Bamboo Shrimp

[stephen728]

Hi, I recently saw an ad in the local paper advertising bamboo shrimp for freshwater tanks. I have a 10 gallon aquarium with four fantail guppies (three babies, one adult) two marble mollies, one albino corydora, and one algae eating bottom feeder.
My questions about the shrimp are how big do they get, what is best to feed them and are they compatable with my tank?
Thanks for any of your help.
Stephen

 

[Hans]

they have webbed net like hands, that they strain stuff out of the water and eat, so i dunno

 

[125gJoe]

Here's a pic of one. I'm not sure how big they get...

Looks like the Wood and Bamboo shrimp are the same.
Click the link for some good info on shrimp. Read on the Wood shrimp...

Link: Freshwater Shrimp

 

[Wippit Guud]

The few sites I found list max size at 3in.

As for feeding... if your water is a little cloudy, it has all the food your need until it's clean. If you have a very clean tank, you need to support micro-food (stuff you feed fry and brine shrimp), but if you have good filtration, you're gonna lose a lot ot it to the filter.

Most the pages I found were seafood pages, though

 

[125gJoe]

Here's more info...

http://www.fishpondinfo.com/shrimp2.htm#wood

 

[Tim Bo]

I kind of hope RTR comes in with some input. I'm not completely sure if its the same type I once had but I had a very difficult time keeping them alive - they need lots of food particles in the water. Fascinating creatures to watch 'shirfting' through the water with their fans...I will try them again, successfully.

 

[geoffgarcia]

I snagged one of these guys a few weeks back, he seems very happy in my tank and doesn't seem to give any notice to the fish or snails.

While I have seen it filter feed a bunch of times (flipping open its fans) I also have seen it foraging through my gravel, picking up pieces, rolling them over near its mouth then tossing them aside.

I'm sure this could be construed as a sign that its starving, but its been goin strong for about 2 weeks now.

On a side note my tank is completely open topped, I have plants reaching the surface and a very climbable background, it has yet to venture near the surface of the tank (as far as I have seen). So I question the reports that this animal will always seek to evade the confines of a tank.

I've been turning off my filter and feeding in zooplankton along with my combination of freeze dried tubifex worms (or blood- can't remember which!), tetra color pellets and tetra flakes - which I have mashed all together into a big feeding tub.

 

[RTR]

I keep these only is species tanks these days, they are too hard to feed in mixed tanks for me (without overfeeding the tank) as they are slow feeders. Most will get to >3", a few will get larger. Dominant (?) individuals may show bright rusty-orange coloration. The dorsal stripe fades a bit with age. Cyclop-eeze (sp?) is a great food for them, but several foods should be use in rotation.

 

[Raskolnikov]

I have one in my 55g community tank that is doing fabulously. It has taken on a rich orange/red color since coming home from the pet store.

To feed it I've been successful in thawing a little micro food and squirting it into the water stream in which the shrimp is filtering using a turkey baster.

 

[Snake Eyez]

I looked at these shrimp in the past since they are very cool looking and active. But the whole feeding aspect was worrisome since various people have problems with starvation.