Jump to content

How tough are Riffle shrimp


northboy

Recommended Posts

This morning I was watering trees in my back yard, as I was watering the Longan what I thought was a grass hopper jumped into the pool around the tree, I have small banks around my trees to hold the water and that allows it to soak in, any way this grass hopper?? stayed in the water?? so when the water soaked in I picked up said grass hopper, NOT it was a 3cm Riffle shrimp, what the F.

 

For the last 2 days I have had 30 Riffle shrimp in a bucker with a loose lid getting ready to ship= no food. The bucket is 30 meters from the trees, it is a 20lt bucket that is 1/3 full, when I looked at the bucket after finding the Riffle, there is about 10 missing, this means they have climbed the bucket, I already knew they could do this, but they got out under the lid? pushed it up? and this one walked through the grass in the direction of the Mulgrave river, the river is about 150mts from my house.

 

What I want to find out is how long can they stay out of water and how far can they travel with there gills full of water like a lot of land based crabs and mud skippers do??

 

If they lend them selves to being dry but moist, shipping gets a lot easier.

 

I know they climb a local water fall that is 90mts straight drop, this fall is right beside the Barron falls and connects to Streets creek near Kuranda.

 

Wow, that opens a whole new can of worms, now to get one of the local Scientists= Boffins interested.

 

Now I wonder, where are the others and will they make it to the river, they do how ever have to cross two roads and a rail way line to make the first part of the river.

 

DAM I have to go to work, I will add this arvo.

 

Shrimp are tough

 

Bob

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow!

Never knew that about riffles.

 

I have had a few CRS climb out of my open top tank though.

I usually find them dried out on the floor   :sad:

Edited by jayc
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just to add to the Mystery. I was watering the Birdwing vine in the afternoon after work, there was 2 more there??? so that is at least 12 hours out of water, there is heavy shade from the wooden fence and the vine, so they have found shelter there some where, it is also on the way to the Mulgrave river.

My 150mts to the river was a bit short, it is more like 250mts to the closest side creek of the main river.

 

So there is still 7 missing from the 30 that were in the bucket, I still can not get my head around the fact that a 3mm Riffle was able to push up a bucket lid, it was not clipped down just placed on, no air line to climb either???

 

 

Bob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's crazy Bob, I wonder if there was a bit of water under the vine somewhere. Either way they must be incredibly tough. 

 

I assume the bucket is old and a bit scratched up inside? I don't want to think they could climb up a new clean one. Maybe lifting the lid was a team effort... 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I find it not so surprising, although it is amazing. Riffles travel upstream as juveniles, often returning from brackish waters to their freshwater adult habitat. In doing so, they must travel up waterfalls and through fast flowing sections of rivers. One way to climb waterfalls is to climb the wet rocks beside the waterfall. I'm sure riffles have evolved to be able to do this and can therefore experience long periods of time out of water without dying, as long as they have some sort of moisture available so they dont dry out completely.

Riffles must also have strong swimming ability simply because of the conditions they live in (fast flowing riffles). I've measured water flow rates in freshwater creeks where riffles occur at 0.5 - 1 metre per second, and thats not even when the creek was flooding. For a 3cm shrimp swimming against a 1 metre per second current is the equivalent of a 180cm human running at more than 200 kilometres per hour. I've seen the riffles do this in short bursts trying to escape my net. Amazing. I suspect this swimming ability would give them the ability to jump in still water.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep Ben, I can not get my head around how they can swim head first not even a flick, into a fast water flow.

Next time you are up Ben I will take you to where they are all 6cm+ and swim like you will not believe, it will do your head.

 

I have heard from the Scientist but the Cyclone tore a 100km path right through one of the areas we were going. So waiting to find out how bad it is and may be make other plans, on the subject of Riffles, Riffles is one we were after and possible a new species all together.

 

Bob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I guess that Australians should get riffles tattooed on their body's like the Japanese get koi. Do they turn into bunyips when they reach the dragon gate?.... They sound like a truely durable species.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@inverted - I love that idea.

 

Riffles are certainly bloody fast swimmers in the forwards direction.  So are C. typus.   Most other shrimp need to rely on the tail flick for a quick escape.  Chasing them around a tank with a net sure brings out the expletives!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bunyips?? blood heck where I go for the big ones is in the Mountains in the middle of no where, you are putting me off going back.

 

Seriously though. the swim like you have never seen, faster than the rainbows in the same place and they hit a log or rock and do a vanishing act.

 

Tried to down load a photo from the net but could not, if you google Barron falls and have a look to the right of the main falls, you will see another small fall coming in to the Barron falls from the right at the top, or the same height, that is Streets creek falls, the one the Boffins spotted the Riffles climbing, its a long way and they climb to the side of the falls out of water a bit like cling gobies do only the gobies don't climb as steep a fall as the shrimp do. I have seen photos of cling gobies from OS climbing around falls in there thousands.
 
