Darwin Algae Eating Shrimp?

[Crabby]

Hey guys, just found an add for this website showcasing a cool-lookin native algae eating shrimp.
https://algaeeatingshrimp.com.au/products/australian-algae-eating-shrimp

Anyone heard of these before or own any? My interest was peaked by the claim that they eat hair-type algae, as I have some on my crypts and lace fern that I cannot remove. And for a price of $4 ea, and super easy parameters, they sound pretty doable! 
Tell me more oh great SKFians! ?

(or feel free to point me towards an already existing page)

post-note: have you/do you keep these grubs? Seems like your sort of thing.

Edited October 22, 2019 by Crabclaw

[Grubs]

The photo is not a DAS.  The only place I know that breeds DAS commercially is Aquagreen  for half that price.  https://www.aquagreen.com.au/catalog.html

I do keep them and have bred them in the past but I don't have any excess at the moment.  I'm going to try and breed them again this summer.  They have marine larvae so are not easy but on the flip-side they live for 5 years or more and are hardy.

The photo at that site looks to be a Paratya  which will also eat filamentous algae but not as voraciously as DAS.  My Paratya came in the mail from https://www.livefish.com.au/tropicals/shrimp-and-crays.html

You can get them in local rivers but I find the ones from livefish do better in warmer tanks (Livefish are in QLD) - these breed in fresh water in your tank (easily).

 

Edited October 22, 2019 by Grubs

[Crabby]

Oh cool I've seen paratya locally as well, just a baby one tho, barely noticed him. Do they stay totally clear or have some different colours? 

And in terms of the DAS (as I think they are super cool), will they still thrive in freshwater? And how large do they grow? (I have a big grumpy apisto who might have a meal of any small shrimp - tho I'm getting rid of him soon possibly)

And for both of them, if I wanted to put them in with my TTS would they interbreed?

Thanks Grubs!

[jayc]

What Grubs said.

DAS is a little bit more colourful as well. You can get them at Aquagreen but just remember, they need brackish water and the plankton in it to breed. Or more accurately the newly hatched young need brackish water.

 

[Crabby]

Yeah not planning on doing a breeding project just yet. Maybe late 2020, but not any time soon. If I were to get them I would just need to know that they will not fertilise my female tts.

[jayc]

4 minutes ago, Crabclaw said:

female tts.

tts as in Tangerine Tiger?

Hmm, no guarantees. they are both Caridina afterall. 

[Crabby]

Yeah tangerine tiger shrimp. I don’t think I would even mind that much if they procreated cuz I NEED MORE SHRIIIIIIMP!!!! 

(And the offspring would be cute)

Do they require much skill to take care of? (Either)

[jayc]

28 minutes ago, Crabclaw said:

Do they require much skill to take care of?

No nothing special. Just get them the right water parameters and that's it.

@Grubs might have the perfect water parameter requirements for DAS, so see if he can list them.

Otherwise, I used to keep DAS in water that was ph6.8 - 7.0, KH 4, GH6 and TDS of 200-230 and 25DegC. 

These shrimp from QLD seem to handle slightly higher temps.

[Crabby]

Idk my tds but the rest sounds similar to my tap. If Grubs uses just dechlorinated tap water too then we probably would have the same parameters as we’re both in melb. And that’s my normal temp as well. 
How do you keep them @Grubs?

[Grubs]

DAS are very robust and I've kept them in a tank with Melbourne tap water and in rainwater with  DIY hardness booster.  You'll find them in Northern Australia in both the fresh and brackish sections of rivers so they have really wide tolerances.  My tanks range from 24C to 29C

If you get some keep the covers on for the first 2 weeks as they can be jumpy if your water parameters are a long way from what they were housed in. After a couple of weeks they settle down and rarely jump.  I know some people with open tanks put gladwrap over the top for the first couple of weeks only.

I'll also suggest that no-way will they interbreed with your Tangerine Tigers -  they are very different shrimp and their bits wont fit together even if they were so inclined.

 

If money is tight then Paratya are about half the biomass but will breed up easily and also wont cross with the TT .... or do both.  You can keep all three together in the same tank.

Edited October 23, 2019 by Grubs

[Crabby]

8 hours ago, Grubs said:

You can keep all three together in the same tank.

Definitely tempting me here. ? 

What do you feed them? As I currently feed my fish, and hope the shrimp get the leftovers. I’m looking more towards trying to feed my shrimp specifically though. I’ve tried zucchini and spinach, but only the hated snails will eat those. And rarely do I see a shrimp on an algae wafer. They all seem to be doing fine though, so I guess there's enough algae and biofilm for them to eat.

And if I were to get more shrimp with the possible intent of breeding them (not the das of course), would you recommend the removal of my Apistogramma pair? They’re beautiful and I would love to see them breed at some stage, but the are active and the male in particular is quite large. They can get a bit aggressive at times.

[jayc]

1 hour ago, Crabclaw said:

would you recommend the removal of my Apistogramma pair?

Hell Yeah! Apistos will snack on shrimps like there is no tomorrow.

 

There are so many things you can feed your shrimps. Go have a read of a few posts in the "food & nutrition" subforum.

 

[Crabby]

Dang I thought u might say that... for some reason the guy at my rlfs (relatively local fish store) recommended them instead of honey gouramis as a bit of a feature fish. Are there any other ‘feature fish’ style fish that wouldn’t munch on my shrimp, or should I just stick with my endler trio?

I’ll check out the food stuff, thx.

Edited October 24, 2019 by Crabclaw

[nostone]

Just an fyi don't buy from this website mentioned by op, they're scammers they take your money and don't deliver, i purchased some shrimp from them and they didn't ship, or return emails etc, had to get a refund from paypal.

[Kahless]

On 11/14/2020 at 3:36 AM, nostone said:

Just an fyi don't buy from this website mentioned by op, they're scammers they take your money and don't deliver, i purchased some shrimp from them and they didn't ship, or return emails etc, had to get a refund from paypal.

I have just been burnt by the same site, no response, no shrimp. I didn't use paypal so I might be out $60. A complete scam.

[nostone]

6 hours ago, Kahless said:

I have just been burnt by the same site, no response, no shrimp. I didn't use paypal so I might be out $60. A complete scam.

If you paid via card do a claim with your bank, i also reported this website to shopify and they said they'd investigate, maybe we should report this to scam watch, i have the websites mobile number they registered with paypal too

Edit: I've filed a report with scam watch Australia and cyber crimes 

Edited November 17, 2020 by nostone