Kylechameleon shrimp?
Moderator: Mustafa
-
snakeskinner
- Egg
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2004 11:04 am
- Location: oklahoma
chameleon shrimp?
hey all, I'm new here and this is my first post. as most people, I've bought ghost shrimp from time to time and they've disappeared for one reason or another. At first they would turn white and die and I found out about adding iodine so I started to do that with my next batch but I had about 13 disappear within a week with no bodies. I finally decided my banjo catfish was eating well. He was moved to another tank and I found an amano shrimp I believe that was still alive in some substrate of a tank I bought and I think he's still around but he's too good at hiding in my planted 65 for me to tell for sure. The reason I'm posting here is that I just bought some shrimp labeled as Chameleon shrimp in san antonio texas over the weekend. they are much larger than the amano or ghost shrimp I'm used to seeing and appear more like a crayfish or predatory shrimp of some type. I've done a google search but have found such varying photos I'm not sure what they are. these are mostly clear shrimp but I honestly havn't done a real close examination of them. I added them to a small tub with tank water and quite a few floating plants to dig through that I'm sure is full of food and such. 2 are full of eggs so I'd like to hatch and/or breed them if possible. I was sent here from the plantedtank website and did a search of the forums. I only found one mention of these shrimp so they must not be too popular or they go by a different name? Any help with scientific or official common names, websites, raising/breeding tips, etc. would be greatly appreciated. I'll attempt to get a good photo on my webshots gallery asap so maybe one of the experts here can help i.d. these things for sure. You know how LFS common names go Kyle
Kyle
HI Kyle,
The shrimp offered as "Chameleon Shrimp" belong to the species group around Macrobrachium pilimanus (i.e. related to it...could be several closely related species or subspecies). They are aggressive, usually mostly nocturnal, and will eat small fish and shrimp or at least snap off parts of their fins and appendages. I recommend keeping them by themselves or with *tons* of small algae eating shrimp (breeding group), which they possibly could not deplete by eating.
As for breeding them, it's probably not going to work out since their larvae *most likely* need brackish water/saltwater to survive. They do have many (hundreds) tiny eggs as opposed to (comparatively) few large eggs. As to feeding them, just give them normal flake food and/or pellets. They won't go for any algae or microorganisms in the plants.
I hope this helps.
Mustafa
The shrimp offered as "Chameleon Shrimp" belong to the species group around Macrobrachium pilimanus (i.e. related to it...could be several closely related species or subspecies). They are aggressive, usually mostly nocturnal, and will eat small fish and shrimp or at least snap off parts of their fins and appendages. I recommend keeping them by themselves or with *tons* of small algae eating shrimp (breeding group), which they possibly could not deplete by eating.
As for breeding them, it's probably not going to work out since their larvae *most likely* need brackish water/saltwater to survive. They do have many (hundreds) tiny eggs as opposed to (comparatively) few large eggs. As to feeding them, just give them normal flake food and/or pellets. They won't go for any algae or microorganisms in the plants.
I hope this helps.
Mustafa
Last edited by Mustafa on Thu Sep 23, 2004 7:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
-
snakeskinner
- Egg
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2004 11:04 am
- Location: oklahoma
thanks, I took another look at them tonight and they are clear with a "brown dusting" around the separations in the tail. I think I ran across a photo that looked like this earlier but can't find it now. Is there a good source of information anywhere you can send me to? I can't find much of anything on a google search and havn't done much research on invertebrates before so I'm not sure where to turn. If they are in fact brackish, I wouldn't object to trying to set up the correct salinity level to make this successful. I already planned to keep them separate from any fish. thanks for the help, Kyle
macrobrachium
I'm still new here so I can't tell you much, except that not many people keep macrobrachium shrimp because they're so agressive and have such large claws that they like to take chunks out of lots of living things.
You probably won't find much info on how to breed them since not many people like them. But try running a search on google for "macrobrachium". I just ran one and it came up with several pages of links to try. Most of them will probably be technical information or "white papers", but that's a start.
Once ghost shrimp have occupied a tank for several weeks or up to a month. They come to find their favorite spots in your plants. They're especially hard to find amongst hornwort. If you've got fish in your tank, they always like to hide from them as nearly every fish on the planet harass ghost shrimp and bully them around.
