Tropical Fish Forums

[Shawna in CA]

Sam's little tank needed an overhaul, so we moved his only tiger barb to the now empty 18g.

Well, the 18g is empty except for what were SUPPOSED to be ghost shrimp!

I've been buying ghosties forever and a day, and have NEVER seen anything like these! They were clear when I brought them home, and I've had them since probably December. In that time, they have grown into gigantic lobsters.

They are still clear, sort of, but the little "razor" on top of their heads is red, plus they've got brown stripes on their bodies. The largest one is now about 3" or so, and just ate that poor tiger barb, tail first. They have your typical "weak looking" ghost shrimp pincers.

I've been looking and looking and looking trying to find pics on the net of these guys to no avail.

Whatever they are, they are NOT ghost shrimp! They are not Amano shrimp. They are not bamboo shrimp... I don't know WHAT they are.

Any ideas?
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~~Shawna

[Shawna in CA]

OK. Picture time!



That's a small one. It is 2" long.



That's the big, bad one. You can see it is still finishing its meal. It measures approximately 3".



LOL! Sorry. Just had to do that.
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~~Shawna

[Marcos Avila]

Sorry I can't help you Shawna, but that third pic is one hell of a Magic Moment!
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Success with a fish/tank is measured in YEARS, not months or weeks...

[Shawna in CA]

[Brobro]

wow! great shots! thats a pretty cool shrimp.
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[number6]

I know I know! I have seen that shrimp... yes its a fish eater...
I cannot remember what it was called... I am going to do a few google searches as the LFS that had them called them a common name anyway. They were called something like Japanese marsh shrimp or something but it was definately that shrimp!

(Okay: update- these might be freshwater prawns... trying to find a close up pick. They seem to be an aquaculture food shrimp... )
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"Just don't look in my fish room honey... it's just better for all of us. "

[corylover]

Is that an adult tiger barb in the shrimp's mouth???? What a monster!!! Cool picture
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Cories are the best!

[Shawna in CA]

Discus Man------any information would be GREAT! I even emailed the store where they were purchased, and they have yet to get back to me. My guess is they're not going to know what kind of shrimp it really is. I mean, hey, these things were in their GHOST SHRIMP tank and were being sold as GHOST SHRIMP. Oddly, this is the first time this has EVER happened, and I use that store exclusively for ghost shrimp purchases. I've been looking & looking all over the net and can't find anything that looks like these. I found a site that had lots of freshwater shrimp pics, but nothing that looks like this guy. Unfortunately, I have around 7 of these things but I can't catch them because they're too quick. They're even too quick for the siphon.

Corylover Yes. That was an adult tiger barb in the shrimp's mouth.
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~~Shawna

[Weregourami]

Looks like something from an old 60's horror movie.

I actually got Ghost Shrimp, and a Red Claw Crab for my 40 gallon awile back, and the reverse happened.

Lizzy the Brown Severum and Ganghis the Festivum played tug of war with the crab, and I assume treated the Ghost Shrimp like fallen food flakes. Those invertibrates didn't last long!

[corylover]

Did you check out these sites?
Some are in german, but pics and names are always the same

http://userpages.umbc.edu/~rrhudy1/shrimp2.htm
http://userpages.umbc.edu/~rrhudy1/shrimp
http://www.thekrib.com/Fish/shrimp.html
http://www.shrimpcrabsandcrayfish.CO2.uk/
http://www.wirbellose.de/arten.html
http://mitglied.lycos.de/juergenboehm/garnelen.html
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Cories are the best!