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Any ideal what species this is?


Amandalynn

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I purchased this shrimp with a group of amano shrimp... yeah.. pretty sure it's not. Doesn't behave the same as the others, and is huge. Like just under 3 inches from head to tail and its front "legs" are another inch and a quarter long. Any ideal what he is?  

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To me it looks similar to a ‘long armed shrimp’ or machrobrachium, definitely not an amano. I would say 100% machrobrachium if you were in Australia, not sure about their availability worldwide in comparison to other non-Australian long armed shrimp. 

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I'm in arizona usa. Yeah. I was shocked it was in with the amanos at petco.  I really like him. But have no ideal what he is. 

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Are you an experienced shrimp keeper or fish keeper?

I think if it is a machro then maaaybe @northboy could identify it for you? Again not sure just trying to help so you can make the adjustments necessary for it, because of course shrimp all have different behaviours and requirements. 
Could I ask are the shrimp in with fish?

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It's definitely not an amano. The claws  (chelae) give it away.

It depends where it has come from. It's definitely a juvenile and a Macrobrachium of some type. Too many varieties to pin point it specifically. 

Just make sure you don't keep it with Neocaridina or Caridina shrimps, cause that thing will hunt down and eat other small shrimp.

 

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20 hours ago, Crabby said:

Are you an experienced shrimp keeper or fish keeper?

I think if it is a machro then maaaybe @northboy could identify it for you? Again not sure just trying to help so you can make the adjustments necessary for it, because of course shrimp all have different behaviours and requirements. 
Could I ask are the shrimp in with fish?

I am not experienced. Not a total novice... but far from experienced. It's in with snakes, ghost shrimp, a few cherry shrimp, one yellow bee shrimp, amanos, and a African dwarf frog. No fish.. I haven't noticed it eating anything... but it does smack at others once in a while. No missing shrimp. 

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24 minutes ago, Amandalynn said:

I am not experienced. Not a total novice... but far from experienced. It's in with snakes, ghost shrimp, a few cherry shrimp, one yellow bee shrimp, amanos, and a African dwarf frog. No fish.. I haven't noticed it eating anything... but it does smack at others once in a while. No missing shrimp. 

Oops. I meant snails... not snakes.. lol

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Hmm interesting tank. Has the frog taken any notice to the shrimp?

And what parameters are you keeping the tank at? I haven’t heard of someone successfully keeping bees and cherries together.

As you are keeping dwarf shrimp, that long armed shrimp (once it grows up a bit) won’t be safe to keep with them. 

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On 4/8/2020 at 5:09 PM, Crabby said:

Hmm interesting tank. Has the frog taken any notice to the shrimp?

And what parameters are you keeping the tank at? I haven’t heard of someone successfully keeping bees and cherries together.

As you are keeping dwarf shrimp, that long armed shrimp (once it grows up a bit) won’t be safe to keep with them. 

No, he hasnt paid them any attention. At first I didnt worry because he is really small and I only had larger shrimp, my bamboo and the ghost. Then the amanos, and the cherry and yellow bee.  And when I bought him he was in with ghost shrimp.  He also seems to be very blind. So maybe that's it. And his mouth isn't very big. 

So darmn... we all think it is a long arm? And there aggressive and eat smaller shrimp?.  Ugh...  the only other tank I have is a one gallon I have for quarantine purposes, and that's obviously way to small. 

May I ask why people dont keep cherry's and yellow bees together? When I purchased them they were in the same tank together, as well as with some red eilish. 

As for water paramaters.. I have a heater that keeps it around 78.  I test for nitrates and ammonia.  And I'm in a place with pretty hard water. . 

I just saw something on line and I think it might be a whisker shrimp. Anyone know much about them, is that plausable?

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On 4/8/2020 at 5:09 PM, Crabby said:

Hmm interesting tank. Has the frog taken any notice to the shrimp?

And what parameters are you keeping the tank at? I haven’t heard of someone successfully keeping bees and cherries together.

As you are keeping dwarf shrimp, that long armed shrimp (once it grows up a bit) won’t be safe to keep with them. 

I just saw something on line and I think it might be a whisker shrimp. Anyone know much about them, is that plausable?

