Macrobrachium sp.

[tetrafreak]

I was given 2 live macrobrachium (i think its m.rosenbergii) shrimp caught from one of those recreational fishing farms. I am keeping them temporarily in my 3 feet with my 2 goldfish.

questions :

1. what do they eat?
2. how much bigger can they grow (they are about 10cm) and are they goldifsh safe?
3.anybody manage to breed these in aquaria?

[hwchoy]

as in all shrimps, they'd eat almost anything. do they have bands on the body and a long red snout? this is the coloration of juvenile M. rosenbergii. when they are big enough they will also use their pincers to catch fish. I have seen large male M. malayanum pinch sleeping fishes for no good reasons, maybe for recreation since the fishes are too big for them anyway.

if they are M. rosenbergii then they need to get a lot larger before being considered adult. google for Udang galah and see for youself.

[laban]

sorry for asking silly question but is it not the prawn that we consume as food?

[hwchoy]

M. rosenbergii yes.

[lucasjiang]

I was given 2 live macrobrachium (i think its m.rosenbergii) shrimp caught from one of those recreational fishing farms. I am keeping them temporarily in my 3 feet with my 2 goldfish.

questions :

1. what do they eat?
2. how much bigger can they grow (they are about 10cm) and are they goldifsh safe?
3.anybody manage to breed these in aquaria?

bro, u must remove them and keep them separately from the goldfishes. they are very territorial, and fight with tankmates and among themselves. When they are adults, they are possible of cutting a fish into half with their pincers.

they can grow to around 50 cm (including pincers.) it would be good to keep them in at least a 1m tank.

they cant breed in aquaria. even though they are FW, their babies live in SW and slowly convert back to FW. very troublesome process, i doubt anyone has bred them yet.

[tetrafreak]

Well, the berried female died unfortunately.

The remaining male seems to get along fine with the goldies. They just ignore him. He has beautiful orange-red claws.

[hwchoy]

you sure it's not M. malayanum instead?

[saltynay]

Could be a red claw machro. Friendliest of the machro's but still can be oppurtunistic incarnations of the devil. They nip fins of sleeping fish because it is in the way and oppurtunity to slice of part of the body if the entirely is to large to be eaten.