New Caledonia south

[Damien]

Hey guys,

Here are some pics of some shrimp from the south of New Caledonia.

The HC 'Cuba' give you an idea of their size. 

Thank you @Matuva for the plants ;-)

[fishmosy]

Beautiful shrimp and great work by the photographer. 

[jayc]

That is some amazing shrimp.

 

@Damien, do you have any idea what they are called? Scientific name Or Common name?

[Baccus]

Beautiful shrimp and fantastic photos. Are they all the same species or is there at least two different species? Did you collect them yourself or buy them?

[Damien]

Sorry for the late reply.

Thank you for your compliment.

@jayc and @Baccus
About the species, I think there is 2 species in those pictures.
Short rostrum should be Paratya caledonica
And the long rostrum Paratya intermedia

I collect them by myself. Done a selection, there are a lot of differents patterns/colors in those 2 species

[NoGi]

Not sure how I missed this topic, those are indeed stunning photos. Imagine the selective breeding potential.

[Damien]

I've read a lot of article lately on selective breeding. Those species must be good candidates to that practise. 
But I'm struggle just to get them breed. Have to find the good parameters...

[kizshrimp]

Good luck with the shrimp Damien and thanks for sharing the beautiful images. I was excited when matuva joined our community and it's great to have another New Caledonian with us. A late welcome from me. 

When I visited your beautiful country several years ago I tried to research the freshwater inverts beforehand but couldn't find any information. It's been trickling through more recently and it's awesome to see that you do have the diversity I expected. I hope you have plans to get out collecting more native species. Why don't you show us what's around in the North Province? 

cheers 

[Damien]

On 23/07/2016 at 0:27 AM, kizshrimp said:

Good luck with the shrimp Damien and thanks for sharing the beautiful images. I was excited when matuva joined our community and it's great to have another New Caledonian with us. A late welcome from me. 

When I visited your beautiful country several years ago I tried to research the freshwater inverts beforehand but couldn't find any information. It's been trickling through more recently and it's awesome to see that you do have the diversity I expected. I hope you have plans to get out collecting more native species. Why don't you show us what's around in the North Province? 

cheers 

Thank you kizshrimp for your message. Yes Matuva is a friend ;-)

Yes, New Cal is full of endemic species. 
Each species seems to have some coloration differences depending on the rivers. So have a lot to learn. I have explore a lot of rivers in the south. 
East coast is where there is the most diversity but it's several hours drive. 
My plan is to succeed to breed some species of the south then I'll explore farther on the east cost.
Just had my first berried Paratya two weeks ago ;-)

[Baccus]

I really do like the shrimp you have managed to collect, and by the looks of it they carry some great potential.

I might have some ideas on getting them to successfully breed for you.

One would be to try them in a large planted outdoor tub of water matching as closely as possible the water paramaters you found the parents in. Testing for gH and pH will go a long way in helping with this, also check the types of stones, amount of leaf litter and plants in the area you found the shrimp. Was the water flowing or stagnant or where the shrimp hidden away in out of flow areas prefer gentle water movement?

Just looking at the IUCN Red List it is possible that the Paratya caledonica species will require a brackish or full salt stage in its youngs development. So perhaps reading up on the progress people have made with using green water and stages of brackish to breed/ produce typhus and Amano shrimp will be helpful.

With my native shrimp I have followed the very sound advice of Dave and ensure that there is plenty of mulm in the tank for the shrimp to pick through while adding things like mulberry leaves and Indian Almond leaves for the tannins and extra food sources. I also feed them a variety of shrimp and fish foods. But the main thing that Dave advised was to pre-age any water that is going into the shrimp tank. This generally involves having a suitably sized tub filled with town tap water, with chlorine and chloramine remover added and leaving the water to sit for at least a week to age nicely. Dave always suggest age it in the sun but I find doing it in my shed where the tanks are works well enough. When adding the water conditioner I also run an airstone for a few hours to help mix the whole lot around.

The Paratya caledonica look remarkably similar to the shrimp that I once had from Barney Springs in the hinterlands behind Cairns in far north Queensland.

Best of luck and I really hope you do crack breeding these shrimp.

[Damien]

Thank you @Baccus for your entry. A lot of advice in this post!

Those shrimp come from a clear fast flowing river. And they prefer to stay in gentle water movement area. 
Next time I'll visit them, i'll take some pictures of them, so you'll have a better view.

I'm sure the ones i've collected are doing their entire cycle in freshwater. There's a dam in the river with no way to pass it. So it should be easier to breed them.
I've made a lot of research on breeding caridina japonica just in case.

I only clean the front glass of my aquarium now so larvae should find some food.

Thank you for the pre-age tip! Just started doing it last week. I was just putting some chlorine and chloramine remover 10min before filling my tank. It should be better now.


