# Wait a minute....that's not an amano shrimp!!!



## amanda huggenkiss (Mar 3, 2004)

Is it by any chance the same shrimp I've got in this thread? Apparently this shrimp is often sold mixed in with anamos -- maybe because it's difficult to tell them apart when they're young?

If you want to see pics of green shrimp, I've got a ton of them in my 20g thread (more pics of shrimp than of the tank :icon_redf ).


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## Aphyosemion (Oct 15, 2004)

Dang, I don't think it is one of those, either. The ones you have pics of look very similar to amanos, but not very similar to mine. The stripe down it's back is heavy and almost a yellow color. It seems to have no other distinguishing marks. Just like an amano with no dots and a heavy white/yellow stripe. I wish I had a good pic to post.
What is really annoying is the LFS people never have ANY idea of what they have. All they know is they are "algae eating shrimp."
How do you get those clear pics? Are you using a digital camera?
-Aphyosemion


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## amanda huggenkiss (Mar 3, 2004)

Is it just the colouration of yours that doesn't look like mine? Or are the markings different? Because I've got three of them and the colouration is variable. At one time I've seen one almost black with a white stripe, one rust-coloured with a red stripe, and one tan with a yellowish stripe.

I love my LFS, but they don't have a clue about shrimp either. They could have amanos, cherries & green shrimp in a tank together and they wouldn't be able to tell which is which. And their cherries are labelled "red amanos". :icon_roll 

Yup, I'm using a digital camera (I reeeeally don't miss developing film!). It's a Canon D10 SLR with a macro lens.


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## rain- (Mar 29, 2004)

There's tens (or hundreds) of different Neocaridina/Caridina and other shrimp species and many of them look alike. Not an easy job 

But this site has always proved useful to me: http://www.wirbellose.de/arten.html


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## Urkevitz (Jan 12, 2004)

I bought some from my LFS too, they had them with the Amanos. They are almost identical to cherry shrimp accept for a colouration differance.


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## FISA (Dec 3, 2004)

Aphyosemion said:


> Dang, I don't think it is one of those, either. The ones you have pics of look very similar to amanos, but not very similar to mine. The stripe down it's back is heavy and almost a yellow color. It seems to have no other distinguishing marks. Just like an amano with no dots and a heavy white/yellow stripe. I wish I had a good pic to post.
> What is really annoying is the LFS people never have ANY idea of what they have. All they know is they are "algae eating shrimp."
> How do you get those clear pics? Are you using a digital camera?
> -Aphyosemion


Hey bud...did you by any chance buy it from the Tropical Fish store in the Hopkins area ??? Hmm...cuz I happened to pick some up too...and it was labeled algae eating fish...and the kid working at the store had no idea...
at first glance i thought they were amanos....

Let me see if I can take a digi pic close up and post it on here..


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## Aphyosemion (Oct 15, 2004)

Okay, I sat here looking through shrimp varieties for a half hour and didn't see an exact match. Those Caridina sp start to all look alike after a while, heh. I did manage to take a blurry picture of him though.
Check it out. I saw a couple that were close, but I wasn't sure that they were the same. As you can see, it is kinda greenish with a bright white/yellow stripe.
Oh, and FISA, I think I might have actually gotten him from Aqualand in Hopkins. That is one of the places on my circuit when I am looking for fish and plants. I go to World of Fish, Aqualand, Something Fishy, the place in town here (Monticello) and sometimes Petsmart or Petco. Now that I think about it, it had to be either Aqualand or the place in town here, because those are the two places I bought shrimp from that day. 
-Aphyosemion


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## rain- (Mar 29, 2004)

I believe it is Caridina cf. babaulti ssp. "Green". Their coloration varies alot from green, red to even blue, with white stripe or not. Pretty little things


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## Aphyosemion (Oct 15, 2004)

That is one of the shrimp that I thought looked close. In most of those pictures I would say no, that isn't the shrimp I have, but in that middle one, it looks exactly the same...er...except for the line on the back. What confuses me is that you see the marking on the back of the brown one is not a simple line, but extends in a "t" across the lower part of the back in a couple places. That is what made me think it wasn't the same kind, because mine has a solid stripe, with no perpendicular extensions. Also, in the middle picture, one of them has the stripe, one doesn't. That could be a male/female thing, but mine all seem to have it. <scratches head>

Here is a pic a little more from above.

-Aphyosemion


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## amanda huggenkiss (Mar 3, 2004)

What you've got there looks like my green shrimp. Good call on the shape of the stripe there.

How big are they? Comparable to the amanos, or comparable to cherries? Have you seen any of them carrying eggs yet?


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## Aphyosemion (Oct 15, 2004)

I haven't seen any carrying eggs yet, but they seem to be identical in size and body shape to amano shrimp. That is part of the reason that, when I bought them when they were very small, the differences weren't obvious at all. My first thought was that they were green shrimp, based on the picture on petshrimp.com, but that picture doesn't show them very well and I couldn't find any better ones. Some of the differences in shrimp species are so subtle. That is part of the difficulty in identifying an unknown shrimp. It would be so much easier if the LFS would just know what they are selling. :angryfire 
I think that unless someone comes up with a more likely answer, I am going to assume that this is a green shrimp. It does have a greenish color to it, but like I said, the smooth stripe doesn't seem to match the irregular stripe I have seen on pics of the green shrimp.
-Aphyosemion


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## rain- (Mar 29, 2004)

C. babaulti spp. Green:









I forgot to say that the shape of the stripe varies too. You can also see in the picture with two of those green ones that the one in the left has a white stripe on it's head but it doesn't have any extensions to the sides 

Another finnish aquarist has those and he has lots of babies too. Seems to be a really profilic species


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## Aphyosemion (Oct 15, 2004)

Aha! We have a winner! I am no shrimp expert, but I do have a lot of them and one thing that I have never noticed is variation in the stripe on the back. That is one thing that I wouldn't expect, even though overall colorations can vary quite a bit in some species. That is why I was so reluctant to guess that what I had was a green shrimp.
Regardless, that seems to be what I have, alright. Thanks a ton, guys! 
-Aphyosemion


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## rain- (Mar 29, 2004)

It was good to be able to help


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