Rock Shrimp??

MyBabyTex · Post by **MyBabyTex** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:21 am

thanks guys!

I actually have two big 'castles' with lots of holes in them, great hiding place. Like a giant rock with holes, but prettier! lol. None of my fish use it so my rock/bamboo/wood/asian filter/shrimp is pretty comfy in there.

One of the 'castles' is right in the path of the filter current. The only time I've seen him out of his hiding spot he was stuck to the castle, chilling in the current lol.

So it is beneficial for him to have another of his kind??? If so, I will go pick one up in a heartbeat. There were actually two more at the pet store, unless someone has bought them already. Is it a good idea to go pick another one up?? I want him to be a happy little shrimp.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 11:01 am

I have 3 females and they are always together, so I think they like the company. I'll be getting a Male once I get the new tanks cycled. I'm hoping to try to breed them.

xerxeswasachump · Post by **xerxeswasachump** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 12:19 pm

Wow! Please post how that goes. Like what you did with the Amano project.
How do you sex them? Right now i have two and one is significantly smaller than the other. Does that size vary with sex? Also, where do you get a single male wood shrimp?

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 5:08 pm

I shouldn't enable you, but I'll make an exception

. Always read over the Shrimp Varieties section before asking questions, and do a little searching. Not only do you get your questions answered, but you end up seeing incredible pictures of shrimp, and finding info you didn't know you needed, but here goes:
From http://www.petshrimp.com/bambooshrimp.html

A common question about these shrimp is how to distinguish males and females. The answer is simple. With fully grown animals the males have a much larger first pair of walking legs (see pictures for comparison). Additionally, the females are plumper and their carapace extends further down at the pleopods to accommodate eggs.

xerxeswasachump · Post by **xerxeswasachump** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 5:18 pm

Yeah, i read that immediately after posting. Sorry about that. I have determined that the big one is a male and the smaller one is a female. What are the necessary conditions for breeding? I couldn't find anythign in the article about that. I want to know this so i can prevent breeding rather than encourage it. I don't have the resources to raise planktonic baby shrimp so i don't want my shrimp to expend tons of energy making babies that are just gonna end up as fish food. Also, does making eggs endanger the shrimp at all by stressing them out or having them expend too much energy? Should i be worried about an early demise?

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 8:00 pm

My advice is let nature take its course. Sounds like your shrimp are very small and not ready to breed anyway. The stress of your tiny tank will probably prevent it. I don't think making eggs and carrying them is a big problems for shrimp. Amanos do it if they are healthy and they are LOADED with eggs. Bamboos have a lot of eggs, but nothing compared to amanos as far as ratio of body mass.

Don't worry about it and let the fish have a treat. If these guys are still alive when you are ready, then it will be way cool. Hopefully I'll have a trail blazed for you.

xerxeswasachump · Post by **xerxeswasachump** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 8:09 pm

Yeah, thanks a lot for that thread. It is incredibly useful. Anyway, the shrimp are pretty massive. The male is probably almost 4 inches long and the female is at least 3 inches. I really should take a ruler to them. Where could i find vampire shrimp? I think my tank is particularly condusive to filter feeding shrimp.

I'm looking into expanding the tank. I tried to get some plexiglass to do some do-it-yourself expanding; but the stuff was much too thin and it didn't crack evenly. Now i'm stuck with two huge pieces of thin plexiglass and two pieces of unbroken stuff, i will figure out something to do with them.