Shrimp from the dam. Paratya australiensis?

[zactus]

Collected some of these from the dam a few weeks back. They seem to be doing great in my Bristlenose tank. What species are they?

There seems to be an extremely high population of these shrimp in our dam. I used a pool scoop and counted over 100 shrimp from one short scoop. Is this a normal population density?

[BlueBolts]

Very nice, thanks for sharing the pick....Bob ?

[Robert]

Looks like a standard glassy to me. Especially from sydneys waters, we have nothing special. You can make a good buck off these guys, especially because alot of people dont know where to go out and collect these. Perfect as a clean up crew in a planted tank.

[zactus]

Whats the going rate? I might put an ad up. We have a big dam and I scooped over 100 from one spot. There would be 100's of kg of shrimp in this dam.

[Robert]

ive seen people sell them for 20-50 cents each on petlink. i think a good number to sell them to skf is 20 cents each minimum buy $10. then decrease the place there after. after all you do have a good source. dont even have to count if its $10s worth, just scoop and bucket.

[zactus]

Thanks for the tip. Seems like a reasonable price. Might put an ad up, probably more interested in trading them for other shrimp. Would love some Rili shrimp.

[fishmosy]

I think you'll find there isnt as many shrimp in your dam as you think. Yes they'll be at high densities in some areas but they will be absent from others. Be careful about how many you take as like any sort of fishing, its easy to overfish and cause a crash in numbers.

[zactus]

I considered that. The dam is around 5,000 square meters. I scooped from less than 1 square meter. I'm assuming the shrimp are concentrated around the well vegetated areas, which is around half the area. I think it would be difficult for one person to overfish a dam that large with a pool scoop.

Having said that, I'm not looking to make money from shrimp, just collect some to trade for other shrimp. Will the shrimp population naturally peak and trough throughout the year? Or is it stable?

[northboy]

The Populations boom and bust through out the year, not sure of your seasons down there, up here the boom is just before the wet and goes on until mid dry season, about 8 months of the year.

It would be similar I would think, but winter would stop breeding to cold.

Bob

[fishmosy]

You'd be surprised what fishing pressure can do to a population. There is a whole bunch of literature surrounding fishing pressure in wild harvest fisheries and their effects on size, growth, reproduction ect.

I'm sure that the population would easily support you taking some to trade or for a little profit.

[zactus]

That's an interesting point. Perhaps I should only take older or younger specimens, not sure what would be less destructive. I have returned all berried females I found. I thought that would lessen my impact.

[fishmosy]

Returning berried females/reproductive females is advised by most fisheries management (where possible). Other than that, simply limiting the number of shrimp you take at one time may be your best option.