[iturnrocks]

If this is unacceptable, please let me know. It is not a fish, rather a crustacean. It is currently about 1/2 inch long. They live about 6 months in temporary pools like fairy shrimp and Triops. This one is genus Cyzicus, I have yet to identify what species. Photo taken with a Canon A400 3.2 mp. 1 good photo out of about 50 blurry ones.

 

[FAMILYOFFISHLOVERS]

kinda cool looking! :thumb:
this may be a stupid question but:

is his shell hard like clam? or does he take a shell from another animal like crabs do? :-?

too bad they dont live long!
almost looks kinda like a tick! :lol:

 

[iturnrocks]

His shell is hard like a clam and it is attached. It grows with him. As for lifespan, this is the longest living kind I have found so far. The other clam shrimp I have had live about 2 weeks.

Here are some pics of the one I had last year.

 

[F8LBITEva]

pretty cool, what do/can you keep those with?

 

[Darkside]

Are you picking these up from vernal/autumnal pools?

 

[iturnrocks]

Are you picking these up from vernal/autumnal pools?

Yes. In Kansas its called a roadside ditch. Its what cornfields drain into.

Heres one in a crop field that gets plowed and planted every year.

 

[iturnrocks]

pretty cool, what do/can you keep those with?

Currently they share a 2 gallon aquarium with daphnia and some snails. I have kept them with Triops, fairy shrimp, and even larval smallmouth salamanders. The salamanders ate the Triops and fairy shrimp, but when they tried to eat the clam shrimp, it would close its shell and they would spit it out.

Heres a pic of a baby salamander eating a Triops.

I suppose they could cohabitate with some non-aggressive fish, but they are not very fond of water movement, and they are filter feeders, so I dont have a filter on their tank. Also they are very susceptible to bacteria from uneaten food, so I keep plants in the tank and dont feed them. I assume they eat algae that grows naturally.

 

[heylady]

I've never seen anything like them before! Very interesting. Thanks for posting the pics :thumb:

 

[Desi<3]

WOW those are cool looking!

 

[yogurtpooh]

thanks for sharing

 

[bulldogg7]

great pics! I've never heard of a clam shrimp before. That fairy shrimp looks like a big brine shrimp, took a minute to register how big these things get. Do their shells close up completely?

 

[iturnrocks]

great pics! I've never heard of a clam shrimp before. That fairy shrimp looks like a big brine shrimp, took a minute to register how big these things get. Do their shells close up completely?

Fairy shrimp are the freshwater equivalent of brine shrimp. Some fairy shrimp get really big.

But most are about 3/4" long.

Here is a bunch I caught yesterday

Clam shrimp can completely close their shells when they are frightened.
The one on the left appears to be closed, although I think these 2 are mating. When I picked up the one on the left, the one on the right was attached.

 

[Desi<3]

The one in your hand has a different shape to it!

 

[iturnrocks]

The one in your hand has a different shape to it!

I only wish that was my hand. I would love to get my hands on some of those eggs. That is the Giant Fairy Shrimp, Branchinecta gigas, a predatory fairy shrimp that eats smaller fairy shrimp.

If you stretched it out, it would still resemble the overall body shape of other fairy shrimp. The large egg sac makes it look a little different, and it has a really long tail.

This one actually looks more different, this is a Beavertail fairy shrimp, it has a flat paddle shaped tail instead of the usual forked tail. These get about 2 inches long and are not predatory. These can see you coming in the water, and will dive to avoid being caught.

 

[Desi<3]

Those are eggs? WOw thats kind funny looking, in a icky sort of way!

 

[iturnrocks]

Those are eggs? WOw thats kind funny looking, in a icky sort of way!

The proper term is cysts, but yes, they are the equivalent of eggs.

 

[Desi<3]

Huh, ya learn something new every day!

 

[Guest]

Do you grow these as food or pets? What size tank are they in, and do you have any pictures of your triops?

What got you into keeping crustaceans? I'm a fan too and I've thought about making an indoor Horseshoe Crab pond but I don't think I will anytime soon. And that clam shrimp reminds me of the Nautilus cephalopods...

~Ed

 

[iturnrocks]

I grow the clam shrimp as pets. I use fairy shrimp as food sometimes.
I harvested a couple thousand fairy shrimp over the weekend, my sunfish and darters were thrilled.

Here are the original wild caught specimens

And here are their children hatched in aquariums

And another generation

You may also notice that my camera got better with each generation, or at least my ability to use it did.

 

[Guest]

Awesome! Do you have pics of your sunfish as well?

~Ed