Sulawesi Shrimps and other fancy Indonesian shrimps

[joydiv]

I got the shrimps in Jakarta. Not locally. They go by the trade name of sulawesi shrimps here, Cant remember the names though, fanciful, like tawiti beauty.

[crayonboi]

when to NA this evening, saw 3 pieces of Sulawesi shrimps, red blossom and two other types over there.. cost around 3 red notes plus a few more purple notes. Over at colorful didnt manage to see it.. maybe havent arrive..
But its a beauty.. almost buy it but didnt as my Shrimp tank condition wont be able to suit them i think..

[RHX]

Does anyone know how to sex these cuties? I was thinking of getting a pair to give it to my friend as a gift.

[leeruisheng]

To me much more difficult than crs. I've a group of spongicola and they were doing fine initially for the first week. So I thought the water parameters was dandy fine. But beyond more than a week, I recently have a few casualties. Strange har, thought that if the water parameters were unsuitable they should be dropping in the first few days. Was reading in other forums of high mortality rate too and even in Japan. So have to monitor them for the next few weeks before getting more of them.

I believed that all the lfs got from the same supplier from Indonesia. Someone from another forum measured the pH in the bag and it was acidic rather than alkaline.

Some new shots. Sorry can't zoom in too much. Camera not powerful enough.

Caridina cf. spongicola.

[Gecko]

Really love these guys, added them into my sturis grow up tank, currently have 5 and monitoring their progress closely. The Blue spots are in hiding.

[Cacatuoides]

Wow, such vibrant colors they have!! They reminds me of the marine shrimps

Look forward to hear their progres in your tank

[zoombee]

question..what do you guys feed the sula? mosura suitable?

[Quixotic]

To me much more difficult than crs. I've a group of spongicola and they were doing fine initially for the first week. So I thought the water parameters was dandy fine. But beyond more than a week, I recently have a few casualties. Strange har, thought that if the water parameters were unsuitable they should be dropping in the first few days. Was reading in other forums of high mortality rate too and even in Japan. So have to monitor them for the next few weeks before getting more of them.

I believed that all the lfs got from the same supplier from Indonesia. Someone from another forum measured the pH in the bag and it was acidic rather than alkaline.

Hmmm... acidic? Can anyone else here confirm on the findings?

Regardless, the parameters of the habitat can't be wrong i.e. pH should be alkaline, so keeping it as close to the habitat parameters would ensure less risks or chances that things can go wrong.

Many factors can contribute to high mortality rate. These shrimps aren't meant for beginners in the first place, and if majority are those without extended experience but with deep pockets, then that would be sad.

That said, Caridina cf. spongicola is said to be the most delicate. A lot is still to unknown about these shrimps. As mentioned before, it is possible that the interdependence with a freshwater sponge is a requirement for the shrimp, which is why the lack of success when kept in aquarium.

Anyway, Wilson, I would suggest relooking at some parameters of your setup, e.g. getting your pH up to at least 7.5. One other thing to consider is if there a lot of water surface movement in your setup. I read that the shrimp require a high amount of disolved oxygen, so gas exchange in the setup would need to be good.

FYI, it is also said that Matano blue dot (or "Cardinal shrimp") are the easiest to keep, some even reported that eggs have successfully hatched in the German forums.

Really love these guys, added them into my sturis grow up tank, currently have 5 and monitoring their progress closely. The Blue spots are in hiding.

Lawrence, wouldn't the pH for Sturisoma sp. be on the acidic side then?

[Gecko]

Lawrence, wouldn't the pH for Sturisoma sp. be on the acidic side then?

It was neutral 7 to start with, added coral chips, now in region of 7.8...will monitor and see if mine survive the 1st week. Looking great so far, feeding on regular flakes. I would think they are herbivores (read that diatom, unicellular algae found in their digestive tract).

