# Red Claw Shrimp " Macrobrachium Assamensis "



## TonyT (Apr 13, 2012)

Seen these guys at my LFS. They remind me of some similar species that get larger and are opportunistic when preying on tankmates. Any one had issues with these guys?


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Are these the ones that have live babies that look just like they do ? If so, they are pretty aggressive. They not only prey on other tank mates, they prey on each other too. They need a lot of space and hiding places to take refuge in from the more dominant shrimp.

OK, I just looked them up and they are the ones that have live babies that look like the adults, so while they can be fine in a planted tank that is large, with plenty of hiding places, you can only have a small group of them. They are not ok with other shrimp, especially Neos or anything that size, or with small fish or fry.

They're about the same size as a Blue Claw Whisker shrimp, which is a bit larger than a full grown Ghost shrimp.

I remember talking to someone at an auction who told me he'd had a tank full of them - a problem because they could not get away from each other. He ended up with only a handful left, the strongest, most dominant ones.

http://www.shrimpnow.com/content.php/176-Macrobrachium-assamense

URL to a short write up on ShrimpNow.


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## TonyT (Apr 13, 2012)

Fishfur said:


> Are these the ones that have live babies that look just like they do ? If so, they are pretty aggressive. They not only prey on other tank mates, they prey on each other too. They need a lot of space and hiding places to take refuge in from the more dominant shrimp.
> 
> OK, I just looked them up and they are the ones that have live babies that look like the adults, so while they can be fine in a planted tank that is large, with plenty of hiding places, you can only have a small group of them. They are not ok with other shrimp, especially Neos or anything that size, or with small fish or fry.
> 
> ...


I thought they could've been an aggressive variety. Thanks for the research and I did notice that they kept their distance from eachother.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Many of the machrobrachiums have a reputation for aggression, but not all of them are. The Blue Claws I've kept are machro's too, but they are not at all aggressive and are quite compatible with even cherry shrimps. I suspect they eat the odd newborn shrimp but not many of them. I had Snowballs in with Blue Claws and the Snowball population grew steadily.


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## TonyT (Apr 13, 2012)

Thanks...appreciate the heads up. Havent kept to many shrimp species myself but planning on doing a nice planted tank with some.


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