NANFA-- Re: nanfa V1 #1161

Doug Dame (dameda_at_shands.ufl.edu)
Thu, 24 Jan 2002 06:46:26 -0500

The shrimp Steven undoubtedly caught ... since he was quite by accident almost in my backyard relatively speaking ... are what I have most often heard called "grass" or "glass" shrimp ... the near-ubiquitous see-thru guys found in and on freshwater aquatic vegetation hereabouts. Monsters run up to perhaps 2", although the 1" size is the baby-boomer generation of the grass shrimp world in my experience. I assume that these little guys are an important part of the food-chain ... which is certainly anecdotally supported by fish-tank observations !!!

I put these guys in most of my tanks as general-purpose scavengers and fun things to me to watch. If the fish residents are small (and/or the shrimp are large), they can survive a long time, and if not harassed by fish looking for lunch, will be quite active in the tank, crawling along the substrate, swimming around, lurking in the plants, watching cable TV, etc. If the fish residents are larger (and/or the shrimp are small), then over time the shrimp will likely be picked off as healthy and nutritious lunches.

And I have had these local grass shrimp in with Heters .... Heterandria formosa, aka "least killies", although since they're not killies I'm pushing the usage of "least live-bearer" as the preferred common name... for years with no obvious problems, shrimp-to-fish or vice versa. (In comparison, last night I watched four 3 cm long Fundulus chrysotus in my "baby killie" tank build up courage to pick on and finally kill a smaller shrimp in their tank .. and then like young cats with a mouse, go through an experimental/learning "okay, apparently it's dead .... can we eat it, or what? And how do we get in to the good stuff? " phase.)

However ... I assume that the shrimp are highly opportunistic scavengers, and will take fish eggs or fry when they find them, ... and so I probably lose some Heter fry to the shrimp, although I have not actually seen that happen.

HTH

Doug Dame
Interlachen FL
------------------------------------
It's a fish-eat-shrimp-eat-fish world.
Also a Doug-eat-fish-&-shrimp-world.
Will that be fried or broiled, sir ?

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