Anyone keeping Macrobrachium spp.?

[ura]

Anyone into keeping the freshwater prawns such as Macrobrachium or marine ones?

[kizshrimp]

Have kept M. australiense before but not right now - I've been inspired to get some again since seeing a blue one. The cannibalism after moulting is annoying though... I'm more interested in getting into crays, to be honest. 

The marines are something I might get interested in if I can justify more space and time on tanks one day. 

[Grubs]

Same here. Had a couple of M.australiense in a tank on my desk...lots of personality and dynamite snail killers..but after numerous games of "pull my arms off" they each did a Thelma and Louise off the edge of the desk.

[fishmosy]

I've had macros on a couple of occasions in the past. Would love to keep a massive rosenbergii but cant really justify allocating that much space to one species when I can have many species of Caridina instead. 

[kizshrimp]

Haha, yes the rosenbergii are nice though. The smaller one that Dave sells is a really beautiful little Macro and well worth trying for anyone interested.

[waffle]

*uses scroll of raise thread*

Do macros like to destroy plants? Also, do they adapt their size to the available tank space or just keep growing continually? I'm guessing the answers to these depend a bit on the particular species.

Edited February 29, 2016 by waffle

[fishmosy]

Macros tend to leave plants alone.

It is a myth that any organism will only grow to the size of its aquaria. They will grow to reach their normal adult size UNLESS the conditions are so bad that the organism is stunted - IMO a cruel result of neglect on the part of the aquarist. This is completely different to saying that the organism stops growing to suit its aquaria. 

[waffle]

Ah, so with one of the bigger macros you'd need a fairly large setup! 

[fishmosy]

Yes, quite a large set-up indeed. 

[waffle]

They would go pretty well in large ponds then I'm guessing? I've heard some can be pretty good at learning who feeds them and coming up to the surface trying to eat fingers, and it would be super cool to train a massive one to come out of the depths for food.

[fishmosy]

Yes much the same as crayfish or yabbies. 

[Paul Minett]

macros are an awesome shrimp to keep love mine. have 6 adult australienese with enough space and perches hiding spots they get along ok but only have 1 male or their is usually trouble, their is a heap of bubs in the tank at the moment from them I also have some  juvie jardini

[mellonpod]

I've currently got 6 in my planted tank with glass shrimp
Do the long arm berry the same as yabbies and glass shrimp

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk

[fishmosy]

2 hours ago, mellonpod said:

Do the long arm berry the same as yabbies and glass shrimp
 

Yes, the eggs are carried under the tail by the females

[Baccus]

I have kept locally caught macrobachiums briefly, but learnt the hard way that they can NOT be trusted with fish, I have watched them literally snag a fish that was innocently swimming by minding its own business and then proceed to eat the fish. They do however have a lot of character and seem to be a thinking shrimp, rather than shrimp like cherry shrimp which seem to be more slow on the uptake and everything comes as a surprise to them.

A macro that I had from Cairns (female as she often berried with no male present) is/ was fish safe I never saw her bother a single fish but she had particularly small nippers on very long arms. She would often come out of her hiding spot and come to observe me observing her or just wave her arms at me. I always liked watching how dextrous she was feeling into tiny cracks and crevices always on the hunt for food. She was also very partial to crushed snails, which I would drop in the tank for the loaches and she had not fear of joining the scrum of fish that would gather for the snail feast.

Because of the macrobachiums fish hunting tendencies when I go out shrimp chasing I tend to put any/ all the macros back rather than bring them home. Also many times (particularly in summer) I find macros with white body disease, which will also sometimes be present in the smaller local glass (?) shrimp. When ever I come across that illness I usually dump the whole lot of shrimp caught from that section of creek back where I got them rather than risk taking a single one home.

If I do still have some macrobachiums then they are in my pond living the high life with endlers, gudgeons and at least 4 species of snail.