Congo Shrimp

[Orodreth]

I was out today looking for different kinds of Shrimp as the selection round here is quite limited, and I saw a tank labelled 'Congo Shrimp'. They were quite large and dark in colour (black I think) and they looked really mean so I didn't fancy putting any in my own tank. I was just wondering if anyone knew anything about them because I can't really find much on the internet and I've not seen them before.

Thanks.

 

[The-Wolf]

hmm not heard of congo shrimp before,
can you narrow it down a bit
do they have fans, claws/pincers or neither?
how large is quite large, bigger than amano shrimp smaller than bamboo shrimp?

 

[Orodreth]

Sorry it's a bit vague, when I saw them I was in a bit of a hurry

They were larger than amano shrimp, they were about the size of some Rock Shrimp that were next door to them which probably at about the 2" mark. To be honest I'm not sure about the fans and pincers, they sort of reminded me of mini crayfish at the time.

 

[The-Wolf]

I'm thinking of Macrobrachium species of shrimp
but most of those are from the far east and i can think of no good reason to call any of them Congo shrimp.

I would say that they were Atya gabonensis as they are one of the two most common 'large' shrimp sold in the UK
and they hail from Africa, Congo shrimp would not be an entirely implausible name for them.
The colours can vary from white to dark blue, so you perceiving it as black could be possible.

 

[Kevin_D]

My first thoughts after reading the opening post was that they're Atya gabonensis as well, there arent any other large African freshwater shrimp offered at the moment to my knowledge?