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FW Shrimp



>4 shrimps bought as "Singapore Shrimp" (also from PETsMART)
>and seen as "Wood Shrimp" at the local Meijer's. These are
>roughly 2 inches and have mainly flesh-colored bodies with striping.
>Doing great and eating mostly fish food in a 15 gallon River Tank
>with spotted floating frogs.

I'm not sure about your other shrimp, but I do know this one.  I assume
these are the filter feeding shrimp where instead of a pair of pincers in
front, they have what appear to be a pair of feather dusters?  If so, it is
Atyopsis moluccensis.  They are also sold under the name "Thai wood
shrimp".  These are really neat critters.  They prefer to filter feed, and
will position themselves high in the plants in the flow from a filter or
power head if given the chance.  They would also occasionally descend to
the bottom of the tank and forage by stroking the substrate with their
"feather dusters".  

At least some of them turn a brilliant orange under good conditions.  We
weren't able to play with enough of them to know for sure what brings on
this color change, but considering their territorial  behavior both toward
fish and each other, I suspect it's a dominance thing.  We never saw more
than one in a tank turn orange, and it was always the shrimp that appeared
to be the head honcho.

The ones I've had never hurt any fish they were with, even fish quite a bit
smaller, but they also didn't take any guff from anyone.  They were
territorial, and would case fish away that came too close to "their" spot.
I didn't have much in the way of algae in the tanks we kept them in, so I
can't comment on their algae eating abilities.  

In general, they left the plants alone, but I did have one decimate a lawn
of Glossostigma in a 2 1/2G tank when he went without feeding for 10 days
when we were on vacation.  In fairness, though, I don't feed heavily, and
he never touched the Glosso until I forced him into it.  I wouldn't worry
about them eating plants if they're given any other alternatives.  

I don't know the normal life span for these things.  I had one that lasted
about 18 months.  The other, unfortunately took a walk. :-(  We found him
as a crispy critter after he'd been missing for several days.  I'll pick
some of these up in a minute when I see them available in my area again.