My lovely Amano

[DawnyB]

Hi there,

I'm brand new to this forum and basically I just want to ask a question about Amano shrimp if anyone would like to have a chat?

My main question is, how long in everyone's experience do they live for in captivity?

I keep seeing in articles and other written pieces on these shrimp that they live for 2-3 years. The thing is, I've had mine for 10 years!! Is this normal?

I'm 99.9% sure he is Amano, he looks like one and I got him from just a regular pet store, nothing fancy or specialist. It was so long ago I don't remember what he was labelled when I bought him, I just thought he was cute! (I've learnt a lot since those days and I know make much more informed decisions before buying fish or crustaceans!)

I bought two shrimp way back in 2005, possibly 2006 at the very latest. I named them Jacques and Cousteau and while Cousteau unfortunately didn't live much longer than a year or so, Jacques is still going strong living in his little tank. He's all by himself now as he has outlived everything else! He moults every few months and I find a beautiful exoskeleton sitting on his driftwood waiting to be tidied away. I'll be completely honest with you - I don't keep on top of water changes as much as I should do, I aim for once a week but it usually goes to 2 weeks. Hes in a 10 gallon tank with under-gravel filtration. I used to not feed him anything specific when there were other fish in there, he cleaned up the mess, now I feed him algae flakes though as he's on his own and there are no other fish to clean up after. I've had him so long Im reluctant to change anything Im currently doing for fear of upsetting his lifestyle which he seems to be pretty happy with!

Does anyone else have such an old Amano? Any advise on how to keep him happy in his old age? Or am I completely in the wrong and these shrimp usually live for 30-40 years?!?

Im interested in anyone's thoughts on the topic as I cant ever seem to find anything interesting or enlightening on the internet about these little guys.

Many thanks!

DawnyB

 

[NoGi]

I wish we had Amano shrimp here in OZ, the closest we have is our Typus:

Have you got any pics of yours?

[DawnyB]

Yeah he looks a bit like that but slimmer and lighter.

Ill try to get a photo of him, he's not keen on the bright aquarium lights so I leave them off for him. He just has the natural light in the kitchen or the ceiling lights in the evening. He runs and hides when the aquarium light goes on so I just leave it off as he's much happier and sits out on his driftwood then.

Ill see if I can get enough natural light to take a good photo of him and post on here.

I did find this photo of a perfect moult of his though :)

Oh, just found this really rubbish one of him, you can just see him under the wood.

[OzShrimp]

Best way to keep any male happy is to find him  suitable female! 

[DawnyB]

Haha, fair point! I dont really know if he's a 'he' though, I just call him that. I managed to take some photos of him this morning, he posed for a little while with the light on before running off and hiding in his castle. Can you tell from these if he is male or female? Definitely an Amano though right?

[2OFUS]

Looks to be an Amano 

and it looks like SHE lol has a saddle :) 

[DawnyB]

That's hilarious, poor wee gal has been called 'he' her whole life! I guess it fits in with our family - we have a rescue cat called Jack who is actually a girl too! haha :)

So is 10 years old normal for an Amano? I'm just curious, I love HER to bits, she's a real cutie.

[2OFUS]

Lol 

I'm not to sure on their life span mate but  if they are anything like our typus and riffle (filter feeder)  they should live along time