Help Identifying A Creature

[kcalpesh]

I had set up a lotus pond like set up in a tub with diameter of 28 inches. In order to keep mosquitoes from breeding I introduced 4 mollies in it. However later fish keeping has become more important a hobby than gardening. Today, while I was cleaning the bottom of tub using a home made siphon I noticed this creature moving at the bottom between the tiny rocks. Not sure what this is so wondering if someone could help me with it?

The characteristics of this creature are very much similar to that of a fish but when I took a macro photo, I noticed it has tentacles and legs too. Guessing this is some insect larva. Its a little too big to be a mosquito larva though.

Just in case if you would like to see the setup and the kind of rocks that I'm talking about you can see it here:
Mollies in a lotus tub

 

[alistairw]

Hi Kcalpesh

It looks like a Yamato Shrimp from above to me. I bought some at the weekend for my tank.

Al

 

[onidrase]

I'm 99.98% sure that's just some kind of shrimp.

 

[kcalpesh]

Hi Al, Thanks for the reply. I was just wondering how did it get in tub. I never bought the shrimp. Could it auto generate itself in ideal conditions?

I just read about it and got to know it consumes algae primarily. So it is good for my fish tub I guess. Hope the tiny creature doesn't get consumed by the mollies.

Hi Kcalpesh

It looks like a Yamato Shrimp from above to me. I bought some at the weekend for my tank.

Al

 

[alistairw]

No worries!

No idea how it would have got in. Could it have accidentally been brought in with the mollies or plants? No idea about auto generation!!

See if any other members have other ideas! I don't think it's a bad thing though!! You could always get some more as I don't think they have a very big bio load.

Al

 

[kcalpesh]

Yup! I'll leave it as it is and see. Thanks once again.

No worries!

No idea how it would have got in. Could it have accidentally been brought in with the mollies or plants? No idea about auto generation!!

See if any other members have other ideas! I don't think it's a bad thing though!! You could always get some more as I don't think they have a very big bio load.

Al

 

[cool4345]

That's definitely a shrimp, and looks to be a yamato kind of shrimp like already mentioned.

http/www.theaquariumwiki.com/Yamato_shrimp

It's perfectly harmless and won't hurt your fish. If you want to keep it alive then pretty much just don't use any copper (apart from copper sulphate in food) in the aquarium.

It was probably accidently added to your tank when you bought something from the LPS, maybe even as a baby- they're very small, especially when babies.
They don't breed asexually, requires a male and female. The female is a livebearer.

 

[kcalpesh]

Thanks this was very informative. I got a small container of ready food which has following ingredients:

Wheat, Corn, Fish meal, Oat meal, Dried Yeast, Shrimp, Soybean, Gluten solvent extract, Cod liver meal, Algae, Lechithin Spirulina & Trace minerals. It also includes color enhancer and mentions that the enhancer does not cloud water. Hope these are fine....

That's definitely a shrimp, and looks to be a yamato kind of shrimp like already mentioned.

http/www.theaquariumwiki.com/Yamato_shrimp

It's perfectly harmless and won't hurt your fish. If you want to keep it alive then pretty much just don't use any copper (apart from copper sulphate in food) in the aquarium.

It was probably accidently added to your tank when you bought something from the LPS, maybe even as a baby- they're very small, especially when babies.
They don't breed asexually, requires a male and female. The female is a livebearer.

 

[hensonc4098]

You'll be fine with any kinds of food since they are solid and shouldn't dissolve into the water (unless you put too much in and it rots). The issue with copper is that certain fish medications and snail killers have copper in them which all invertebrates including your shrimp are very sensitive to. As long as you check the label with any liquid medications that you plan on adding to the tank you'll be fine

 

[Gilli]

Its an ammano shrimp. You will be able to tell if its male or female - look at its sides, if the brown line running along the length is broken (like this ---- ) its female if its male then it will be a continuous line.

The young cant survive in a freshwater aquarium as they go to salt water to breed.

 

[kcalpesh]

@Gilli & hensonc4098, Thanks for the info. I don't think the shrimp will survive for long then. I can't add aquarium salt to the water in order to make it brackish or salty. Although mollies may like brackish water, the lotus plant won't survive in salty water.

 

[the_lock_man]

You misunderstood a little. The shrimp breed in freshwater, but in the wild, the baby shrimps are washed down river to the estuary area. Therefore, the babies need brackish water within a day or so of birth. As they mature, in the wild, they would start to move back upstream to fresh water again.

Your adult shrimp will survive just fine in your set-up.

 

[kcalpesh]

Thats good news because the Mollies aren't really going for the algae thats growing near the stem of the lotus at the bottom.. may be the shrimp would like munching on it

You misunderstood a little. The shrimp breed in freshwater, but in the wild, the baby shrimps are washed down river to the estuary area. Therefore, the babies need brackish water within a day or so of birth. As they mature, in the wild, they would start to move back upstream to fresh water again.

Your adult shrimp will survive just fine in your set-up.

 

[phoenixgsd]

+1 i think ammano shrimp too (also known as yamato or algae shrimp) i have quite a few in my tank, fascinating to watch