Please help me ID this shrimp!

[ArsenalOfColor]

So I've been diving headfirst pretty hard into owning my own aquarium. Right now just have a 3 gallon that I nearly killed today with a nitrite/nitrate spike. Well the tetras died which was probably for the best they weren't eating the betta food I bought for them and that's what led to the problem. ANYWAY on to the show.

I was cleaning my tank and noticed a little bit of green java moss swimming around at first I freaked out and thought "Great now I have some weird green worm parasite that will definitely kill everything but after a nudge with a bit of tubing and hard stare downs I'm sure it's a shrimp. Pics below.

I'm really really excited for this free ride along. My plan for the next year is to start a big community shrimp tank and mix a bunch of different colorful shrimp that won't cross breed. I've been reading my brain off trying to find cool and honestly easy to keep species and I'm really surprised no one even mentioned these guys! Are they unknown or just simply not preferred? (which I get the lil dude is always hiding) Anyone know what it is?

Five Red Cherry Shrimp are in the tank already, Royal Blue Tiger Shrimp are on my list, and now just by matter of accident I have my green species! Should look really nice with some good white pool sand.

This little guy barely moves. He's been in my tank for probably a week and I just now noticed him (I'm still in that look at my tank all the time stage). He definitely has the camouflage to hang in Java moss so I'm guessing he's probably pretty hardy just like the plant. All the same gonna treat him like a king and hopefully be able to buy more from the LFS I got the Java moss from. You can see he has a distinctive appendage that looks like the growing tip of Java Moss and his tail is brownish red much like the stem of the older shoots.

Here's some vid

 

[Fresh2o]

Would it be possible to remove it and place it in a small container for pics? Very hard to see in the video.


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[Nils]

Agreed with Fresh. The "greener" part in the java moss looked to me almost like a small stick or stem of some other plant. Couldn't identify a head/tail/legs

 

[Hunter73]

I hope it's a shrimp, but it doesn't look like one to me in the video. It looks like the stem from a plant. Try and get a close up pic (in focus). Good luck.


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[TheresaM]

I have to agree with the other responses. It doesn't really look like a shrimp, but it's also difficult to see. Photos in a specimen container or something similar would be helpful.

 

[Fresh2o]

Until pics are posted, a few questions:
1. Is the body always held straight?
2. Does the tail curl downward at all?
3. Are there small appendages along the bottom side of the tail?
4. At the end of the tail are there feather like projections?
5. Are the eyes rather large and close to the head (as opposed to smaller, darker eyes on stalks)?

Edit:
If the answers are yes, yes, no, yes, yes, then most likely it is not a shrimp but possibly a damsel fly nymph. If that is the case I would isolate it.

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[MicheleCar9]

Doesn't look like shrimp. They don't stay still that long. I've had a green shrimp and that looks nothing him. I have a agree with the others take it out and photograph it. It's just not a shrimp. Sorry to give bad news. Hard to say what it is. But definitely not a shrimp. .

 

[Pseudomugil]

I don't even know what I'm looking at and I've got great eyesight lol. I think I saw a little green thing moving but it didn't seem to resemble a shrimp...

 

[ArsenalOfColor]

Everyone is definitely right, a bit sad but not at all surprising considering it looks literally nothing like I've read about. Fresh02 I think is right in the assessment of damsel fly I think. Answers to the questions were pretty spot on. Except for the eyes one can't tell on that. When I get home tomorrow I plan to isolate it in my 3.5g now that everything is in a new 10g. Hopefully I can get a friend with a nice camera to come over and take some shots of it

 

[Fresh2o]

If I am correct, you will want to remove it. It is a predator. Not quite as voracious as dragon fly nymphs, but they do catch and eat creatures smaller than themselves.


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