 

[kizshrimp]

Most of the fully freshwater Paratya populations I've seen in southern Australia still have a tiny planktonic larval stage, including fully landlocked populations in lakes. They're incredibly difficult to raise deliberately, ie in numbers. I've only ever found one population with direct-developing larvae. 

It will be interesting to see how the NC species go! 

 

[Kaylenna]

Are these ever available for sale??

[Baccus]

Just wondered if there where any updates on these lovely shrimp?

[Damien]

Yep, I have some very interesting specimen to show you!
I'm thinking about doing a photoshoot the coming week :)

On 02/08/2016 at 5:08 PM, Kaylenna said:

Are these ever available for sale??

No. 
I first need to be succesfull at making a strong population.
Then I need to obtain a permission from the government to export them.

[jayc]

On 02/08/2016 at 4:08 PM, Kaylenna said:

 

Are these ever available for sale??

 

You DO realise Damien is in New Caledonia,  don't you? 

Getting it into the country will be illegal. 

[Kaylenna]

3 hours ago, jayc said:

You DO realise Damien is in New Caledonia,  don't you? 

Getting it into the country will be illegal. 

Yes, I'd noted his location.  I've actually been there for a few days (but before I started this current shrimp binge, so it hadn't occurred to me to peer into their streams). 

I was more hoping they were already in AU/ there are similar AU native species.

[jayc]

Don't know if these are available in Aus. Our natives are not as colourful. Unless they are well hidden and no one has caught one yet.

[Damien]

Here is a full picture of my aquarium :

Aquarium size : 20L
Pressurized CO2 to keep the Ph around 7
TDS : 120
The aquarium temperature is between 25-26°C all day long (thinks to my DIY chiller)
GH and KH around 5

I just clean the front glass every week. All the others are mulm culture :)
I always use aged water (1week or more) during water change.
I'm monitoring TDS and Nitrate to see if a water change is needed.

I have shrimplet now, they are less than 1 week old. Didn't get a chance to take a shot of them yet.

One of my new shrimp (sorry for the bad pic, need to take a decent shot of such a beauty) :

[Damien]

[jayc]

On 28/10/2016 at 6:20 PM, Damien said:

One of my new shrimp (sorry for the bad pic, need to take a decent shot of such a beauty) :

Looks almost like a Crystal Red.

 

Wow, New Caledonia sure has a lot of nice native shrimp.

That could be my next holiday destination.

[Baccus]

I wonder if because New Caledonia is basically on our doorstep and that there is a good chance of any larval young species of shrimp making their way over to Australia in ocean currents any way, if the government would be any more lenient on letting in New Caledonia species of shrimp?

Bob was often finding interesting things up around Cairns and further North (also the Gulf) so I really would not be surprised if there is some similar stunning shrimp in our waterways, but because of the lack of easy access, nasty water inhabitants (yes crocs) and annoying weather conditions (its either too dry and creeks are dwindled to next to nothing or everything is flooded in the wet season) it would be very easy to miss something as small as a shrimp especially if all your interested in is edible sized fish in far off locations. Plenty of people I know at work can not understand the fascination I have for shrimp, native snails and small native fish, they think the only "useful" things our waterways hold are Barra, Golden Perch or even Jungle Perch, and the odd Red Claw.

I am really enjoying seeing your native shrimp and wish you the best of luck with breeding them all, I also look forwards to seeing any more native snails you might stumble across.

 

[Damien]

Hey Baccus, always a pleasure to read you.
I have follow your tips. Here is the result :

Can you see the eggs? :) Fully developed in my aquarium. Have this shrimp for a month now, spotted the eggs a couple of days ago.

I have 2 new snail species too. Didn't take good pics of them yet.

Here are some other pics :

[Baccus]

That's great to see that they are breeding, by the looks of the size of the eggs the young should be able to be raised in a fresh water tank. From memory a rough rule of thumb is large eggs = breedable in fresh water small eggs often indicates larval and possibly brackish stages.

It will be great to see if the babies turn out having similar markings to the parents or if being in a tank situation they tend to take on certain colours/ patterns.

Really taken by the gold flecks on the chocolate coloured shrimp and the one that is so similar to a crystal red.

I can see that with so many potentially amazingly coloured/ patterned shrimp you could fill a house with tanks, keeping each creek systems particular variants separate from each other to keep their lines pure. Much like with Rainbow fish and some species of Blue Eye.

Man you make me wish I didn't have to spend my days at boring old work, I would much rather being out exploring waterways and seeing if there is any shrimp or snails compariable to your native beauties. I am sure that some where in our creeks there is going to be some amazing critters secretly going about their lives, there just hasn't been enough investigations.