Marble shrimp

[GuZZiZZiT]

I was in "petsmart" today and while i don't normally buy fish there, they did have some really goregious red wag plattys. While i was waiting for them to be baged, i noticed some Shrimp that where tagged as "marble shrimp" they looked cool, but were 12 bucks each so i was hesitant. Has anyone kept these with any real sucsess? and sugestions?

Thanks

[aardvark1]

Saw them at my local PetSmart last week; those things are huge! Were 2-3 inches long-sign said 2 Inch max...

??

[mtiller]

that's where i saw some also, i was wondering how easy they are to care for. i don't know if i'd pay 12 bucks for one though. if i could get a pair and breeding is easy, then i'd buy em.

[Max]

The marbel shrimps I know of are the sauron shrimp and they are s.w. do you have a pic or a link?

[mtiller]

http://www.thekrib.com/Fish/Shrimp/brine.jpg
they are called wood or singapore shrimp i believe. the one in the pic may not loook exactly like the ones at petsmart, but they are very similar if i do say so myself.

[fballguy]

Petsmart's "marble shrimp" are your standard bamboo shrimp. They are filter feeders, and are extremely difficult to breed from what I read.

[plah831]

I thought "marble shrimp" were SW, too.

But I think they are bamboo shrimp (Atyopsis moluccensis), aka the flower shrimp, wood shrimp. That's the problem with common names.

Check out this page http://www.petshrimp.com/bambooshrimp.html. It lists the max size as near 4 inches.

From what I hear, they've never been successfully bred in captivity and are all acquired wild :(

But they're very neat guys. I had a little one who crawled out when nitrates got too high (my bad). They are known to be escape artists, but only if something is bothering them. They should be supplement fed with either crushed-up flakes put into the stream of the filter outflow (which will be their favorite place to hang out), or plankton that you can buy for filter feeding inverts.

[gatotsu77]

I'm sorry to bring up an old topic guys, but I too have had my eye on a bamboo shrimp for a while now. I'm curious... do you think my clown loaches would bother it? The only time I ever see them bothering any fish is when they're fighting amongst eachother, otherwise they leave everyone alone. (though they will always be the first ones begging for food at feeding time) I don't want to just buy one to find out that my fish picked it to death, I'd feel bad for the poor guy. Any ideas?

[gnrfade2black]

i work at petsmart...and yes i will be the first to admit all of the tags are wrong as hell...i did all the research on every living animal we sell so that i can inform people better than those uninformative tags...my dad keeps one of those in his tank and the shrimp does just fine with any type of fish i've seen...he climbs on a plant and catches the microscopic debris that the filter lets through...it is really cool to watch. He can deploy six little net like hands and catch all of it. My dads small comunity fish aren't bothered by him and his more aggressive fish, like his algae eaters actually clean the shrimps back after he has sat stil for too long...a cichlid is about the only trouble maker i could see causing problems with these helpful cleaners

[Addict]

I can confirm the escape artist comment. I "lost" one only to find him later on the floor.

Out of curiosity the, the tag at PetSmart says they require aquarium salt. I've never been one to add salt to freshwater unless there's an issue. Is this true? From what I've read thus far, they don't "need" salt.

FWIW I saw "requires aquarium salt" on a few freshwater tags at PetSmart.

[cheeseb0y]

I had one for quite awhile, until I passed it along to my roommate. The Petsmart "marble" shrimp is indeed a wood shrimp. They can change color somewhat to blend in, and they spend most of their time on a rock or plant with water flowing near it. Still neat, even if they don't move much. $12 worth of neat? I don't know. My roommates old one was found on the floor, and at one point I found mine in my HOB filter.

[Ghostshrimp55]

Out of curiosity the, the tag at PetSmart says they require aquarium salt. I've never been one to add salt to freshwater unless there's an issue. Is this true? From what I've read thus far, they don't "need" salt.

The bamboo shrimp only requires brackish to full salt water for its larvae. Supposedly, the females will go gravid all the time when males are present (because they mate) and the larvae just die because they can't get to salt water. That's just what I've read. Look at petshrimp.com for more info.

As for 12 bucks per shrimp........that's a lot. I got mine for 6-7 and I thought that might have been pricey. Guess not.

[loaches r cool]

i work at petsmart...and yes i will be the first to admit all of the tags are wrong as hell...i did all the research on every living animal we sell so that i can inform people better than those uninformative tags...

I applaud your efforts to learn more about the fish and pass that info to the customer :clap: many of those tags are very wrong, especially the clown loach tags.

As for whether it will survive with clowns is debatable. I'm going to find out myself, I have 2 Atyopsis moluccensis in with 6 clowns, check out a quick video clip of one of my shrimp here (http://tristan.homelinux.net/fish/movies/shrimp1.wmv) (4MB wmv 50seconds). Both of mine are about 3" which if I remember is the max size of the females (males up to an inch longer - they can be identified by their larger fore claws). Being the largest of the FW shrimp commonly sold for aquariums it has the greatest chance of not gettin' eat'n. If you provide your clowns with a proper tank size (180g is considered min.) they will eventually reach 12" or larger, and I would imagine the shrimp if they live that long will eventually become food. So far my 4"-5" clowns have not done any harm but you never know when that could change. The shrimp generally stay towards the top (by the spraybar) and clowns normally stay to the bottom.

[gatotsu77]

Awesome video. :-) Your female is a much redder color than the ones I've seen in the stores. Did you buy her like that, or did she redden up in your tank?

[loaches r cool]

I dont recall but I doubt she was quite that red in the store. They do change color somewhat in my tank, but one always seems far more red than the other. Also against lots of green makes the red stand out more.

[soccerkidbs]

great vid