I was recently at a LFS where I saw a nice 30Gallon salt water setup. I've never seen anything so striking. But what really caught my attention was a beautiful shrimp with red stripes. It must have been 2-3 inches long. I don't feel adventurous enough to venture out into the world of saltwater aquaria (I hear it's alot more maintenance than freshwater), so I was wondering if there were any brightly colored freshwater shrimp comparable to the one I saw. I'm seriously thinking about converting one of my 10 gallons into a shrimp tank. Any suggestions or ideas would be much appreciated.
Shrimp. A new frontier.
- Thread starter aquazen
- 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.
penpitt
Aquarium Advice Freak
There is a shrimp called the red cherry shrimp that is a bright red. You can check out pics and info here
http://www.azgardens.com./shrimpfactory.php
http://www.azgardens.com./shrimpfactory.php
Toirtis
God of primitive fishes
...and lots of shrimp that although not so colourful, are morphologically fascianting, like the 'vampire' and other fan shrimps.
TomK2
Aquarium Advice Addict
Very cool little red shrimps.Think a Pleco would eat them? I have juvenile angels, but I imagine they would munch them too as soon as they get big enough, but that would take a while. I have plans for a spiney eel, I am sure that would eat them. Ah well. I think I would pick the eel over the shrimp.
Fruitbat
Aquarium Advice Addict
Try one of THESE if you can find it and you don't want to keep any fish. This is one of the long-armed prawns of the genus Macrobranchium that I got in with a mixed bag of 'ghost shrimp'. It survived the onslaught of my Tiger Barbs and went into hiding.....and it only came out when it was obviously more 'confident' of itself.
Oh....just so you know....when I finally got rid of this guy he was slightly over 8 inches long and had killed and eaten two Tiger Barbs and an 'Angelicus' Loach. I recently saw him in the LFS that I gave him to and he was well over 10 inches long and had eaten everything else in the aquarium.
On second thought....you might NOT want to try one of those!
-Joe
Oh....just so you know....when I finally got rid of this guy he was slightly over 8 inches long and had killed and eaten two Tiger Barbs and an 'Angelicus' Loach. I recently saw him in the LFS that I gave him to and he was well over 10 inches long and had eaten everything else in the aquarium.
On second thought....you might NOT want to try one of those!
-Joe
Shrimp are my favorite aquatic pets. Many algae-eating shrimp, red cherry included, will breed in freshwater, too. They're hard workers and their behavior and interaction is fascinating. I have pics in my gallery and home page if interested - there are neocaridina sinesis var red (cherry shrimp) and var blue (possibly dyed), their offspring (brown/clear in color), amano, indian algae, and ghost shrimp in my tanks. In particular, I find this color change interesting: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=7104&sort=1&cat=533&page=2 All these shrimp are much smaller than the large filter feeders (wood and african/vampire) sometimes discussed here (Lane M. is one owner). I think heavily planted shrimp tanks are awesome. In my experience, neocaridna and amano shrimp are a fantastic algae-fighting/clean-up crew.
www.petshrimp.com has informative forums and profiles. (I think it was Veneer that first posted the link here.)
I've found small shrimp cohabitate with cherry barbs, kuhli and hillstream loaches, and otocinclus just fine. I'd guess a pleco would be fine because of its mouth shape, but don't know. They are/were timid around a 2" blue gourami and our ryukin goldfish. My female betta eats shrimp. FWIW, mixing with larger/aggressive fish is a gamble, though I've watched my amanos fight off loaches for food.
www.petshrimp.com has informative forums and profiles. (I think it was Veneer that first posted the link here.)
I've found small shrimp cohabitate with cherry barbs, kuhli and hillstream loaches, and otocinclus just fine. I'd guess a pleco would be fine because of its mouth shape, but don't know. They are/were timid around a 2" blue gourami and our ryukin goldfish. My female betta eats shrimp. FWIW, mixing with larger/aggressive fish is a gamble, though I've watched my amanos fight off loaches for food.
TomK2
Aquarium Advice Addict
Great links. At petshrimp.com, they had the answer about pleco's:
"Suitable tankmates are fish that have specialized mouths such as Otocinclus, cories and plecos"
just like czcz said!
"Suitable tankmates are fish that have specialized mouths such as Otocinclus, cories and plecos"
just like czcz said!
