Hello riaanj,

Welcome to Shrimp Keepers Forum.

Please feel free to browse around and get to know others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

regards,
skfadmin

Hey thanks, I'm Riaan and I am from South Africa, I have some tanks that I have some 6 goldfish in, I have a 22 gallon tank that I built myself, this is currently home to one of the goldfish, I'll be moving it to a pond soon and converting the tank to a planted tank and stocking it with shrimp and a golden apple snail.

I joined up here to get as much info on shrimp, plants and everything else that goes together before I start converting the tank..

Hi welcome to SKF. you must be one of first members from South Africa. What shrimp species are available in South Africa? Do you have any interesting species that are native to South Africa?

Welcome to SKF, look forward to hearing about your setup as you progress.

12 hours ago, fishmosy said:

Hi welcome to SKF. you must be one of first members from South Africa. What shrimp species are available in South Africa? Do you have any interesting species that are native to South Africa?

Hi there, we have one or two local species but they don't feature in the shrimp keeping hobby here at all..

We get all the imported stuff like the glass/ghost shrimp, RCS, bee shrimp, black tiger, yellow shrimp, jelly blue's, you know, the normal stuff available through import/export.. what we don't get here though is the Thai micro crabs (yeah i know its not shrimp, but I still want some), I might be looking at getting some privately from a supplier outside on S.A. that's willing to ship here..

And in reply to what our local species are:

1) True Caridina, generally small, up to 20mm, large eggs hatching into mini adults, easy to keep and reproduce, African species faintly marked and not really colourful. Other continents produce spectacular representatives, they can and do hybridize so are not ideal for aquariums despite their colourful appearance. Scavengers and algae eaters. Very few rivers or streams do not have them except in very high elevations.
2) Macrobrachium, various sizes, generally fairly large, 5cm-15cm and larger, distinguishable by the large forearm, aggressive scavengers, complex larval stage and not suitable for aquariums other than as a curiosity which will eat tank mates.
3) Atydae, now this is the ideal shrimp for us, 20-50 mm, well represented along the east coast and can be fairly colourful. It does have a complex larval stage, same as your Amano shrimp. They are found in freshwater above lagoons, eggs are small and numerous and will only hatch in freshwater, from there currents carry them to a saline environment where the larvae spend their metamorphic stages(they simply die in freshwater) and on completion migrate back up river to freshwater. They are energetic cleaners, peaceful and pose no threat to the environment as an invader as it is impossible for them to reproduce in pure freshwater.

Wow that's very interesting. Does South Africa have strict quarantine laws that prevent the importation of shrimp for aquariums? All the exotics we have here in Australia have been smuggled into the country.

Forgive my ignorance, but is the giant African filter shrimp native to South Africa or does that occur further north?

 

1 hour ago, fishmosy said:

giant African filter shrimp

I wonder if it's edible. 

I'm not too sure about the quarantine process, I have never brought anything into the country before, well, nothing that was alive in any case..

As for the giant African filter shrimp, as far as I know it does occur in and north of South Africa too, but I'm not too sure if it's exactly the same or sub species..

7 hours ago, jayc said:

I wonder if it's edible. 

With enough Tobasco sauce anything's edible!

Edited November 19, 201510 yr by riaanj
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