Great to know that Matano Blue Dots are hardy, they command the highest premium

[leeruisheng]

Thanks Quixotic. Yeah added a few pieces of coral stones to raise pH. So far had 3 casualties. But I find it quite strange, cause the rest are so far doing well. Just one thing to add. I felt not all of the shrimps came in good condition. Bought about 10 pieces but by the time I've reach home, there were a couple already lying motionless in the bag. . What's more is that some lfs are housing these shrimps in ADA soil and low temp. Maybe wrong acclimatization at the first place.

[CHOO]

hi just to check of these shrimp diets, do they eat like crs or sakura of existing food sold at all shop ? or special food cater for them , as most bros experience of shrimp dying after one or two week later?

[crs_lover]

I am keeping 3 spieces, Blue Spot, T. Beauty and Red Blossom. I feed them with Mosura CRS food. When I off light, almost all Blue Spot and Red Blossom will come after the food. When light is on, only brave ones come out for grazing.

T. Beauty always hide, and that may indicate they don't do well in my tank with continous dead. The other 2 species seem to have adopted to tank environment , death has stopped and I can see them grazing and after prepared food.

[leeruisheng]

At the moment only kept Tiwati beauty and true they dont eat whatever shrimp food given to them.

[Quixotic]

I would think they are herbivores (read that diatom, unicellular algae found in their digestive tract).

Yes, seems to be diatom eaters. This was mentioned in the C. spongicola paper, although they could be a close relative and different species from C. spongicola.

A preliminary gut content analysis was carried out to investigate the shrimps' diet. None of the six dissected guts contained traces of poriferean spicules. The spicules are presumably too big (0.2-0.3mm) to be consumed by the shrimps. On the other hand, a variety of different diatoms, which possibly accumulate on or within the sponge, were found in the guts. These findings suggest that the shrimps do not feed on sponge's tissue and thus do not parasitise their hosts. Instead, they appear to be commensals using the sponge's cavitities as shelter and the inherent accumulation of diatoms as a food supply.

I was thinking, what if, out of the variety of different diatoms found in the gut, one or two of them are absolutely essential to the shrimp? I don't necessarily believe this should be the case, but the mortality rate looks to be pointing to their unsuitability to the aquaria. Are these diatom found among the sponge only? What about in aquarium setups?

[Mimbon]

Dear Quixotic-

I don´t think food is the problem,the C. cf. spongicola live under the stones, there are no sponges in this part of the Towuti Lake!

I am 100% sure that the problems that occur are only because of 2 reasons:

1. too low ph. it must be +8. best is 8.3

and:

2. Temperature : In the lakes it`s constantly the whole year between 27-29 C! All other parameter are not really important!

What I see in the several forums the people don´t really take care of this 2 essential parameters, they always try to keep them at 7.5 or 7.8 and nobody is talking about the tempatures.

Also a 80% of the problems starts allready in Indonesia, because the suppliers there, mostly think only in shipping quantities of the shrimps, because the costumers in the Asian countries wants to have them cheap!!!

I collected them myself in end of October and gets twice the month shipments in -- believe me if I would loose them all, or my costumers here in Europe, I would stop buying them!

Take more care for the pH and the temperature!

Roland

www.mimbon.de

[o2bubble]

Not sure about ph and temp as I saw both colorful and midori keeping them in tanks with ADA/GEX/Magix soil ard ph 6 and temp 25c and doing fine so far. Maybe time will tell...

[Quixotic]

Roland, thanks for the first hand information. These would really be useful for everyone to keep the shrimps in optimum conditions.

[catohcat]

Someguy in Germany has successfully breed the shrimps

(Edit: Source: http://www.waterbox.de)

[ragn4rok]

Are those cardinal shrimps (aka. matano blue dots) babies?

[Xema]

Hello guys,

I got some spongis few months ago, but they are not easy to keep even you are in the right parameters. They show a noctural behavior, at least in my tank.

Some shoots of mine.






I added in the same tank a brown shrimp from Sulawesi too, probably C. cf. masapi, it was a female, she carried some eggs 3 days during. No males in the tank.