African Filter Shrimp

[Liam]

I have had these guys nearly two years but hardly ever get to photo them, got some decent shots of the smallest one as it gets pushed out by the big guys from favourite filtering spots. Not the most active guys but still nice aquarium inhabitants. There is a limpet snail on its head you can see it on the close up third pic. Plus a cherry shrimp head!

 

[iSnail]

Wowwww.......... so much details in these pictures. Simply beautiful

 

[three-fingers]

Stunning as usual, thanks so much for sharing!
Filter shrimp FTW . I find them a very unobtrusive and interesting addition to any suitable tank.
I giggled at the limpet snail, and the red of that cherry shrimp is just brilliant.

 

[blue acara]

Lovely pictures, great detail. Ive seen some of these shrimp in the lfs, interesting things. Armoured like a tank.

 

[invader]

Vampires are my favorite kind of shrimp, but seem to be so delicate. I've kept 3 before, but they all eventually died for no reason. Yours looks great though!

 

[paul_219]

Thats a very nice shrimps. Superb color.

 

[Million]

Beautiful photos - i've never seen one that wasn't blue before. What kit did you use to take the pics?

 

[Shrimper]

Want that one! Great Photos, do you want to come and take some pics of my shrimp for me

What sort of tank is it in? More importantly how well planted is it? I would love to get one for my tank but i'm worried its going to be clumsy and accidentally pull up the plants!

 

[Liam]

Thanks iSnail the flash off the camera makes all the difference in getting the detail.

Thanks mr. fingers yeah I think they are visually quite interesting. Yeah the snail is funny sometimes the ottos and amanos give them a good cleaning too. The shrimp don’t even react, they can get algae on them as they don’t moult so often so maybe they are grateful for the service. The cherry is a very red old girl some of them get very red as they age.

Thanks blue acara, yeah they have formidable looking defences.

Thanks invader; I haven’t found them to be delicate, they are all caught in the wild so they may not have been very healthy when you got them and they can starve even in a big tank I feed them directly with a tweezers a few times a week/ crushed shrimp pellets or flake.

Cheers Paul.

Million they come in various colours. I have, dark green/ pinkish white and a light blue one and this brown one.
Camera is canon D400 with 60 mm lens and off camera flash, for the cherry I used extension tubes with the lens.

Thanks Shrimper, your photos of shrimp are very nice, I am obsessed by getting good pics so I got good equipment and get a lot of practice.
They are in a fish tank now with smallish fish. I did have them in my very mossy shrimp tank but it was hard to feed them there and keep the water clean. When they go in a tank first they can be a little crazy ripping moss off the wood and digging in the sand under wood to make hiding places but once they settle down they don’t move much. They are very clumsy and swim very badly but rarely, they can get caught in moss and rip it apart escaping but with bigger plants they are no problem once settled.

Thanks for the feedback all, much appreciated.

A close up of a fan.

 

[three-fingers]

That's brilliant, any chance of a full tank shot?

I'm certainly going to have to buy some sort of slave flash unit for my camera (as it's not an slr ), what kind of flash do you use?

 

[poconoboss]

AWESOME Pics!!

I wish mine would come out more often.

Maybe I'll poke him with a stick to make him come out for photos...

 

[Liam]

Three-fingers, the flash is a canon flash that is fired by a thing you put on the camera. Dont know what camera you have but if it has a place for a flash on it then you would be able to get a compatible one. What I did before I got the flash was add extra lights to the tank for the pics that improves the quality of the pics. Another thing to try is the on camera flash, you can cover it with some tissue with a rubber band, just make sure there is some space between the flash and tissue due to flash heat. That helps to diffuse the flash and stops it blowing out the fish colours. The tank isnt up to much, I will post a pic sometime its full of nitrate eating weeds.

Thanks poconoboss, I saw yours in your pics, he is a very nice colour, they like to stay hidden if they have a place with good flow and some cover they usually go for that as they dont even have to move the fans except to eat from them, they dont want to spend any energy if they can help it.

A couple of pics of rednoses.

 

[invader]

I really like the look of those rednoses. You have some of the best minifish Liam!

 

[GobyMaster]

Pretty awesome shrimp!

Do you have any full tank shots?

 

[Liam]

Thanks again Invader, yeah the rednoses are quite nice, I only have a few as they dont breed in freshwater. Yeah I like small tank inhabitants, the biggest fish I have is a fat cory.
Cheers goby master, this is a pic from my sort of journal in the planted section of the shrimp tank it looks much the same a lido 125 with moss, ferns and shrimp.

and a crystal red.