longarm whisker shrimp

[fishnerd]

Hi Gang,

I am new to shrimp keeping and have recently acquired 3 large healthy whisker shrimp. One of them was berried, and I moved her into her own tank after about 3 weeks. An additional 3 weeks went by until she released her babies (about 2 dozen). I now have a proud and mean-spirited mother on my hands.

I have been searching for information on these shrimp and have had no luck in obtaining accurate information. I read one article/blog stating that the female shrimp will release the babies in a larval stage, upon where another 3 weeks are required before they turn into shrimp form. Another article/blog stated that these shrimp provide no parental care and will eat their young if left in the tank with their babies.

My experience over the past couple of days has defied all the information that I have gathered on the internet. Firstly, she held onto her babies until they were fully formed. Secondly, not only is she not eating them, but have gathered them into a corner of the tank in a group and if my wife of I stick our hands or faces near the tank to watch the babies, she charges at us and tries to fend us off in a very agressive manner. She will stab her claws at us and into the glass. I have stopped watching her as I do not want her to injure herself.

So, what I am still looking for is accurate information on these types of shrimp, what I can expect in the days to come to ensure the babies survive, and any other information like where these shrimp come from, life span, feeding habits, etc. I have unsuccessfully kept the micro shrimp varieties, but these shrimp seem hardier than other species. I currently feed them a varied diet including rotifers, daphinia, flake, algae wafers, bloodworms, glassworms, and will start using BBS and brine shrimp. I have even started a green water culture, although i believe I may have been too late as the babies were released yesterday.

Thanks in advance for everyone's input.

[fishnerd]

An update! The babies have already doubled in size...it's interesting to see the little molts all over the java moss. AND big surprise!...these are not whisker shrimp! They are spider shrimp, or more commonly known as red claw shrimp. I finally found pics and a description of what these were when I noticed my babies were displaying red claws and googled it. It's unbelievable to me that the most respected LFS in my city didn't know that!

Anyways, hopefully they will all survive. It's been a couple of weeks now and the momma shrimp still lives with them and has not eaten any of them. My understanding is that she may as they get bigger as they tend to fight for territory and want to eliminate the competition.

If anyone has any links or additional info on these shrimp, I would love to hear it, as I said earlier, it's all new to me.

Thanks

[demonte1997]

Do you mean red claw macros? If so, they are neat little guys. Love prawn. Very cool little creatures.