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Flower Shrimp
Bob Buettner wrote:
>On another note I just got back from my semi annual drive to Uncle Ned's
>Fish Factory in Millis Mass.
Awww, that's too bad! I'm only about 10 minutes from Ned's. If I'd known
you were comming it would have been fun to meet a fellow APD'er. There are
several others of us in the area too. Are you planning on attending the
NEC workshop in Farmington in March? Claus Christensen will be speaking.
(twice)
>In my quest for the out of the ordinary for my
>55 gal. tank I purchased 4 "Flower Shrimp". These are similar to Amano
>Shrimp but much larger ( about 2 to 3 times the overall size of mature
>Amano's).
Atyopsis mollucensis. Another common name is Thai Wood Shrimp, though
their scientific name suggests that they are not from Thailand.<g> They
are really not much like "Amano" shrimp at all, unless you mean that they
are both shrimp. Amano shrimp are "pickers" they have tiny pincers, and
move along the bottom grubbing for whatever they can find, particularly
plant material. Wood shrimp are filter feeders who will preferentially sit
in a strong water flow (like the outflow of the filter) and let food come
to them. If they are really hungry, and not able to filter enough out of
the water, they will move down to the floor of the tank and stroke through
the detritus with their "feather dusters" looking for bits to eat.
They are cool critters. You'll really enjoy them. I have found that in my
planted tanks, when they settle in they turned _bright_ orange. Then they
were pretty as well as interesting!
Karen