On 4/7/2020 at 4:55 PM, jayc said:

It's definitely not an amano. The claws  (chelae) give it away.

It depends where it has come from. It's definitely a juvenile and a Macrobrachium of some type. Too many varieties to pin point it specifically. 

Just make sure you don't keep it with Neocaridina or Caridina shrimps, cause that thing will hunt down and eat other small shrimp.

 

I just saw something on line and I think it might be a whisker shrimp. Anyone know much about them, is that plausable?

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41 minutes ago, Amandalynn said:

 

As for water paramaters.. I have a heater that keeps it around 78.  I test for nitrates and ammonia.  And I'm in a place with pretty hard water. . 

Okay... the bee may be a problem...

So the thing with bees and cherries is that their parameters clash. Bees need ph of 5.5-6.2 or so, and cherries need 6.5-7.5, so you can see that they clearly don’t cross over. Furthermore cherries like moderately hard water, whereas bees want very soft water.

If you can, maybe drop the temperature down to about 75, 76? That’s a better range.

To be fair I’ve never personally kept bees, but most other members here have, and all will (hopefully) agree that you can’t comfortably keep the two together. Especially the bee with your hard water. Maybe Simon @sdlTBfanUK, I know you’ve kept bees before with varying degrees of success, can we get your two cents on this?

 

41 minutes ago, Amandalynn said:

I just saw something on line and I think it might be a whisker shrimp. Anyone know much about them, is that plausable?

I have literally never heard of them before. Googled it and I mean it looks like it could be the same? Honestly no idea though. Jayc seemed pretty sure it was a machrobrachium as well, I usually go by what he says.

 

51 minutes ago, Amandalynn said:

red eilish

Sorry, what’s that? Do you mean red rilli shrimp maybe? Those are basically a colour variant of cherries. So same parameters. Where the bees are entirely different.

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2 hours ago, Crabby said:

Okay... the bee may be a problem...

So the thing with bees and cherries is that their parameters clash. Bees need ph of 5.5-6.2 or so, and cherries need 6.5-7.5, so you can see that they clearly don’t cross over. Furthermore cherries like moderately hard water, whereas bees want very soft water.

If you can, maybe drop the temperature down to about 75, 76? That’s a better range.

To be fair I’ve never personally kept bees, but most other members here have, and all will (hopefully) agree that you can’t comfortably keep the two together. Especially the bee with your hard water. Maybe Simon @sdlTBfanUK, I know you’ve kept bees before with varying degrees of success, can we get your two cents on this?

 

I have literally never heard of them before. Googled it and I mean it looks like it could be the same? Honestly no idea though. Jayc seemed pretty sure it was a machrobrachium as well, I usually go by what he says.

 

Sorry, what’s that? Do you mean red rilli shrimp maybe? Those are basically a colour variant of cherries. So same parameters. Where the bees are entirely different.

Yes, sorry. I did mean red rili, but my phone took it upon its self to auto correct poorly.. huh... well the lady I bought them from.. ( got cherry and yellow at same time from same tank) said there paramaters were pretty close... they were also selling rainbow shrimp in different colors, including yellow, maybe she got them confused... shame on me for not double checking.. I usually do, but the last couple time, that person's info she gave me matched what I looked up, so I trusted her. Darn. 

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Okay... maybe I’m wrong? How long have you had it?

Did some googling and mixed results, certainly not the super low 5.5 ph’s I’m usually used to hearing for bee shrimps and caridina, but still not suited to hard water I don’t think. I don’t know, just what you said clashed stuff I’ve heard in the past, so I brought it up, but if he’s doing alright and has been for a while then I guess it might be fine. Would be handy if someone more versed in bees would help out in this thread. 
 

Have you got a pH test kit? That’s pretty handy for shrimp keeping.

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Some people do keep them together and Lizzy in fact posted a thread recently withh red cherry and crystal red photo in the same tank. The cherry are much hardier and adaptable so the way to go is to keep the water parameters at the top end of the bee shrimp parameters!

https://skfaquatics.com/forum/forums/topic/14499-crs-tank-log/

It is very unlikely to work though if you are using tap water with bee shrimp, cherry should be ok with it though! Bees are a lot more difficult so if you have one yellow (KK I asume) I would probably just leave it and not get any more as that would be the easiest route. But if you want to mix the 2 types then you will probably have to go the RO water remineralised route which we can help advize you if you want to do that, but give it some thought as to whether you are prepared for the extra work and expense! Another advantage with the 2 types in one tank is that theyy can't cross breed!

