Red Clawed Shrimp

tennesseemom

tennesseemom

Shrimp Herder
Nov 16, 2007
475
1
0
58
Nashville, TN
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Does anyone else besides me have these shrimp? Why they aren't more popular? No one ever talks about them. They hold their own in a community tank, they are big, eat pond and ramshorn snails, and generally are just cool shrimp.

I have 3, 2 males and a female. I have 3 little "huts" in the tank, which they "claim".

This is the dominant male, literally seconds after molting. I saw him jump right out of his skin!


stuff-054.jpg
 
See now, I really like those. But I can never find them anywhere. All my LFS only sell ghost, bamboo and cherries (occassionally). The only time I ever found one it was on Aquabid.com and they wanted like $40.00 for one shrimp, bah! They are really neat though.
 
It's hard to tell from the photo - how large is that shrimp? Really attractive little guy, and I have to admit I have never heard of them before. Tell us more! LOL!
 
Yes indeed very cool shrimp and Macrobrachium sp. (hendersoni group species complex) is OK as long as you only have one male and several females, but males will not get along well unless given a large tank. They will breed well in your tank and have no larval stage.

These guys will eat other Dwarf shrimp as well as any fish or snails they can get a hold of.

Cool shrimp.

Don't see them around here.....

Bill
 
I bought them off of AquaBid a few months ago, I don't remember how much they cost, but they weren't expensive. I think I got 6, I only have 3 left because I moved some plants from one tank to the blood parrot fish tank and um.. well I didn't know they were on it until I saw the parrots swimming around with claws sticking out of their mouths. I was so upset, I almost considered reaching in there and pulling the shrimp back out.

So anyway the 3 that I didn't accidentally feed to the other fish really don't create any problems. I've never seen them go after fish, but I have seen one grab an entire algae tab and bring it back to their "cave" and if anything comes near they will wave their claws in the air.

The one in the picture is about 2 inches long. I used to have a snail problem, but not anymore and now I have a 2 gallon tank where I am trying to get more snails!
 
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I've got two males in my planted 55. Hold their own against all my loaches, gourami's and pleco. Looking to possibly even get ahold of some females. Don't seem to have any pics of mine now though that I can find. often hide under my low plants or under some of my driftwood. Neither of them will use the moss covered coconut I bought for them though, figures.
 
I've been breeding this species, along with other Macrobrachium species for a while now. It is possible to keep multiple breeding groups together, as long as you provide the proper environment.

You can distinguish the species by studying the mature alpha male. Juvenile and non dominate males do not display the full range of color and chela morphology.
 
Tennesseemom,

That may indeed be the dominate male of your colony, but it appears to have plenty of maturing to go.

Here is a picture of an alpha male from my breeding stock. Unfortunately he recently passed away, but lived almost three years in my aquariums. He was part of my original purchase.
Alpha_Male.jpg



tennesseemom
 
Would these shrimp be incompatible with others such as amano shrimp? I thought I read somewhere that if not fed enough they'd be more than happy to snip the legs off of other shrimp to help supplement their diet.
 
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