# Another weird tale of mystery shrimp survival



## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Just another incidence of a mystery shrimp I didn't know existed, who managed to survive against the odds.

I got some little floating frogs the other day. Used a big chunk of wood from one of my tanks to give them a resting place while I build them a floating raft from cork. Found I would have to weigh it down with stones to get a good height for them to crawl on, so I'm waiting for the silicone I used to glue the rock weights on to cure.

Took the wood out of the froggie's tank to test float the raft before I stuck the rocks to it, and forgot to put the wood back in the water. Came back at least two hours later, to find I'd left the wood out, with some moss drying out on it. So I quickly popped it back into the frog tank, hoping the moss might survive. And then I was startled to see a dark coloured shrimp suddenly fly through the water to perch on the filter.

Don't recognize the shrimp.. there were no shrimp in the tank the chunk of wood came from other than Ghost shrimp and I have certainly not had any shrimp that were this colour, ever. I could not really tell what kind of shrimp it was either. He must have come with the wood from the main tank, but how in heck did he get in the tank ? There have been some new plants, but I left them all in their bags, floating, until I got them planted. If the shrimp came with plants, how did he get out of the bag.. or even survive for a time in a bag ?

So it's a wee mystery as to where mr. shrimp came from. A greater one is how it managed to stay alive for two hours on a drying piece of wood ? Shrimp are surprising little creatures, I must say. For all that they can be sensitive to a number of adverse conditions, they also seem, at times, to be astonishingly hardy.

I popped the shrimp into the QT with my Stone and tiny fan shrimps, as I did not want to risk having one of the frogs deciding he might make a snack. But I wish I'd taken a pic of it first - Duh !! It was a rich dark brownish colour and seemed to have some sort of vertical banding on the body. Sort of tiger like, but I've never, ever, had tigers, and the stripes were not distinct as they are on tigers. Reminded me a bit of a chocolate shrimp too, but I have never owned one of them either. If I see him again I'll try and grab a pic. Glad I didn't accidentally kill the poor shrimp, not knowing he was there. Wish I knew what he was and how he got here though.


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## Dman (May 1, 2012)

Ya gotta include pics with these stories! Makes it do much better, I wonder if it's a male chocolate that hAs weird stripes...


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

yep without a pic we can't identify the shrimp. Shrimps can live for over 24 hours out of water, on driftwood/cholla wood, because the wood still has moisture in it...takes a bit of time for it to totally dry out....therefore the shrimps will still stay inside and just eat biofilm off the wood.

I usually place my wood pieces over a bucket after I remove them from a tank and leave a bit of water in the bottom of the bucket, because sure as not there will be shrimp in there that just DONT want to leave, and finally they get the hint that its getting a little hot inside the wood...time to leave and ooops down they go into the bucket!


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Well, I think I know what my mystery shrimp is.. though how he got into the main tank remains a puzzle. I think he's one of the odd dark coloured shrimp that I got along with some Yellow Stone shrimp awhile ago. Caridina species, but whether the dark ones are a variant of the Yellow Stone or another species entirely I have not been able to find out as yet.

But seeing as all those Caridina went into my QT, the presence of one in the larger tank is still a mystery to me. No plants have been transferred, no wood or stone.

But I'm pretty sure that's what it was. As it happens, I got the very last Yellow Stone shrimp from BA Miss'ga today and there were a couple of dark ones with it, identical to the one that suddenly appeared in the frog tank from the driftwood. 

Be nice to get these dark coloured guys into a tank with light substrate so I can see them. They literally vanish on a dark substrate, having a body coloured deep charcoal with some dark brownish banding on it. Not quite black, and nothing like the density of, say, a BKK, but still an interesting colour. Should look nice on light sand.


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