Do you have a set of Parameter figures as the tank is now?

What size is the tank?

Great photos of the long arm shrimp.

Simon

 

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Ooooops never mind me. I know you can do tts and crs/cbs together, just wasn’t sure about true Taiwan bees (kks, pintos and the rest). Thanks for clearing that up Simon.

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I think the tangerine tigers are the most versitile shrimp, they are easy to keep, cheap and can go with cherry or bee (though they will cross breed with bee)! I may try those if/when we get back to 'normal' if the bee shrimp in my tank don't do well, thanks for the reminder crabby?

Amandalyn, do you know what the yellow shrimp is, if it is a tangerine tiger (they can be yellow-orange) you don't need to do anything at all as they are as easy to keep as Cherry? Again, thanks crabby, I had forgotten about those which are bee!

Simon

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8 hours ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

Some people do keep them together and Lizzy in fact posted a thread recently withh red cherry and crystal red photo in the same tank. The cherry are much hardier and adaptable so the way to go is to keep the water parameters at the top end of the bee shrimp parameters!

https://skfaquatics.com/forum/forums/topic/14499-crs-tank-log/

It is very unlikely to work though if you are using tap water with bee shrimp, cherry should be ok with it though! Bees are a lot more difficult so if you have one yellow (KK I asume) I would probably just leave it and not get any more as that would be the easiest route. But if you want to mix the 2 types then you will probably have to go the RO water remineralised route which we can help advize you if you want to do that, but give it some thought as to whether you are prepared for the extra work and expense! Another advantage with the 2 types in one tank is that theyy can't cross breed!

Do you have a set of Parameter figures as the tank is now?

What size is the tank?

Great photos of the long arm shrimp.

Simon

 

This is random... I just woke up and my bamboo is dead.... I'm really sad.. it was the second on. The first died right after I got him/her so I thought it was the stress of a transfer.. but I've had this one a month. He was doing really well, always stirring there eating.. but I noticed he wasnt filtering the last two days. Thought maybe it was close to a molt... but no. Dead... I check the ammonia all the time, cause I know filter feeders are susceptible to that..  only thing I can think off is I was too worried about it and did to much.. like water change wise.  I'm really bummed. They are so cool. I loved that damn shrimp with its little fans..  am I missing something.???

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Oh. It's a 5.5 gallon tank. Has a heater that keeps it around 78.  I believe my ph is slightly basic. Around 8. I do use tap water but with stress coat plus API water conditioner.  I add frozen brine shrimp ( which I rinse in a net first to get out extra ammonia)  and algae tabs. I dont have much live plants but I put a few moss balls in there to help.   The bee was cheap. So I dont think it's a true Taiwan bee now that I'm reading ur threads. Haven't had him that long. Few weeks.. so we will see.  Other than my bamboo, I haven't had any deaths. And I was expecting some with the ghost shrimp because some are very large and I know it's a short life cycle. 

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Okay. So the pH is a bit too high for your shrimp, especially the bee if it truly is a bee. Now in terms of the bee... it’s either a yellow King Kong, or actually a yellow/orange cherry shrimp. I can’t ID them by sight, you might want to search up those types of shrimp (yellow king kongs, yellow cherries, sunset or pumpkin cherries) to see which you think it is more like. But a pH of 8 is definitely a problem for a true bee shrimp.

Another option if you are keen on providing the best environment for your shrimp, instead of using remineralised RO water, you can use a pH buffering substrate. This will have a more natural look, and can be very beautiful with real plants. It will bring your pH down to about neutral, or a bit below, depending on product, but is just a more simple option to RO in my opinion. If you go this route and add some more plants, they will handle the ammonia and nitrates very easily - I have two heavily planted tanks which I can leave for a month or two with 0 nitrates, nitrites or ammonia, because of all the plants and my well cycled filters. Speaking of which, how long did you cycle the tank for? And what filtration do you use?

On the bamboo shrimp, they are illegal here in Australia so I can’t give you any advice there. That’s really unfortunate though. I’m sorry to hear that. 
 