I've found the best way to enjoy inverts (not just including shrimp) is to give them their own tank, like a 10 gal, which is very easy for the viewer to watch.
Hey, what part of OK are you from?
You probably won't find much info on how to breed them since not many people like them. But try running a search on google for "macrobrachium". I just ran one and it came up with several pages of links to try. Most of them will probably be technical information or "white papers", but that's a start.
Once ghost shrimp have occupied a tank for several weeks or up to a month. They come to find their favorite spots in your plants. They're especially hard to find amongst hornwort. If you've got fish in your tank, they always like to hide from them as nearly every fish on the planet harass ghost shrimp and bully them around.
I've found the best way to enjoy inverts (not just including shrimp) is to give them their own tank, like a 10 gal, which is very easy for the viewer to watch.
Hey, what part of OK are you from?
-
snakeskinner
- Egg
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2004 11:04 am
- Location: oklahoma
hey Brandon, I'm up just northwest of OKC. reason I bought them in the first place was to try and breed them to get points for the local aquarium club breeders award program. Once I'm done with them, I'll send them elsewhere. I might put them in my sister-in-law's firemouth tank and see who's the boss. I didn't try just a genus search, I did a species search with the full name mustafa had given but it came up with more foreign language pages than english. I might try a few other search engines and see what I can come up with. I just assumed being a shrimp only website this would be the place to go but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of info. You ought to come up and check out the OKC club if you get a chance. there's a wealth of info as well as the ability to pick up odd and rare fish for dirt cheap prices at the usual auctions every monthly meeting. go to http://www.petsforum.com/okcaa and check out the forum as well. the yahoo based forum is a little difficult to get used to but easy enough once you figure it out. cya, Kyle
I would love to go check out the OKC club. We have nothing like that down here in Ardmore, this town is pretty small and there is only one shop in town that you can buy fish from (besides the local Wal-Mart Supercenter) 
The only shrimp species I can get around here are just ghost shrimp and amanos. I've mail ordered everything else from online companies and individuals (the shipping costs have really eaten me alive!)
I've always got saturdays off, so I may try to attend the next meeting next month.
Good luck with your new shrimp (firemouth's VS macrobrachiums, I would like to see that!
)
-Brandon.
The only shrimp species I can get around here are just ghost shrimp and amanos. I've mail ordered everything else from online companies and individuals (the shipping costs have really eaten me alive!)I've always got saturdays off, so I may try to attend the next meeting next month.
Good luck with your new shrimp (firemouth's VS macrobrachiums, I would like to see that!
)-Brandon.
Kyle,
Almost all (hobby) information you will find about any shrimp species will be either in German or Japanese. If you are looking for English language info on shrimp....Petshrimp.com is pretty much it. I have not included aggressive species descriptions here on purpose. Aggressive, predatory macrobrachium are not easy to keep. The US Aquarium scene is shrimp illeterate as it is....with time more info will be available and even the more aggressive Macrobrachium will be kept under the right conditions (of course I will make information available about what conditions are right in the future).
Oh yeah...most scientific literature is in English, but scientific publications are hard to come by for the non-academic (and boring for most people
anyway).
By the way...no Macrobrachium (or crayfish for that matter) can survive for long with most predatory cichlids, even if the cichlid is smaller or just as large ad the crustacean.
Mustafa
Almost all (hobby) information you will find about any shrimp species will be either in German or Japanese. If you are looking for English language info on shrimp....Petshrimp.com is pretty much it. I have not included aggressive species descriptions here on purpose. Aggressive, predatory macrobrachium are not easy to keep. The US Aquarium scene is shrimp illeterate as it is....with time more info will be available and even the more aggressive Macrobrachium will be kept under the right conditions (of course I will make information available about what conditions are right in the future).
Oh yeah...most scientific literature is in English, but scientific publications are hard to come by for the non-academic (and boring for most people
anyway).
By the way...no Macrobrachium (or crayfish for that matter) can survive for long with most predatory cichlids, even if the cichlid is smaller or just as large ad the crustacean.
Mustafa