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Shrimpin' in Gippsland!


Atlantis

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So i have just been out on a nice rewarding shrimp expedition in Gippsland, i hiked and camped out in the the scrub for the night, the waterfall that i ventured too is spectacular! I scrambled right up to the top to find that it has several waterfalls and on the third waterfall up is a large blue pool of water, this is where i collected an estimate 300 shrimp. I believe they are Paratya australiensis, though i do need an ID to confirm this, from the shrimp collected i have quite a few specimans with deep blue colouring, i beleive these have great potential! i will upload pictures soon! Unfortunately i only have an iphone camera :(

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Such a nice place!

I have a pretty good hiking kit so i stayed at a cozy 37.5 degrees in my bivy :)

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Nice. Remember a sure fire ID for Paratya australiensis is the presence of supra-orbital spines.

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Positive ID on Paratya australiensis! :)

Has this species been classified in to any sub species yet? Or does it require further study?

From what i am familiar with catching these guys are quite unusual specimens.

Cheers :)

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There are suggestions that Paratya australiensis as we know it may actually comprise several species or subspecies based on genetic analysis. However it has not been looked into, so for the moment its a single species.

That said they are a naturally highly variable species. I know locally, they vary in colour and pattern greatly from one side of a mountain to the other. The pictures of this are shown in my article.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yeah they are a great shrimp! I hope i can get the blue ones i selected to breed!

I put heaters in set at 22 degrees and from the main 4 foot tank and they seem to have started getting jiggy straight away! Found 4 buried females. The few selected have not bred yet though.

post-812-0-65371700-1409277045_thumb.jpg

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I find natives tend to moult when they are caught, probably due to the stress. Riffles especially. Hence why they tend to be berried soon after being caught.

The eggs on your female look quite large, I'm assuming your female is at least 30mm. If so, you might be able to raise the shrimplets fairly easily. This is a benefit of collecting shrimp from headwaters! Best of luck.

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