Riffle Shrimp (Australatya striolata)

[fishmosy]

Riffle Shrimp

Australatya striolata

By Fishmosy and Northboy

Riffles are so named because they are found in riffles, shallow fast flowing sections of creeks. They occur in easterly flowing creeks from Northern Queensland down to Victoria, Australia. Two famous collecting areas are the Atherton Tablelands in QLD and Never Never Creek,near Bellingen NSW.

Riffles can grow to over 6cm, reports of 8cm is not uncommon. However, these shrimp change sex at around 3.5-4cm from males to females. If you want to breed these shrimp, ensure you have both size ranges.

Breeding riffles is fairly easy. The entire lifecycle can be carried out in freshwater, but increasing the salinity to 20-35 ppt increases survival rates during larval stages. BBS or brine shrimp nauplii are a great conditioning food for adults. Eggs are carried by the female and hatch out as miniature larvae that swim in the water column before settling onto the bottom. Small shrimplets require greenwater, mulm, rotifers, or other small food particles to survive. As the shrimplets grow, they begin to take the same food as adults, including brine shrimp nauplii and flake food, as well as grazing on algae/biofilm.

One of the greatest attributes of these shrimp is watching them use their filter feeding feet to catch food items wafting in the current. They may even learn 'feeding time' and take up positions in the tank to grab food drifting by. Riffles also become less timid over time, and are often seen out and about in the aquarium.

Adults are also reported to feed on BBA and cyanobacteria (BGA), but this has not been confirmed by the authors.

Riffles are adaptable to most aquarium conditions as long as extremes are avoided, but require highly oxygenated water, temperatures not exceeding 27 degrees C for long periods of time and are sensitive to high phosphate levels and high CO2. Stressed riffles will often change colour to bright red or dark blue. However, their natural colouration is highly variable, greens, blues, red, orange, black and white, and stripes, so colour changes aren't always indicative of problems. Riffles also seem to like hanging out on timber.

Warning: These shrimp can and do climb and jump, so keep tight-fitting lids on your tanks.

You can keep riffles with fish as long as they can't fit in the fishes mouths, although the fish may hassle the shrimp. However, riffles can turn the tables and eat small fry.

For further info see:

Riffle Shrimp from the Atherton Tablelands by Bob Kroll in AquariumKeeper Australia Vol 1, Iss 2 (Out of print)

http://www.shrimpkeepersforum.com/forum/showthread.php/796-Some-Native-shrimp-photos-for-you

http://www.shrimpkeepersforum.com/forum/showthread.php/748-Riffle-Shrimp

Edited July 5, 2019 by fishmosy

[fishmosy]

Pictures to be added soon.

[Dean]

Great article. Filled in most of the blanks with what I new about them.

Thanks for taking the time to write this up for the forum ;)

Will be going straight to the library once the pics are added.

Good work.

[Sprae]

Nice work guys! Good to know it's best to keep Riffles away from shrimplets as well. They will eat them.

[northboy]

As we get more info we will put it up, or Ben will fix up my stuff to add to his LOL.

There is a lot of differences between North and South in the populations.

There is also a lot of myths about them to.

Good one Ben.

Bob

[fishmosy]

Thanks guys. As Bob said, more is on the way. Watch this space.

[NoGi]

Someone wanted photos? :victorious:

http://www.shrimpkeepersforum.com/forum/showthread.php/476-NoGi-s-Shrimp-Macros?p=9214&viewfull=1#post9214

[skfadmin]

This has been added to the library with some pics and formatting. Good stuff.

[fishmosy]

Excellent, great pictures too. Thanks Nogi.

[fishmosy]

I have completed some sampling of the water parameters from a creek where riffles are found on the Mid North Coast of NSW, near Coffs Harbour.

This should be useful info for those of you trying to replicate conditions found in natural habitats in your tanks.

Time of year: Late Spring (Nov, 2012).

Water parameters were as follows:

Temp - 22.5*C

Ammonia - undetectable

Nitrite - undetectable

Nitrate Undetectable

pH 6.8-7.0

Hardness - KH below 10mg/L, - GH 20-40mg/L

Ca - less than 20mg/L

PO4 - undetectable

Other than temperature, these parameters were measured using a Hagen Nutrafin Master test kit.

Also as a bonus for premium members, I have uploaded some habitat pictures to the riffle article in the library.

[northboy]

Guess I will have to add water condition reports to Ben, I think it is a top idea to do readings through out the year, just to present to people the facts about water changing in condition through out the year. It dose not happen every where but it sure happens in a large percentage of the creeks.

I have had an opinion for a long time about keeping exact conditions, conditions taken by the person collecting the original specimens? was it a one or two time test or were they done through out the year?

I have taken reading in many creek through out the year, at least 8 reading through the year in many creeks and every one of them changes. Some changes are small some are big

Bob

[fishmosy]

Definitely agree with Bob on this point, although I have posted the conditions, don't take this as absolute or best. I plan on doing several more tests over time to show changes in water parameters.

Also note that this was taken during average flow rates, with no recent rain. I suspect things might be very different after recent heavy rain, or in the middle of a long dry spell.

[luckyshrimp]

I went to a river (forget name) and every rock you lifted there would be a few of them, all different colours and sizes, one of them was bigger than I've ever seen before, longer than my finger and nearly jet black, they are awesome and get along with cherries and mystery snails really well :)

[ineke]

Just found this write up , very interesting Fishmosy especially like the photos in the full article showing habitat. Easy to read and very informative

Cheers

Ineke:encouragement:

[Squiggle]

Awesome write up, very informative & love the pics, definite home run guys :victorious:

[fishmosy]

Thanks guys, hopefully it has encouraged you to give natives a try, or if you have them already reminded you why they are so awesome.