The Puffer Forum

Cool that you found out what kind of shrimp they are.

correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the tails of those guys sold as "lobster tails" in some areas? I think that is the critter they were talking about...
Yum-O!!

Not sure...I'll bet they are tasty though!!!

J-P wrote:correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the tails of those guys sold as "lobster tails" in some areas? I think that is the critter they were talking about...
Yum-O!!

hey - i don't doubt that some less scrupulous seafood vendors could sell the biggest of these guys as rock, spiny, slipper, squat "lobster tail" if that name brought them more profit in the local market. as one of our posters here told of from first-hand college lab DNA data collection, more than half of the fish in some north american general groceries is "accidentally" mislabeled. the same happens in many sushi markets and houses worldwide....

but if you google the full species name Macrobrachium rosenbergii you will see that this is the most freshwater-aqua-cultured shrimp in the world (it is technically biologically not a prawn, i think). and for people in the states who want some, apparently they are easy to buy -in some numbers- in the US aquaculture markets, especially in the mid-west. i live in the midwest. i kinda want to try and grow-out some in a backyard filtered summer tub -and then eat them! but knowing how much i dig my ghost and cherry shrimp maybe i'd not eat them? but i feed my current shrimplets to the GSP all the time. so anyway.....

i don't know how they get marketed though. i'm thinking they grace menus as "jumbo shrimp" king prawn" "extra-large tiger shrimp" etc. but like i said, if somebody could make more money calling them "lobster-tails" somewhere without getting caught i'm sure they are, for now.....

these guys look really interesting (and tasty!), but i'd be hesitant to keep any alpha blue-claw males with even fish as big as fahakas .... if that alpha shrimp dude did claw-nip ares' lip i bet it hurt! it's possible they could now be "matched" enemies if they fight. but if that is the case it just means they'll fight again if they suddenly think a bit of food or tank territory merits it..... so yeah, just keep keeping an eye on them is good, but keeping the shrimp into a different tank/new-person's home seems like the best plan.

it was flutter who did the DNA survey:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=26196#p281600

credit where it's due

here:

http://pureflorida.blogspot.com/search/ ... quaculture

is the tale of one teacher -not a specialized aquaculture farmer- trying to raise these guys with his students. i found his method to be akin to most (or maybe less then some) hobbyists. so this is an interesting read..... (oh, his blog is most-recent-first, so if you want to read the story in chronological order just scroll down/click thru and read "up")

like i said, just google Macrobrachium rosenbergii for much much more

and p.p.s.-

i just started to click around the blog "pureflorida" linked above -if you click on his general "aquaculture" tab -or anything else- he has TONS of cool stuff! i found him on google image search for the specific "Macrobrachium rosenbergii " topic, but this guy has much stuff that any people concerned about the conservation and understanding of aquatic life should view. check it out! (and i want to admit i may be a bit biased as i grew up in chicagoland, but with yearly visits to paternal grandparents in SW FL. then i lived there myself for about a year in my mid-20's, so i have a soft spot for FL wildlife and places. let me know if you'd like to see any of my "petting a wild manatee from a kayak" snaps, lol!

Well, bad news...sorry Jeeper, but I had to get rid rid of these guys. I dropped a Mussel in last night and they all came out and Attacked Ares! It was horrible! They HAD to go today. I was making my Monthly trip to Austin and found a store that took them for credit (very little). I just couldn't keep them in there any longer. Once again I apologize. They were interesting to watch but definately not interesting enough to watch bully Ares. The store I took them to were happy to have them. They actually keep a very large one in their feeder fish tank...he is twice the size of my largest one. Ares is all alone and safe now . What gets me though is I gave Ares a good size cray for the first time today...although it fought and pinched his face he aggressively attacked back and ate it. Makes me wonder why he would eat the shrimp? My theory Is that they have be coming out at night and attacking him and he was petrified of them. They really only came out at night. So that's, that...taken care of. They were interesting while they were here though!

Srkoe wrote:Well, bad news...sorry Jeeper, but I had to get rid rid of these guys. I dropped a Mussel in last night and they all came out and Attacked Ares! It was horrible! They HAD to go today. I was making my Monthly trip to Austin and found a store that took them for credit (very little). I just couldn't keep them in there any longer. Once again I apologize. They were interesting to watch but definately not interesting enough to watch bully Ares. The store I took them to were happy to have them. They actually keep a very large one in their feeder fish tank...he is twice the size of my largest one. Ares is all alone and safe now . What gets me though is I gave Ares a good size cray for the first time today...although it fought and pinched his face he aggressively attacked back and ate it. Makes me wonder why he would eat the shrimp? My theory Is that they have be coming out at night and attacking him and he was petrified of them. They really only came out at night. So that's, that...taken care of. They were interesting while they were here though!

Oh wow and I thought fahakas was pure killers..lol. Now how big is Ares again?

Srkoe wrote: I dropped a Mussel in last night and they all came out and Attacked Ares! It was horrible! They HAD to go today.

Hahaha I bet you was kickin and screaming the whole time. Sayin STOP IT, STOP IT, STOP IT!!! the whole time they was attacking Ares. Oh man that would had to be a sight. I would prob been the same way but just in a different way though. If it was my fahaka getting attacked, I would be like, "you going to take that from them? Do you want me to hold one down so you can take afew jabs?" But it would had only happened once though. I would not tell what I had done to those feeder shrimp. Yep they would had been 100% feeders for him by the time I got through with them

Haha!!! You nailed it!!! I was stomping going "omg, what do I do, what do I do!!!!" I grabbed my planting tool and poked at them. They ran off to their caves and I didn't see them again until I went to catch them this afternoon. That was a chore!!! Took my husband and I about 30min to catch them all...completely tore the tank up doing it!!! Ares was so angry. When I got home this evening I had to put his tank back together...he was so stressed that he buried himself . There's nothing that food can't fix with Fahaka's though, even hurt feelings...lol!!! I have a picture of him buried that I will post, it was so cute. I didn't think they buried themselves when they got big.

It is only very rarely possible to keep major predators co-housed well - despite what the idiots on MFK do and say.

My Fahakas and giant prawns were singletons, always. BTW, my prawn were diurnal. They would stay under cover in their cave or refuge, but when there was activity in the room, they came out - hoping for food of course. Even crustaceans are intelligent enough to alter their lifestyles to shift their foraging time to when the local predators are inactive.

well thats a slight bummer, but im glad Aries is safe now. Aries saftey is more important.

Once again, I'm so sorry Jeeper...I feel like a butt...it had to be done though

Really dont worry about it, no biggy. Id have felt worse if you kept them and Aries got hurt

very sorry you had to evict the m. Rosenbergii from your house -but i guessed you'd very soon need to evict them from ares' tank at the very least!

did you get a pic of "the buried ares" and/or any other "shrimp mayhem" pics you can share with us? i'd love to see any of that in visual documentation -and i know i'm not alone, lol. and i'm very happy ares will now be the "supreme hunter" in his tank once again.

He started another thread with Aries buried.