# Vampire Shrimp - Does anyone have these?



## duchessren (Sep 16, 2006)

I got a new shrimp today (Atya gabonensis). He (or she, not sure yet...) is doing well and eating but hides a lot (full-time actually). He is in a shrimp-only tank and is the biggest guy in there, but will not come out of hiding. He has successfully dug trenches between the Eco-complete, driftwood and rocks. He lives with six or so bamboo shrimps (Atyopsis molluccensis) that are thriving as well as a breeding ghost shrimp colony. The tank looks as densely planted as a jungle and has lots of cover. Would a Vampire buddy help him out? Does (s)he just need time to adjust? Are they all like this? If you keep one or more of these shrimps and they are not hiding all the time, please let me know. Thanks in advance. [smilie=n: 
Ren


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## ruki (Jul 4, 2006)

That sounds pretty scary! Should have posted this a couple days earlier for more effect 

Looks pretty scary too Petshrimp.com -- All about shrimp


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## jamesB (Aug 31, 2006)

duchessren, I have never owned these shrimp, but I have seen a rather large group of them in a great fish store. The shrimp did not seem overly timid but they did have the lights very low on the tank. Looking on the web it seems that vampire shrimp are very shy and tend to be a bit nocturnal. Have you checked to see if he comes out at night when the lights are out?

I have not seen anything that suggests that these guys need the company of others but it might help.

Good luck with this guy, if the price of these shrimp ever comes down to a more reasonable level I might try a few, although the fact that they need brackish water to reproduce discourages me a bit.

james


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## crazie.eddie (May 31, 2004)

Where did you get the shrimp?


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## hedson_25 (Sep 20, 2005)

in transilvanya of course


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## aquaboyaquatics (Feb 22, 2006)

These guys are all wild imports. In Africa in the Congo Basin they are on the bottom of the food chain. Give them some time to realize there is no preditors. They will loosen up.

Mike


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## Kitishane (Nov 17, 2006)

My husband and I recently picked one of these "beautiful" shrimp up from All About Fish in Long Beach. He's(*) still taking his time getting settled, but found a lovely hidey hole in a piece of ADA Black Wood we had in the tank, and has set up residence. It's a large enough hole that he can sink all the way in and be completely hidden, but still has room to turn around if need be.

He seems to be inquisitive about human contact, and often times sends his antenna out when he sees me near the tank, and slowly creeps his way forward to check me out, and will sit there happily fluttering his filters, and gathering food, once he's established that I'm there. I really don't know if these shrimp have any sort of long term memory, but it still amuses me that he's the most active and "happy" when I'm sitting there watching him. 

My mom has lovingly named him Vlad (har har) and he's just an amazing character.

(*) - I refer to Vlad as a he, as I have no real idea how to distinguish between the sexes, and shrimp just naturally seem masculine to me. I really don't know why that is!


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## AnneRiceBowl (Sep 8, 2006)

I haven't seen this species in my area, but just yesterday, I convinced my favorite LPS to order them for me as soon as they see them on their list. But if someone is willing to ship me some, I am willing to talk business.


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

AnnieRiceBowl, glad to see you've found your way onto APC too. =)

Filter Feeding Freshwater Shrimp <- Vampire Shrimp
http://www.freshwaterinverts.com has them too, you might want to e-mail them to see when they're going to stock it next


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## duchessren (Sep 16, 2006)

It's been a couple of weeks now, and he's grown a lot in size and has been coming out more. I repositioned the driftwood so that I could see him in his hideout. He obviously didn't like this because he has taken up residence in another part of the tank. Luckily, I can see him in this hideout. He's still really shy though. He is starting to socialize with the Bamboo shrimps in that tank.


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## AnneRiceBowl (Sep 8, 2006)

Thanks epicfish for the links. They're all out of stock right now. =( Oh well, I have them bookmarked.


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## Satirica (Feb 13, 2005)

I have one of these from a LFS that was sold as a "Blue Wood Shrimp." I see him occasionally, he's been in the tank for about a year, but he is very reclusive prefering to hide in areas that are fairly dark. He is one cool looking shrimp.


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## pac99 (Nov 25, 2006)

I have two vampire shrimp in my tank. They always got along well. That's not to say that they hung around each at all, but sometimes I would find them hiding in the same cave in the driftwood. As they have gotten bigger, I picked up another cave to make sure there is another hiding spot for the smaller one. After the last molt, the bigger vampire was getting a little too big for his driftwood cave, and started moving into the smaller one's cave. It never seemed like anything aggressive, just pushing the smaller one towards the back. I didn't really care for that, so I had picked up another cave this morning. This afternoon, I found the larger shrimp going after the smaller one in the cave they had been sharing. He was punching him with those larger front legs with the claws on them. I'd never seen this kind of violent behavior out of either of them. When I first had the shrimp, some of the fish were curious about it, and would swim close by. He would rear up and stick those legs out in front of him, but never jabbed at anything. 

I'm guessing that they may have a territorial streak in them. My shrimp are now separated in their own caves, and everything seems to be ok again. I hope the attack didn't cause too much harm to the smaller one, but he seemed to be moving fine afterwards. Has anyone else seen any kind of aggressive behavior out of their vampire shrimp?

Mark


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## duchessren (Sep 16, 2006)

Yep, today and yesterday, the pregnant bamboo shrimp has been trying to take over the hole occupied by the vampire shrimp. The vampire lunges forward with his pointy arms and *punches* the pregnant bamboo. So far, the vampire has been able to keep his hole, but the bamboo doesn't seem to want to stop fighting for the spot.


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## pac99 (Nov 25, 2006)

That's interesting. Has your vampire always been territorial? This was the first time I had seen either of mine acting like that. They have been fine ever since as well.

Hope it didn't hurt your pregnant bamboo at all.


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## Script404 (Jun 30, 2006)

Read this thread then by chance while killing time in the lfs near a friends saw some for sale. The jurys out with the missus she's not sure she likes him, but he came out for a very brief look round today flashed his fans about and I think he starting to win her over. He(?) seems quite shy prefering to stay hidden in a cave, but its only the second day so I am suprised to actually see him out at all. I think he's also trying to get used to the two big boisterous catfish in there, although they seem just as scared of him, since the other shrimp in there are amanos they most be wondering how the hell one has suddenly grown to about 4 inches long.


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