Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone here has experience keeping the white headed Bee shrimp (I've heard them called "Honeybee" shrimp)?

I have a batch of them, and they are all doing great, but I don't know what to expect.

Thanks for any replies!

ASFC

Hi Asoftie - you could try posting pictures - I'm not clear if you are saying you have a Bee shrimp or if you have something different from a Bee?

As to Bee shrimp, I'm afraid I don't have any experience. It's not a common shrimp in the USA, so I rarely hear about people owning them here - though some have managed to snag a few.

If you have Bee shrimp, you can refer to the Shrimp Varieties page for info; also, you can try the search function for "Bee shrimp," though a lot of the info will be on Bumblebees - but their care requirements are similar, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

-GB

Here is a link to a post that contains a picture I took of one of my "Bee" or "Honeybee" shrimp. It's the fourth picture down.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=68146

I did read the profile page here, but there is not much information on breeding included, so I trolled this board to see if anyone else out there even has these shrimp.

I would be curious to hear whatever you HAVE learned about them. Mine seem more reclusive than cherries, but hardy. The cherries seem to forage in the mornings whereas these Bee shrimp come out in the afternoons more. I have seen no sign of eggs, yet.

Thanks again!

ASFC

Oops, make that fifth picture down in the link, above.

"OMG Donna, those pics are incredible!!!"

Hope you won't mind, but here's the shrimp in question for discussion:


The only issue I see is that there's a *chance your shrimp is actually a Bumblebee; perhaps Mustafa can give an opinion.

The questions/answers you are seeking are a bit general and you're right, I think you did troll this board - I'm afraid I'm not following this logic - perhaps I'm just having a bad day? It shouldn't be that big of a deal to post pics here - good or bad - we're all here to share info. If you keep that uppermost in your mind, you shouldn't have to be so shy.

Please let us know if you have a more specific question or problem. Shrimp act different in different environment, each situation is unique. If you are saying you want eggs, you need a male and female and also keep an environment that suits them - which involves searching the suggestions I made previously, and if a further question pops up, let us know.

-GB

I'm not so into board posting, so the lingo is not fresh for me. Wanted to clarify that I meant I went trolling in the fishing sense, not in the sense that I was trying to be a "troll" : )

Looks like a bumblebee to me.
See
viewtopic.php?t=896
and
http://www.petshrimp.com/bumblebeeshrimp.html

I got some of these (what you show in your pic) sold to me as Bumblebee shrimp. There is a huge variation in coloring even amoung the ones I have.

I'm keeping mine in hard pH 8.2 water and true to what Mustafa says, they do fine but don't breed. They need acidic soft water.

This is actually a bee shrimp. No question about it. It's pretty easy to distinguish bee and bumblebee once you get to see more individuals of both varieties.

Having said that, the bee shrimp on this picture is a product of selective breeding, just like some crystal reds out there. That's why it has such broad, white stripes, which makes them more similar to some bumblebee shrimp varieties with broad white stripes (and which confuses the heck out of people). The wild bee shrimp look almost identical to the chinese zebra shrimp:






The wild bee looks exactly the same except that it has a lot more black on its body. In fact, I personally believe that the chinese zebra shrimp is just a bee shrimp with almost no black. Hence it's probably just be a local variety of the bee shrimp. There would be no way to mistake a wild bee shrimp for a bumblebee.

Unfortunately, I lost all of my chinese zebra shrimp but I do have wild bee shrimp here and can post pictures of them soon. However, it won't help much with the identification of the captive-bred bee shrimp. I will more information about distinguishing bee and bumblebee shrimp in the future, possibly with some comparative pictures. Generally one can say that the black on the vast majority bumblebee shrimp varities is not all that dark and more brownish, whereas it's always black on bee shrimp. But then I have a bumblebee shrimp variety here that has a pitch black coloration, so that's not always a reliable indicator although it should work most of the time. In the end it really is a matter of getting used to them and as they become more available in the future (thanks, hopefully, to captive-breeding) it should become very easy for people to distinguish them.

How do you tell the Bee and the Bumblebee shrimp apart?

badflash wrote:How do you tell the Bee and the Bumblebee shrimp apart?

I thought I implied above that I am going to give reliable differences in the future. That's not because I am holding anything back, but because I am trying to find features that are easily recognizable to most people. Since I have seen so many bumblebees and bee shrimp it's like telling the difference between a black and white horse and a black and white cow for me. Their body shape is different, their colors nuances are different, slight differences in patterning. I'll just have to work on some more obviously recognizable differences.

I guess one such difference is that the bee shrimp has those "hooks" in the lower back part of its body:





Compare this to a similarly colored bumblebee:



I hope you guys can see the differences. Also look at the white area at the head of the bumblebee. It's very different in size and shape from the bee shrimp.

There you go, that should be good enough for now. But as I said above distinguishing both shrimp varieties will become second nature once you are all more familiar with them (i.e. see more pictures of them and/or own some yourself). Then you will think back and think: "He was right...they are as different as a horse and a cow!" Just have some patience for now....

I thought I implied above that I am going to give reliable differences in the future.

As you must realize by now, I may miss a nuance now and then. Forgive me, I didn't mean to be rude. The hint about the hooks is a good one. Looks like I have bumblebees then. I have some that are brown and white, and one that is dark black and white, a really good looking shrimp.
Now at least I can have some confidence of what I have. The LFS I got these from just say they are algae eating shrimp.

Mustafa,

Good observation, the hook for bee shrimps is true for most shrimps that have "broken" pattern. In some cases, they do not have hook.



Some comes with a white tiger tooth :



Asoftieforcrusties,

Yours is bee shrimp (or known as diamond shrimp in some other country), it is the same species as Crystal red shrimps. Althought it has paler then normal tail color, it still have that tea brown hue plus 4 dots and a tea brown rostum.

blenny wrote:Mustafa,

Good observation, the hook for bee shrimps is true for most shrimps that have "broken" pattern. In some cases, they do not have hook.

True. Those are the "higher grade" shrimp, i.e. selectively bred to look a certain way.

Asoftieforcrusties,

Yours is bee shrimp (or known as diamond shrimp in some other country), it is the same species as Crystal red shrimps. Althought it has paler then normal tail color, it still have that tea brown hue plus 4 dots and a tea brown rostum.

blenny is talking about the orangish/tea color head and tail of bee shrimp. However, with all the selective breeding going on it's hard to see this feature in bee shrimp. As for the 4 white dots on the tail, many bumblebee varieties I have come across have those dots, too. In the end it really is a matter of getting used to the look of shrimp in general. It's a totally new kind of pet to most people, so people's brains still need a lot of training to recognize all the subtle differences between species.

Hi Again All,

Yesterday I spotted THIS in the tank, and now am wondering, could this possibly be a pregnant Bee? Sorry the picture is so poor, but by the time I grabbed the camera and shot this one, the shrimp had disappeared for a better shot. My question is: Are the eggs of a Bee dark colored, as suggested here, or am I seeing something else? Shrimp tail is to left in picture, and you can see the "hooks" we've been talking about.

Here's the pic, can somebody post it properly for me? Still figuring out how.



Thanks,
ASFC

Yes, looks like your bee shrimp has eggs.

If you want a picture to appear just use the [img]<picture%20url>[/img] tags. When you post, you will see a button up on the screen that says "img". Just highlight the url of the picture and press the img button and it will put in these tags for you automatically.