Anyone Have Vampire shrimp?

[Lance M.]

I went to my lfs yesterday and saw these vampire shrimp. They looked like filter feeders by their front appendages. Can anyone tell me about them?

 

[madasafish]

This guy (with a Halloweeny site) has some info. I've never seen these particular shrimp myself...

http://www.oldvamp.com/?page=atyopsisgabonensis

 

[Toirtis]

Love them and plan on getting a couple (they tend to be a bit pricey at $17-$24 each here). I have seen a couple of mature adults that were 6"....very impressive.

 

[madasafish]

also... a better link.

http://www.petshrimp.com/africanfiltershrimp.html

I would take quite seriously the caveats about placing this shrimp in only a mature tank... Filter feeders are notoriously prone to death if a tank is not perfectly stable... Look up Bamboo Shrimp for more info. These two species seem to feed in a similar way, though they are evolutionarily quite distinct by the look of it.

 

[TankGirl]

The coolest shrimp - never kept them but if I saw them locally I would definitely snap them up, pricey or no! I'd like to keep them in a species planted tank on my desk.

 

[Lance M.]

Yes They look very cool. I saw one at my lfs and it was climbing around onto of a rock. It looked very good and healthy. They are like $11 each. I think I might get one or two. My tank conditions very rarely change and the temp is up around 79 all the time and from the info it looks like they like high temp. I'll think about it some more. 6 inches is pretty big.