Bob
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Here is another bit of evidence to show how tough riffle shrimp are.

Here is one of my favorite spots to find riffles.

Usual.

7DCC1A01-2352-40BC-956A-7C583ACFE593-314

Over the weekend after some heavy rain - look closely above the log at the edge of the creek. Thats leaf litter sitting at least two metres above the current water level.

post-51-0-47691800-1430739569_thumb.jpg

Note the log that wasn't there in the previous pics.

post-51-0-02239800-1430739773_thumb.jpg

And riffles, Paratya and macros (amongst other aquatic creatures) live here year round!

post-51-0-47691800-1430739569_thumb.jpg

post-51-0-02239800-1430739773_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

Interested to know about the riffles that are all large I have found riffles in very high altitude and there was always young males however there seemed to be a lot more large females but never found a place that was all the same size a new species would be ? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Join Our Community!

    Register today, ask questions and share your shrimp and fish tank experiences with us!

  • Must Read SKF Articles

  • Posts

    • beanbag
      Update to say that after a few gravel vacs, front wall scrub, moss / floating plant trim, that the condition seems to have improved.  My current theory is that it is due to waste / debris management, where "stuff" like that brown mulm accumulates in the substrate and behind the HMF filters.  Maybe some tanks can somehow deal with it, but mine can't.  Also another experienced shrimper suggested that maybe those "shell bugs" don't just live on the shrimps but also in this debris.  Maybe this is the reason some tanks fail due to "old tank syndrome" where all they need is a good gravel vac? Also, I am guessing that plant trim helps too because now more of the nutrients and light go into growing algae instead of more plants? Well anyway for this tank I will try weekly water change and monthly gravel vac / plant trim.  For my next tank, I'm thinking of something like an under-gravel system where this mulm can fall down and I vac it out.
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Good to have an update and good to hear you are getting shrimplets, so hopefully your colony will continue and you may not get to the point where you have to cull some to stop over population. These type of shrimp only live 12 - 18 months so the adult deaths may be natural? If you have the time I would do weekly 25% water changes, adding the new water via a drip system and do some vacuuming clean of the substrate each week, even if only a different bit each week! See if that helps in a few months and if it does then stick with that regime? It should help reduce any build-ups that may be occuring!
    • beanbag
      Hello again, much belated update: The tank still has "cycles" of 1-2 month "good streaks" where everybody seems to be doing well, and then a bad streak where the short antenna problem shows up again, and a shrimp dies once every few days.  I am not sure what causes things to go bad, but usually over the course of a few days I will start to see more shrimp quietly standing on the HMF filter, and so I know something is wrong.  Since I am not "doing anything" besides the regular 1-2 week water changes, I just assume that something bad is building up.  Here's a list of things that I've tried that are supposed to be "can't hurt" but didn't prevent the problem either: Dose every other day with Shrimp Fit (very small dose, and the shrimp seem to like it) Sotching Oxydator Seachem Purigen to keep the nitrates lower Keeping the pH below 5.5 with peat Things that I don't do often, so could possibly "reset" the tank back to a good streak, are gravel vac and plant trim, so maybe time to try those again. One other problem I used to have was that sometimes a shrimp would suddenly stop eating with a full or partially full digestive tract that doesn't clear out, and then the shrimp will die within a few days.  I suspected it was one of the foods in my rotation - Shrimp Nature Infection, which contains a bunch of herbal plant things.  I've had this in my food rotation for a few years now and generally didn't seem to cause problems, but I removed it from the rotation anyway.  I don't have a lot of adult Golden Bees at this point so I can't really tell if it worked or not. Overall the tank is not too bad - during the good streaks occasionally a shrimp will get berried and hatch babies with a 33-50% survival rate.  So while there are fewer adults now, there are also a bunch of babies roaming around.  I guess this tank will stagger on, but I really do need to take the time to start up a new tank.  (or figure out the problem)
    • jayc
      If that is the offspring, then the parents are unlikely to be PRL. I tend to agree with you. There are very few PRLs in Australia. And any that claim to be needs to show proof. PRL genes have to start as PRL. CRS that breed true after x generations doesn't turn it into a PRL. Neither can a Taiwan bee shrimp turn into a PRL despite how ever many generations. I've never seen a PRL with that sort of red colour. I have on Red Wines and Red Shadows - Taiwan bee shrimps. So somewhere down the line one of your shrimp might have been mixed with Taiwan bees and is no longer PRL. It just tanks one shrimp to mess up the genes of a whole colony. 
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Sorry, missed this one somehow! The PRL look fantastic and the odd ones look part PRL and part Red wine/Red shadow in the colour. They are still very beautiful but ideally should be seperated to help keep the PRL clean if you can do that.  Nice clear photos!
×
×
  • Create New...