Toirtis
God of primitive fishes
Toirtis
God of primitive fishes
Quake2player
Aquarium Advice Activist
My Singapore/Wood Shrimp
My "wood shrimp" is different flavor... pics of my Singapore/Wood shrimp, we call him Shrimpey. At the LFS, these look more brown/grey colored, but ours is a nice bright orange... we love our Shrimpey:
Shrimpey seen with RAM and neons:
These are "filter" shrimp as you'll notice he has 4 appendages with fan-like hands... eating whatever he can filter out of the water. Shrimpey is tireless... always roaming around filtering for food... hangs on plants, climbs the filter.
I am considering Red Cherries too... just concerned with their small size and my Rosey barbs making an expensive lunch out of 'em. Red Cherries are considered "the best" alagae eating shrimp.
I don't remember the website exactly... Daniel Hagen I think, he also sells red cherries, and the guy at petshrimp.com also sells shrimp.
I think the Singapore/Wood grow up to a couple of inches, maybe even 3, Amano shrimp grow to about that size too.
My "wood shrimp" is different flavor... pics of my Singapore/Wood shrimp, we call him Shrimpey. At the LFS, these look more brown/grey colored, but ours is a nice bright orange... we love our Shrimpey:
Shrimpey seen with RAM and neons:
These are "filter" shrimp as you'll notice he has 4 appendages with fan-like hands... eating whatever he can filter out of the water. Shrimpey is tireless... always roaming around filtering for food... hangs on plants, climbs the filter.
I am considering Red Cherries too... just concerned with their small size and my Rosey barbs making an expensive lunch out of 'em. Red Cherries are considered "the best" alagae eating shrimp.
I don't remember the website exactly... Daniel Hagen I think, he also sells red cherries, and the guy at petshrimp.com also sells shrimp.
I think the Singapore/Wood grow up to a couple of inches, maybe even 3, Amano shrimp grow to about that size too.
Quake2player
Aquarium Advice Activist
I believe I paid around $3-$4 for my Singapore/Wood shrimp. I'm not even sure if it was that bright orange color when I got it... I went back to the same LFS just to take a look and they were brown/grey.
Japonica shrimp also fascinate me... another good alagae eater supposedly.
Japonica shrimp also fascinate me... another good alagae eater supposedly.
marcus russo
Aquarium Advice Freak
jonnyb1425
Aquarium Advice Regular
Could always try the Rudolph shrimp. I just bought two that are actually getting along fine in my community tank and they are actually pretty neat looking.
Toirtis
God of primitive fishes
aquazen said:
What happened to "...hit by the ugly stick...", Hmmm?
Lance M.
Aquarium Advice Addict
Toirtis- What happened to your vampire shrimp? Yours look a sort of orangish color. I know when they are juveniles they have a brownish-red color, but I didn't know about and orangish looking one.
When vampire shrimp around over 2 inchs they usually molt straight from a brownish-red color to a deep blue color. Then as they grow older they end up being this beautiful electric blue color. I have two vampires and they are starting to turn blue and my lfs has a 5 inch one in a show tank and is looks awesome. These are my favorite shrimp.
Amano shrimp are very good algae eaters and they are really cool in the way they move, that is they don't really swim around, but they "run" around along wood or whatever they are on.
Also those red cherry shrimp are basically amanos, but cherry shrimp only get 1 inch long so they are most likely to be eaten by any catfishes or other bottom dwellers and things like that (some chiclids).
Ghost shrimp are the cheapest shrimp (at my lfs they are 10 cents each). They are most likely clear as glass and they are pretty good scavengers.
When vampire shrimp around over 2 inchs they usually molt straight from a brownish-red color to a deep blue color. Then as they grow older they end up being this beautiful electric blue color. I have two vampires and they are starting to turn blue and my lfs has a 5 inch one in a show tank and is looks awesome. These are my favorite shrimp.
Amano shrimp are very good algae eaters and they are really cool in the way they move, that is they don't really swim around, but they "run" around along wood or whatever they are on.
Also those red cherry shrimp are basically amanos, but cherry shrimp only get 1 inch long so they are most likely to be eaten by any catfishes or other bottom dwellers and things like that (some chiclids).
Ghost shrimp are the cheapest shrimp (at my lfs they are 10 cents each). They are most likely clear as glass and they are pretty good scavengers.
