you the info, but my copy is packed in a box somewhere. Its a blue covered book, Australian crayfish farming or something, by a Robert Mac-something LOL

http://www.techbooks.com.au/pg-53.htm <-- down the bottom of that page.

Its only about 1 1/2 pages on them, but other than the net, its the best I have found so far.

[Mustafa]

i dont suppose anyone has any tips on how to get them breeding, how to raise fry, etc? i would be very grateful to hear them!

--Give them clean water and food and the females should become ovigerous soon. The fry could probably be raised on microfoods (alive or powdered) since they are free floating.

i am still not even sure what their ideal ph, temp and gh is. there doesn't seem to be a lot on the net regarding this particular species.

--There is no ideal considering that they live in different rivers and creeks with different water parameters in their natural habitats. Just make sure that the water parameters are stable...i.e. avoid sudden changes.

where did you get your info mustufa? can you recomend any sites, texts, or books?

--I'm sure you meant "Mustafa", right? There are no sites or books out there that will give you any reliable information. That's why I put up this site in the first place. I get my information from scientific journal articles about decapod invertebrates (shrimp, crabs, crayfish etc.). Most of the stuff I read is too much "scientific blabber" to be fun or useful for most hobbyists to read. That's why I gather all the information from those articles and try to convert them to a "hobby friendly" format on my website. My other source of information is my personal experience. I am breeding and raising many different species and I have also observed some of them in their natural habitats.