Bamboo shrimp

Bamboo shrimp
Atyopsis moluccensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Crustacea
Order:	Decapoda
Infraorder:	Caridea
Family:	Atyidae
Genus:	Atyopsis

Bamboo shrimp are any of several species of the genus Atyopsis. They are filter-feeding shrimp, three to five inches long, which are sold in the United States and United Kingdom as community tank invertebrates. They originate in Southeast Asia, where all specimens for the aquarium trade are wild caught.

In the aquarium

As aquatic pets, bamboo shrimp can often require extremely low maintenance in a large enough and mature tank. They are filter feeders which collect microorganisms resulting from the waste produced by other inhabitants of the aquarium, and as such they are absolutely harmless to all tropical fish, because they have fans in place of claws. When they are more used to the tank, they usually turn a more reddish color and they have a white stripe form down their back as shown in the illustration. When obtained from a pet shop they are browner, without a stripe.

Bamboo shrimp require a water current to filter feed, so they can only be recommended for tanks with aquarium filters in them. These shrimp usually climb objects to reach filter outlets, where they find the strongest water flow. When planning on keeping bamboo shrimp, rocks and/or tall-growing plants should be positioned close to the tank's filter outlet to help them feed.

In the wild they eat phytoplankton and zooplankton, but most of the time aquariums under 10 gallons or aquariums that have been set up for less than six months do not contain enough of these foods to feed bamboo shrimp. If a bamboo shrimp is observed trying to scavenge for food on the substrate using its fans, this is a sign there is not enough food in the water. In such cases, they should be fed the algae wafers sold for plecos, which they eat after the wafer dissolves in the water, small Daphnia, newly hatched brine shrimp, or finely ground up flake food, once it softens and disintegrates. A good way to feed these foods is mixed with water in a syringe or pipette, squirting the mix into the fans of the shrimp.

However, feeding bamboo shrimp flake food and pleco wafers can result in a negative effect on the aquarium's water chemistry, as any food missed by the shrimp pollutes the water, and this can be especially noticeable in small tanks. For this reason it is recommended great attention be paid to the aquariums ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels when feeding bamboo shrimp like this.

Bamboo shrimp are invertebrates and as such must moult periodically in order to grow, and this can sometimes be induced by water changes. During the time a bamboo shrimp is moulting, even a fully grown shrimp is very weak and at risk of attack and damage from small fish like the betta and larger fish alike. During moulting it is good practice to provide somewhere the shrimp can hide from any tank mates.

External links

• Bamboo Shrimp at Petshrimp.com
• Bamboo Shrimp Information