illusionz_NZ Posted November 15, 2008 Report Share Posted November 15, 2008 I was on the hunt to find some daphinea and instead stumbled across an area absolutely swarming with shrimp. I did not know what they were at first these tiny things swimming around. thought they were dragon fly babies.....then in the net i caught this weird looking see through thing. my partner said it was a shrimp. I thought wow thinking it was just an odd one to go with the baby flounder i caught earlier. we managed to catch about 5 more. got home and had a closer look at these swimy things and realized they were baby shrimpies. how cool! just wondering if you can successfully keep these creatures in a tank and how big they grow to and what they eat. I have seen some sold on trade me and always wondered where they came from any info would be great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsmith Posted November 15, 2008 Report Share Posted November 15, 2008 Lots of people keep shrimp, especially overseas. Personally not my style, but lots of other people like them. They eat algae and stuff, they're very good tank cleaners. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enzoom1 Posted November 15, 2008 Report Share Posted November 15, 2008 Yep some people keep them in their home tanks but you have to remember that they are cold water so are best off in a cold tank. They are most likely to become dinner for your fish so they're good for live food. The best part is that you don't need to specifically feed them anything as they just eat left overs, detrius and algae. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Posted November 15, 2008 Report Share Posted November 15, 2008 Spoon had quite a few in a community tank with some goldfish. Eventually the fish got so large that they started to pick off the Shrimp. His tank looked very established, and had lots of stuff for the shrimp to eat. He gave me 5 for my tank. But my tank was pretty new, and didn't have much for them to eat - so a couple of them died pretty quickly. A couple of the remainders lived for a few months, but eventually turned brown and died. I don't know why, my water parameters were fine apart from a low pH. I had one left when I got my Crayfish, it loved to ride around on it's back and pick at it. But it eventually turned up half eaten in my tank - so I guess it died and the Koura cleaned it up. That's what I'd like to believe anyways... I'd love to get some more, but I think my 10cm Inanga would deal to them pretty quickly! PS: They're very cute, the scuttle around and clean up the place. I miss them ;[! PSS: Apparently they're very sensitive to Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate (according to what I've read). Being crustaceans, I guess they'd like a higher pH as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spoon Posted November 17, 2008 Report Share Posted November 17, 2008 if you got the shrimp from an estuary they mite be mysis shrimp . shrimp are pretty easy to keep and quite a laugh , need really good water tho . im interested in getting some more , my friend who got me the first lot is overseas so i dont know where to get them from anemore Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catfish Posted November 17, 2008 Report Share Posted November 17, 2008 When I lived in Canada I use to keep shrimp in my tanks, mainly the Amano shrimp which was most common, but you could find alot of different varieties their. They are fantastic little cleaners but you have to keep them by themselves or with small community fish. I had a few of the larger ones too that were called flower shrimp. I do miss my shrimp.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henward Posted November 17, 2008 Report Share Posted November 17, 2008 how big do they get? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catfish Posted November 17, 2008 Report Share Posted November 17, 2008 how big do they get? Some stay quite small like the Amano or Cherry staying around 3cm, but the filter shrimp can get quite big such as the Vampire shrimp at about 15cm. Check this site for freshwater shrimp varieties. http://www.petshrimp.com/shrimpspecies.html I use to keep several of the species that they have listed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninjafroglet Posted November 17, 2008 Report Share Posted November 17, 2008 The NZ native ones get to about 5cm, I have two 3cm ones in with my koura and they seem to do fine. However my koura is store brought so it tends to be a bit more placid then the others ones I've heard described. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Posted November 17, 2008 Report Share Posted November 17, 2008 RE NinjaFroglet I got my Koura from a Koura Farm, and it's extremely well mannered towards my fish. You'd expect that coming from an environment with such fierce cannibalism that they'd be quite aggressive. So maybe aggression is on a koura by koura basis. I had a couple of big shrimp from spoon aswell, about 3cm body length. I'd love to see a 5cm one, that'd be awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
illusionz_NZ Posted November 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 17, 2008 well i set up two tanks. one little one indie with an air stone, there water little bit of tap water and some weed. they are doing ok, babies still alive. lost one of the bigger shrimp bust still have three alive. second tank is outside full of there water, tap water and weed. i think i smothered them with too much weed and lost over half the babies and a few bigger ones. took some weed out and today there is not many babies left. maybe they need air stone......salt......? or i have polluted there water from all the dead bodies on the bottom floor..... :-? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninjafroglet Posted November 17, 2008 Report Share Posted November 17, 2008 I had similar experiences with my first load of shrimp. They are generally pretty hardy things, their only weakness is (as mentioned) Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates, aswell as chlorine from tap water. They also need alot of oxygen. When its due to oxygen, the bigs ones go first, as they have higher oxygen demands then the little uns. This is what i think killed all the big ones I got out of the river near us (Its a pity cause one was definatly 5cm, maybe 6 ). This could be why your bigs ones are karking it. However, I'm not sure about the smaller ones. It could be the decaying old ones, but I'm not to sure, it was the small ones that always lived for me. Re Romeo Mine may have been sourced from a Koura farm too, next time in Animates I will check where they get them from. It could be that because they have less competition in captivity for food, they don't develop the same aggressive tendencies towards other species =o. Some time I'm gunna try and get me some more shrimp, I don't want to take too many at one time, I mean taking them in the first place is bad enough, so I'm trying to space it out a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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