i just bought a chameleon shrimp from my lfs. they said that the shrimps eat algae and are scavengers. but when i put them in the tank with my cherry red shrimps, the chameleon attacked it! was the lfs wrong about the shrimp? or is it simply territorial like the bamboo/wood shrimp is? any info on them would be much appreciated, there's not much help on the web about them.
there is very little info on the chameleon shrimp but there is more and more being added everyday. When I purchased my 3, no one knew what they were. Even at specialized invert sites. If you have a chameleon shrimp (clear stocky body with a dusting of color that changes from blue/green/red/brown/bronze) then it is a macrobrachium species but I forget the species name. Just look up macrobrachium sp. for info. They will get around 3+ inches long. they are a predatory shrimp as kiss said. They will eat anything they find or small enough to catch and eat. I have mine in a 37 gallon bowfront with barbs, flagfish, danio's, etc. I also had some kribs in there for awhile and the shrimp and kribs would argue over caves. They are an awesome animal to keep but they will stay hidden much of the time and will attack other inverts or possibly tiny fish. They are fast movers as well. I usually see mine when I feed, they come out and will climb plants and decorations like a chimpanzee trying to catch flakes or pellets floating through the water. When it comes to food, they will back down to nobody. I had fed algae wafers one evening and there was a pack of barbs picking at a wafer when all of a sudden a shrimp appeared from under a rock, grabbed the wafer out of the middle of the barbs and ran off with it as the barbs chased. I will not see them for weeks and think somebody got them but then one day there they are. You don't need to feed any special foods for them, they will eat whatever you feed anyone else. Kyle
