Introduction to Aquarium Shrimp

There may be more species of shrimp than there are species of tropical fish, so how to best talk about the dozen or two species commonly kept in aquaria? From the earliest days people have been putting crayfish in water at home to see what happens and in the US at least, "Ghost shrimp" ave been a popular, if ephemeral addition to fishkeeping.

Somewhere in the 1990s or perhaps very late 1980s, small colorful algae eating shrimp weere introduced - "bee shrimp". These bred well and soon dozens of color morphs were produced by breeders. Some focus these, others focus on the species diversoty which is vast.

This is not any sort of a list of what shrimp are where, more a brief synopsis of the requirements from shrimp roughly from these areas.

africa

Tha "vampire" shrimp of the Genus Atya are perhaps the most well known here.


malaysia

The "Malaysian Bamboo shrimp" is perhaps what represents Mayalsian shrmp in the hobby best although of course manu other species are found there


sulewesi
sulewesi

Sulawesi shrimp are different, very different. They species are only found in a a few small lakes in Sulawesi in Indonesia. Nearly every aquarium shrimp so far is fairly easy to keep. Just put it in your tank and don't put them with anting that can eat them. T be fair to breed the soft water shrimp you need soft water, but they survive just fine in any clean tap-water and need no special care.

These are found in Malili Lake system, consisting of Matano and Towuti, and the small Lontoa, Mahalona and Masapi. The genus Tylomelania of freshwater snails is also endemic to Sulawesi, with the majority of the species restricted to Lake Poso and the Malili Lake system.

Sulawesi shrimp are from very different environmental conditions - the water they're from is hot, ten F degrees hotter than usual aquarium temperatures, hard,very hard and profoundly alkaline. The water in these lakes ranges from pH of 7.5 to 8.5 making them nearly identical to Lake Tanganyika water and a far cry from the soft water required by better known exotic aquarium shrimp.


This is how shrimp are collected in Sulawesi at Matano and Poso Lakes.