vampire shrimp

[shrimpin]

anyone have a vampire shrimp????

[pacalan]

I have two of them in my tank.

[shrimpin]

I have 1 that 6 inches, how big are yours??

[RoseFishWatcher]

Got any pics? I don't have any of these, but they're on my wishlist.

[pacalan]

Wow, you have both of mine beat in size. The bigger one is about 3 3/4" long, and the other is maybe 3 1/4". I think they are still fairly young, and I've only had them for about 6 months, but they have grown quite a bit in that time. How long have you had yours?

Here's a couple of pictures of mine. The one shrimp is rather pale in the pictures due to having recently molted.

[Toirtis]

I have two, both pushing 4", although I rarely see them as the tank that they are in is rather heavily planted.

[blazingazn]

wow nice pics of the vampire. out of curiosity, do they quarrel with each other or friendly or indifferent when one encounters the other?

[pacalan]

That's a tough question to answer. They seem to go through phases of sharing the same cave peacefully and fighting whenever the other one is nearby. I have no idea what triggers the change in behavior. I keep adding more caves for them to hide out in, thinking that each can simply claim a space for their own. That doesn't seem to affect the fighting behavior. Eventually, they both end up in the same cave. It's usually indifferent at first, but after a while, it's back to the pushing, punching, and tail flicking. So, I guess the answer is all of the above.

Whether or not multiples of the same gender affect the behavior, I don't know. I have a male and female.

[blazingazn]

haha thanks. the reason i asked is because i have one bamboo and one vampire, and they act the same way towards each other, going through different phases

[rwilliams254]

How do you feed them? Aren't they a filter feader?

[Toirtis]

How do you feed them? Aren't they a filter feader?

Yes. They do quite well on small food particles in the water column...mine get supplemented with powdered spirulina and frozen rotifers.