New Bamboo Shrimp, Pretty Exotic, With Pics!

[MisterJiggyFly]

The aquarium store near me is going out of business, and there is a massive sale on just about everything including livestock. These guys are usually $14 each but have been marked down 50%! I picked up two for a small community aquarium and they seem to be settling in quite nicely. Still a little shy of their mates but wandering about and getting in some filter time nonetheless.

Not a whole lot of information on these shrimp, so it looks like I'll have to wing it. I know they like an established, heavily planted aquarium with high water flow, which I have provided.

They are amazing to watch, and don't seem to mind my face 3" from the glass one bit! My camera isn't too great but the first pic really shows their fans. They close and bring them to their mouth when they "catch" something, which is every few seconds. Otherwise they sit perched for hours at a time just chillin'.

 

[~T~]

Cool filter shrimp. I dont know what you mean about not a lot of information though. Their fairly common and a lot of people here keep them.

 

[three-fingers]

Nice pics. Make sure you feed them enough. Most peoples seem to last a few months. Target feed them powdered flake food or proper invertebrate food though a syringe or pipette every couple of days.

 

[MisterJiggyFly]

Cool filter shrimp. I dont know what you mean about not a lot of information though. Their fairly common and a lot of people here keep them.

If you Google Bamboo Shrimp, you won't get a whole lot of reliable information. In fact, some of it is conflicting (they prefer acidic water vs. they prefer basic water, low maintenance and hardy vs. they require spot feeding and are hard to keep). I now know that there are many types with similar requirements and if I simply look for info on "filter shrimp" I'll get a lot more info.

But I doubt your average aquarium hobbyist keeps filter shrimp. Maybe it's regional, but only one of the ten or so stores I've been to has carried them. Exotic in my experience

Nice pics. Make sure you feed them enough. Most peoples seem to last a few months. Target feed them powdered flake food or proper invertebrate food though a syringe or pipette every couple of days.

Didn't take them long to find the best filtering spot in the tank. I've been feeding them frozen baby brine shrimp by taking out my filter floss and pouring them directly into the outake, which seems to be working great. I also plan to give them dissolved sinking pellets regularly.

 

[~T~]

Cool filter shrimp. I dont know what you mean about not a lot of information though. Their fairly common and a lot of people here keep them.

If you Google Bamboo Shrimp, you won't get a whole lot of reliable information. In fact, some of it is conflicting (they prefer acidic water vs. they prefer basic water, low maintenance and hardy vs. they require spot feeding and are hard to keep). I now know that there are many types with similar requirements and if I simply look for info on "filter shrimp" I'll get a lot more info.

But I doubt your average aquarium hobbyist keeps filter shrimp. Maybe it's regional, but only one of the ten or so stores I've been to has carried them. Exotic in my experience

Nice pics. Make sure you feed them enough. Most peoples seem to last a few months. Target feed them powdered flake food or proper invertebrate food though a syringe or pipette every couple of days.

Didn't take them long to find the best filtering spot in the tank. I've been feeding them frozen baby brine shrimp by taking out my filter floss and pouring them directly into the outake, which seems to be working great. I also plan to give them dissolved sinking pellets regularly.

Actually the first link google finds tells you all you really need to know about them, I dont like the guy who runs petshrimp but his info is pretty much spot on. Plus many people here keep or have kept them and have plenty of experience so you wouldnt need to wing it. There are generally only a few types of filter shrimp commonly available in the hobby though thier requirements are similar. A few basic shrimp rules like no fish that could harm them, no copper or fish meds and they like fairly warm water compared to most dwarf shrimp. Yeh they are readily available in the UK along with the giant fan/filter shrimp and sometimes the smaller marbled type. I assumed they were common in the US/Can as well as I seen them in petsmart when I was over last.

Good luck with them, when they settle down their colour goes bright red/orange.

 

[saltynay]

When you say small tank how small do you mean? 50 US gallon is the minimum they would need

 

[three-fingers]

Poppycock . I had 3 breeding in 19US gals.

As long as it's big enugh for that size of shrimp, and has a decent mature filter, it shouldn't matter how big the tank is since they can be target fed.

 

[Shred]

You actually successfully bred them three-fingers? I was under the impression that they couldn't be bred in captivity and that they were all wild caught?

 

[three-fingers]

You actually successfully bred them three-fingers? I was under the impression that they couldn't be bred in captivity and that they were all wild caught?

Got loads of baby shrimp very easily, but past that point it's just like breeding Amano shrimp.

It can be done, it's just doesnt seem to be commercially viable yet (which is wy they are all wild caught).

Breeding them and raising the babies just requires time and extra tanks with marine/brackish water, ideally culturing green water to feed them (but you can get away without this).

I would try again, but am out of tank space right now. Last time I think mine died because a)lighting times were erratic, resulting in the phytoplankton dying and possibly also b) that I didn't have the water saline enough (going for full marine water next time).

 

[MisterJiggyFly]

When you say small tank how small do you mean? 50 US gallon is the minimum they would need

Could you explain how you came to this decision?

I can't think of one good reason why they won't get along fine in a small (10-20 gallon) tank... They happen to be in a 10 gallon.

 

[MisterJiggyFly]

On another note, i recently witnessed some very odd behavior just a bit ago...

It happens to be 2am: I heard a funny noise coming from my HOB filter. Sounded a bit like air bubbles running through the pump, then it sounded like something was swimming around inside the filter. I whipped out a light and one of my bamboo shrimp was climbing around on the outake waterfall/lip, completely exposed and about one inch from falling off the back of the tank (could have very easily done this).

He didn't mind me or the light one bit, but eventually went back inside the tank. A few minutes later I observed him climbing on my powerhead (as I have seen them doing before), and eventually climbing on top of the powerhead which is just above the surface of the water, i.e. he was again completely out of the tank, only this time under the hood and in no immediate danger.

If he keeps this up he'll surely end up as a crispy shell on the floor, so I'll have to cover the small gap around my filter. Is he simply curious or is there something wrong with my water. I do dose Excel and ferts but stopped when I added these shrimp, and have been slowly increasing my dose over the past week to acclimate them.

#128###?!?!

 

[MisterJiggyFly]

What gives, little guy? You won't get far out here!

Found him right next to the powercord the first time.

 

[saltynay]

They are 4-5" shrimp and a larger tank is needed so that there is a steady low level amount of phytoplankton for them to feed on as well as your direct feeding will help to sustain their diet.