any one heard of this shrimp???

striker

Member
There is a website that boasts of a small shrimp that works better than hermits for cleaning deritus and algae. Scientific name is palaemonetes vulgaris and the shrimp is advertised as a cleaner and feeder. Has anyone heard of this or had them in their tank? The website is livebrineshrimp. It specializes in food for the tank so it isn't a competiter. Any info would be appreciated before I call to try them out.
 

striker

Member
thanks for the link. I've been doing some reading on yahoo and found another site that sells them though the first one I mentioned has a better deal. I'm still wondering if they will be harmful to corals. They definitely eat algae(hopefully hair algae) and are great deritus eaters. I'll be making an order for this week and let anyone know if they're interested. I have a mandarin that loves brine shrimp and wanted to give him a different taste.
 

saltaddict

Member
We have grass shrimp in the waters here in Cape Cod. By reading the link above I can tell you i'm 100% sure its the same species. They grow to about 1 to 1 1/2 inches and are almost clear . My house on Cape cod is near a marsh and I see thousands of these things in large groups everytime I go down to the water. The small strippers love them. One big question I would have would be there ability to survive in a reef tank due to the higher temps than these norther waters wich are much cooler. Also currious on price for these things?? If they become a hit I might stop my stripper fishing and start paying more attention to starting my new mail order venture :)
 

fishfood

Member
Ask Guy about these shrimp. I got some for him last month along with some seagrasses. I'm curious to see how they are doing also. He put them in his sump. I'm not sure exactly which ones i collected but i know it was at least two different types of shrimp from the list below.
Grass Shrimp
Palaemonetes sp.
Broken Back Shrimp
Hippolyte sp.
White Shrimp
Penaeus setifers
Pink Shrimp
Penaeus duorarum
Brown Shrimp
Penaeus aztecus
COMMENTS ON FOOD -
Grass shrimp eat a wide variety of aquatic foods. Depending on the availability of a particular food they may be detritivores, primary consumers, or secondary consumers.
As detritivores, grass shrimp aid in the mechanical breakdown of refractory organic material such as fibrous plant materials, as well as assimilate the associated microflora, microfauna, and fungi. The assimilation of dissolved organic matter sorbed to finely divided particulate matter such as clay particles is important in grass shrimp nutrituion. Although grass shrimp often live among aquatic macrophytes, there is little evidence that the macrophyte structure is actually consumed. More likely, grass shrimp eat
and assimilate the epiphytic microalgae that coat the plant structure. Grass shrimp also are predators of meiofauna and small infaunal polychaetes, oligochaetes, nematodes,and even motile prey such as mysids. As epibenthic predators and sediment disturbers, grass shrimp alter infaunal community
structure. For example, in North Carolina a sharp decline in the abundance of P. pugio due to predation by mummichogs (Fundulus heteroclitus) brought about significant changes in infaunal composition.*73*
This info was taken from this site: http://fwie.fw.vt.edu/WWW/macsis/lists/M070010.htm
 

saltaddict

Member
Oopps! Damn public school education it's my parents fault. Please ignore the extra p that should read stripers.
 

striker

Member
The prices from online are 25 for 11.00 delivered, 50 for 20.00 and 100 for 32.00. I'm going to get about 25 and see how it goes. Hopefully they'll last longer than the brine shrimp I add every once and awhile.
 

krishj39

Active Member
striker, these little shrimp sound very interesting. if they do what they claim, they would be pretty useful. please let us know what you think of them after you get them.
 

striker

Member
For anyone who is interested I finally got those grass shrimps today. I received 25 of them(some measuring 1/4 inch-1/2 inch). Unfortunately my fish had a feeding frenzy and there were only half a dozen survivors. They remind me of extremely small pepermints. A good alternative for feeding and they definitely have scavenger characteristics. Only time will tell if they can survive and spawn in my tank. I seriously doubt it since there are alot of predators to contend with.
 

krishj39

Active Member
angel, yes that is always a possibilitity, but i don't think it is as much of a concern with invertebrates. as far as i know, very few of the parasites that affect fish also affect shrimp.
 

iechy

Member
I don't think that these will last in any of your tanks to do much cleaning. As you've already seen they are more likely an alternative food source. Obviously, there are plenty of marshes around here and when I had my aggressive tanks I used to just go and scoop up a few and throw them in a little holding tank and feed for a few weeks with them. Obviously, this being an aggressive tank, there was less chance of them surviving than in a reef but I still think they will be just food. BTW none of the marshes sround here look very clean;)
 

bang guy

Moderator
I received several from Fishfood. They seem to handle reef salinity just fine even though they are considered brackish.
They are definately cleaners. If I put my hand in their tank they are all over me cleaning my fingernails, etc. This sirprised me for a shrimp valued mostly for it's ability to feed fish. Go figure.
A couple are now carrying eggs and I'll see if they can be easily tank propogated. I strongly doubt it, but I'll try.
they are definately NOT sand bed compatible. I've witnessed them eating spaghetti worms, cirratulid worms and even small bristle worms. Most of the time they are eating algae but they definately supplement their diet with sand bed infauna.
Guy
 

striker

Member
UNFREAKINBELIEVABLE! Never again!!! My hawkfish was extremely happy with the addition of these small tasty shrimp and he's been chasing them around the tank for the last couple of days. Unfortunately I imagine one was too fast for him. My wife found him on the floor this morning stiff as a board:( :eek: :( . I am so depressed. He was absolutely my favorite fish. His roaming eyes and quirky movements will be missed. RIP.
 
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