EcoSphere's - what kind of shrimp are they?

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boobiebutt

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Jul 5, 2008
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http://www.brookstone.com/search/se...=ecosphere&D=ecosphere&search_words=ecosphere

I'm sure people have seen ecospheres in some museums or other stores besides brookstone that sells them. They are self sustainable for and live up to 10 years. I was wondering what kind of shrimp are these? To me they basically look like brine shrimp (but the site says 'red shrimp')? Is the life span of brine shrimp that long? If it isn't brine shrimp, what kind are they and where can I get my hands on some. They seem very low mainenance as long as I provide them with light + algae in a cycled tank, and a filter would not even be needed.

http://www.abundantearth.com/store/ecosphere.html

This state claims the lifespan to be shorter, ranging somewhere from 2-3 years.
 
They're Halocaridina rubra, a very small brackish shrimp that lives some 20+ years if given ideal conditions. In those contraptions of course, they'll have a much shorter lifespan.
 
I was actually thinking about buying a few and setting them up in a tank somehow.

Are Halocaridina rubra sold anywhere besides in ecospheres?

Has anyone ever raised them (outside of the ecosphere)?




I also didn't notice until now that the site lists it as 'salt water' so I guess this belongs in the 'Marine Invertebrates' section. Mods can move it or keep it here, I apologise for the mistake.http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=28
 
Few people in the lower 48 keep these, but you can always find someone in Hawaii who's willing to buy and ship these to you. They're also sold as seahorse food at some places.

And they're brackish, not saltwater.
 
I remember seeing these maybe 6 or 7 years ago and being fascinated by them, guess it was my first close contact with inverts. I never got one since they were rather expensive for a kid on a high school salary at the time. I've totally forgotten about them until this thread.
 
I keep H rubra in a 10 gallon brackish water tank and you can find them online sold as Seahorse food. There is a place in HI that raises their own and that is the best way to go as the habitat is rapidly being destroyed. The ecosphere is a horrible thing in my opinion and the shrimp slowly starve to death over a couple years since the small container will not support enough bio film growth. The reason they can survive at all in an environment that would kill any other shrimp we keep is because nature has adapted these animals to be able to survive in tide pools in volcanic rock where temp, and water parameters change constantly. They can live in fresh or full salt water, but breed best in brackish with SG of around 1.014 give or take...

Here is some info at my site http://www.arizonainverts.com/speciesinfo/Hrubra.html

You can find more on my tank ets. at my blog as well
 
http://www.seahorse.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=19 is the site that southerndesert mentioned. Cheaper than an ecosphere, and you get a whole bunch, too!

Mustafa from www.petshrimp.com said that H. rubra actually shrinks with each moult in the ecosphere...that's a pretty good sign that this is a horrible thing.

http://www.petshrimp.com/discussions/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2958

BTW, the word "anchialine" keeps coming up with reference to these shrimp. Apparently an "anchialine pool" is a landlocked pool with some sort of underground connection to the ocean.
 
I have seen these ecoshperes sold with gorgonias and teeny red shrimps. Surely they must be saltwater? I keep seahorses and thought about cracking one to let them breed in my seahorse tank, but at 300 euros a pop it seemed a bit exaggerated pricewise.Ive made myself a plancton net and collect arthropods twice a week from the ocean. not as pretty but the seahorses eat them like candy
 
Seahorse.com doesn't actually breed their own, they take them from an anchialine pool that (if I remember correctly) they own. Still, virtually every source for Halocaridina rubra is taken from the wild as few people actually breed them.
 
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