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This two were given to me by Yellow Fish as she is positive these two are the cause of her dear Pinchy's loss of limps, which he didn't recover well from & passed away recently. I put them in a 10 gallon tank & added two glass shrimp to see what would happen. One glass Shimp was no wheres to be found a couple days later. The other was around for several weeks & even had 1 baby survive!! There are no longer any glass shrimp. I was feeding them algie wafers, but they didn't seem too fond of them. So I gave them some cichlid food. They seemed to enjoy that a lot more. Last night I gave them a dog kibble (this is a top quality kibble not that trash kind), & the big guy went nuts! So I think they really like their meat, with a side of veggies.

I have had these two for about a month (maybe longer). They both have molted a min of 3 times each. The large one is VERY different then when I got him. The little hairs on his large claw is now a fur coat Here are the pictures.

The big guy
Smaller image
http://jess.the-dog-dish.net/gallery2/m ... 6e09328762

Huge image
http://jess.the-dog-dish.net/gallery2/m ... 6e09328762

The smaller guy
Smaller image
http://jess.the-dog-dish.net/gallery2/m ... 6e09328762

Huge image
http://jess.the-dog-dish.net/gallery2/m ... 6e09328762


Thanks guys!!

Jess

Hi Jess

Very interesting looking Shrimp.

I am sorry, that I can not help with the ID.

Does the male get the Fuzz back after he molts ?

John

Hello John,

I have never seen the male without the fuzz. I was worried it might be a fungus or something, but when he molts its still there, its also not spreading, its grew to what it currently is, & has stayed like that.

These are usually imported as "Chameleon Shrimp" and are a Macrobrachium species. The one with the fuzz is the male. They are from Southern Asia. They reproduce through saltwater larvae.

Thank you Mustafa. I was told it was thought to be a Chameleon Shrimp, but when I googled it, it looked nothing like the pictures, esp. the fuzz. I did another search today & found this bit of information.

Note the hairy coating on the claw of the adult male. This is normal, and usually happens to the alpha male.

Well that could explain why I couldn't find any images that looked like my guy.

Hi all!

Mustafa wrote:These are usually imported as "Chameleon Shrimp" and are a Macrobrachium species. The one with the fuzz is the male. They are from Southern Asia. They reproduce through saltwater larvae.

I think the species pictured is not related to "true" Chameleon Shrimp (M. lanatum or. M. scabriculum) but rather mebers of the M. pilimanus species group.
Species of this group could be breed in freshwater.

Good lock with this pair!

Cheers
Werner

Hello Werner,

What makes you think that it's in the M. pilimanus group? It's hard to say one way or another from the pictures above, but all the shrimp that I have encountered (various imports from Thailand, Burma, Vietnam etc.) from the M. pilimanus group looked almost identical to the "Fuzzy Claw Shrimp" from my shrimp varieties pages. They just had some slight color variation, but really very slight. None of them showed this extreme "fuzz" on their claws, which I have really only seen in so-called "Chameleon Shrimp" imports (various species, probably closely related).

Again, hard to say from the pics, but if someone held a gun to my head and said: "Tell me what this is NOW!" I would probably say that it's probably some undescribed/unidentified species. Anyway, if the female ever carries eggs please take a picture so we can see if the eggs are large or small (or medium).

Hi Mustafa!

What makes you think that it's in the M. pilimanus group? It's hard to say one way or another from the pictures above, but all the shrimp that I have encountered (various imports from Thailand, Burma, Vietnam etc.) from the M. pilimanus group looked almost identical to the "Fuzzy Claw Shrimp" from my shrimp varieties pages.

It´s the short, cup-shaped carpus on male major second cheliped. This character, together with a series of small theeth along the cutting edge of fingers and the long hairs on the large cheliped (without large spines like in memebers of the american/african M. olfersii species group!) are characteristic for all members of the pilimanus group. Well, your "Fuzzy Claw Shrimp" is also a member of this group.


Macrobrachium eriocheirum (pilimanus species group)

"Chameleon Shrimp" in contrast belong to an other species group with 3 known members with M. scabriculum and M. lanatum as the most known. This species are showing also a fuzzy claws but having a much more slender carpus of second cheliped.


Macrobrachium lanatum (scabriculum species group)

Cheers
Werner

wow, Now I need to go look up shrimp body parts, as I have no idea what you just said lol

kingrattus wrote:wow, Now I need to go look up shrimp body parts, as I have no idea what you just said lol

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=165&p=992

Much thanks!!

Thanks Werner. The "fuzz" on the claw of the shrimp in question still looks very unusual for any M. pilimanus group shrimp I have seen so far, though.

The smaller one started to get fuzz on its claw too. However it died a couple days ago