For your heater if you can turn a knob or something to easily change the heat, maybe put it down to 76? It’s a little more comfortable for the shrimp, doesn’t make a huge difference though. 

Edited by Crabby
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21 hours ago, Amandalynn said:

I just saw something on line and I think it might be a whisker shrimp. Anyone know much about them, is that plausable?

Whisker shrimps are just the common name. It's still a Macrobrachium sp, which is the scientific name.

It's entirely possible it could be a Whisker shrimp.

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That is not a "bee" shrimp... per-say....

 

Either an orange neocaridina or a "sunkist" shrimp.... Caridina propinqua

 

Leaning towards an orange cherry shrimp (Neo) personally.

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As er crabby and zoidburg, that is an orange cherry shrimp so you should be ok with the setup as it is! It looks like it hasa bitof astripe down its back from the photos! You should probably avoid bee shrimp with the setup you have, it is unlikely to work and to set it up to be suitable will be a lot of work and money in comparison to the cherry shrimps.

Sorry to hear you lost your bamboo shrimp! Did it come from a reliable source? Did you drip acclimate them when you put them in thae tank?

Also, as per crabby, can you lower the temperature as shrimp don't like heat, they won't live as long at the top end of the range, 72-73 would be better!

Bamboo shrimp should be fine in the same water parameters as cherry shrimp, do you know what the GH, kH, TDS are?

Simon

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On 4/10/2020 at 12:35 AM, Amandalynn said:

Yes, sorry. I did mean red rili, but my phone took it upon its self to auto correct poorly.. huh... well the lady I bought them from.. ( got cherry and yellow at same time from same tank) said there paramaters were pretty close... they were also selling rainbow shrimp in different colors, including yellow, maybe she got them confused... shame on me for not double checking.. I usually do, but the last couple time, that person's info she gave me matched what I looked up, so I trusted her. Darn. 

So I was wrong. I tested. I'm between 6.8 and 7.2 on the test strip for ph so I imagine that's probably a 7. Water is very hard. . Oh is ideal at around 180

On 4/11/2020 at 1:02 AM, sdlTBfanUK said:

As er crabby and zoidburg, that is an orange cherry shrimp so you should be ok with the setup as it is! It looks like it hasa bitof astripe down its back from the photos! You should probably avoid bee shrimp with the setup you have, it is unlikely to work and to set it up to be suitable will be a lot of work and money in comparison to the cherry shrimps.

Sorry to hear you lost your bamboo shrimp! Did it come from a reliable source? Did you drip acclimate them when you put them in thae tank?

Also, as per crabby, can you lower the temperature as shrimp don't like heat, they won't live as long at the top end of the range, 72-73 would be better!

Bamboo shrimp should be fine in the same water parameters as cherry shrimp, do you know what the GH, kH, TDS are?

Simon

I can just turn the heater off. Its arizona, and we are in the middle of April. I just thought they liked the higher temps. Like 76 to 78 range.  But with the weather about to be how it is, I can just let them be the room temp ( which will probably be around 74. Maybe as low as 72 and as high as 78 when I'm not home, but not likely the water will make it to that high of a temp in the amount of time I'm gone)

I did not drop acclimate, but I did let the water temp acclimate prior.  

No, I'm imbarrased to say I bought them from petco. Trying to find better local sources. But it's hard at the moment. .

I just picked up a 5 way test kit, so I'll test ph tonight and let you know.  I know we have very hard water. And I think it's slightly basic, but I'll know more once I test tonight.  

Oh, and yes, my yellow guy has that little strip down the back. 

Thanks for the help, I'll get those results to you soon

Although I have a hard time with the color strips. I might take it to a store and have them tell me. The color doesn't quite match so I'm guessing a bit. 

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Shrimp like cool temps, as they originate in the mountain streams in it's natural habitat. Heaters are almost never needed.

68F - 75 deg F (20 deg C - 24 deg C) is fine for shrimps. Heaters are used to maintain temps within this range, if you live in cold climates that cause the water temps to drop below this range. If temps go above, than aquarium chillers or even Air conds for the room can be used to keep the tank water cool.

Hard water will be a challenge with shrimp. Try collecting rain water for the tank. 

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