LestWeForget13
Aquarium Advice Regular
are there any shellfish such as shrimp or crabs or crayfish or anyting that can survive in freshwater with 10 neon tetras, two redeyed tetras, 2 corys, 1 pleco, and one large snail?
FW shellfish
- Thread starter LestWeForget13
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
RogerMcAllen
Aquarium Advice Addict
Try some ghost shrimp. They are fun and cheap, just in case. I don't really anticipate any problems. I would stay away from any crabs or crayfish.
LestWeForget13
Aquarium Advice Regular
do ghost crabs get fairly decent in size?
Lance M.
Aquarium Advice Addict
Ghost shrimp would be good. They get max 2 inchs and are descent scavengers. They are mostly used as feeder shrimp.
I also have a vampire shrimp if you want to hear about it.
I also have a vampire shrimp if you want to hear about it.
LestWeForget13
Aquarium Advice Regular
yes, yes do tell about this vampire shrimp
Lance M.
Aquarium Advice Addict
The vampire shrimp I have is Atyopsis gabonenis. It grows a max of six inches and has a very nice blue color. It is a completely harmless filter feeder that looks awesome when it stands on a plant or some driftwood and has its filter appendages out and is waving them around in the water extracting suspended materials from the water. So far they are the coolest inverts I have ever seen.
When they're small they kinda resemble mole crickets. You ever seen these? They are insects that live in your lawn and eat the grass roots causing the grass to turn brown. Well anyway with their blue color, when the vampire shrimp are adults they very closely resemble the electric blue crayfish, but vampire shrimp don't have claws and won't kill fish.
They're called vampire shrimp because they have two appendages that look like they can be used to stab you with and suck your blood! But they won't do that. These appendages are used by the shrimp to hold it in place in fast streams so that it can collect food particles.
They are awesome!!! I had mine climb into my hand the other day and it felt very cool. I can almost just pick him up and move him around the tank, but these guys are insanely fast when they want to be.
Hope this helps.
When they're small they kinda resemble mole crickets. You ever seen these? They are insects that live in your lawn and eat the grass roots causing the grass to turn brown. Well anyway with their blue color, when the vampire shrimp are adults they very closely resemble the electric blue crayfish, but vampire shrimp don't have claws and won't kill fish.
They're called vampire shrimp because they have two appendages that look like they can be used to stab you with and suck your blood! But they won't do that. These appendages are used by the shrimp to hold it in place in fast streams so that it can collect food particles.
They are awesome!!! I had mine climb into my hand the other day and it felt very cool. I can almost just pick him up and move him around the tank, but these guys are insanely fast when they want to be.
Hope this helps.
Menagerie
Aquarium Advice Addict
Lance, do you have any pics?
TeutonJon78
Aquarium Advice Regular
my LFS also has freshwater clams. Not the most exciting as they just sit there, but it's kind of neat to see them with their filters open sucking up filth.
I have some ghost shrimp, and they love to sit near the clams and grab stuff out of the water flow (no filter on the tank, so the only flow is from the clams). They also "tickle" the clam with their feelers which makes the clam, well, clam up.
I have some ghost shrimp, and they love to sit near the clams and grab stuff out of the water flow (no filter on the tank, so the only flow is from the clams). They also "tickle" the clam with their feelers which makes the clam, well, clam up.
Dammit Lance, now I want one. 
I found a profile with lots of pics: http://www.oldvamp.com/?page=atyopsisgabonensis - is that the shrimp? If so, COOL. Adult is too big for my tank :/
LestWeForget13, also consider Amano shrimp and Cherry shrimp. Often I think they're the most interesting pets I have. and they are a great algae team, too. I once watched a baby pond snail clean a couple of leaves without damage. It just wasn't the same...
I found a profile with lots of pics: http://www.oldvamp.com/?page=atyopsisgabonensis - is that the shrimp? If so, COOL. Adult is too big for my tank :/LestWeForget13, also consider Amano shrimp and Cherry shrimp. Often I think they're the most interesting pets I have. and they are a great algae team, too. I once watched a baby pond snail clean a couple of leaves without damage. It just wasn't the same...
Rsquared333
Aquarium Advice Freak
I will second the vampire shrimp advice. I have one that is about 2.3-3 inches and it is very active and is an awsome freshwater invert.
LestWeForget13
Aquarium Advice Regular
ok thanks i think ill check these out and see if my lfs can special order them for me
thanew
Aquarium Advice Freak
hrm crabs are pretty interesting... i recently moved my two to my 55 gal tank because they were always trying to escape the 10 gal they were in...
if you do get a crab of some sort make sure you have all exits closed off because they can and will escape
if you do get a crab of some sort make sure you have all exits closed off because they can and will escape
LestWeForget13
Aquarium Advice Regular
the crabs you speak of, are they mean, or do they get along, and what kind are they?
Lance M.
Aquarium Advice Addict
Menagerie said:
I don't have a camera, but if I did I would post pics of all my stuff.
Look at czcz's post for the link he found. That's the type of vampire shrimp I have. They are awesome.
Mature adults are this awesome electic blue just the crayfish. In my lfs the owner has one in a planted show tank. It is the coolest thing I've seen. The shrimp was about 5 inchs long and this awesome blue color and he was sitting on the top of these 8 inch tall cyptcoryne wendtii var. bronze with his filter appendages waving around and picking particles out of the water. It was great. And they are totally harmless to small fish like tetras, so that's good.
Lance M.
Aquarium Advice Addict
biohazzrd said:
One of what? The crabs or the vampire shrimp?
LestWeForget13- Just to info you I recently discovered that vampire shrimp are very sensative to being shipped. I wasn't aware of that before. I found out yesterday at my lfs. The owner ordered 4 and when they came in only two of them were alive and since I had already asked him to hold one for me, one was mine and another person after me asked for one too. So I went to my lfs to get the shrimp and there was only one alive so I got it and that other person didn't get one because it had died the night after it came in from being shipped. So the owner ordered 4 but only one survived. Just don't get too disappointed if your lfs special orders like one of them and it dies.
The one I got is doing fine. They seem to be very shy once you put them in the tank, but after a while they should start to come out more often.
Also think about getting some marine iodine to help the shrimp's molting process, but since your only getting one it wouldn't be needed. If you get more shrimp or other crustacea/decapods (doesn't matter what kind) think about adding iodine to the water.
Lance M.
Aquarium Advice Addict
I don't think either of them will be sucked up in your filter. I use a 10-20 Whisper Power filter. No problems there, except one time a baby ADF got stuck in the intake while I was away... I found him and he was still alive with his foot stuck in the intake, but he didn't make it.
If you can't find the crabs or vampire shrimp at you lfs, you'll probably have to special order them. But you'll probably find crabs at the lfs, and vampires aren't that common. You'd have to go to a local lfs, no chain stores like Petsmart or something like that cause they wouldn't carry vampire shrimp.
I found him and he was still alive with his foot stuck in the intake, but he didn't make it.If you can't find the crabs or vampire shrimp at you lfs, you'll probably have to special order them. But you'll probably find crabs at the lfs, and vampires aren't that common. You'd have to go to a local lfs, no chain stores like Petsmart or something like that cause they wouldn't carry vampire shrimp.
Similar threads
