lifespan on Fire shrimp??

[damselindistress]

Just lost mine darn it! Had it for 4 months - appeared to be doing well... and then it became listless overnight and perished the next day. Snails and crabs are well, as are the 2 clowns. Have had most of these for nearly the past two years. The shrimp went through a few molts, ate well... hung out in its favorite cave.

Are shrimp notoriously short-lived? I'm crushed over this death - I don't think I'll be adding any more.

 

[Javeo]

Did you buy the largest one at the LFS?? No they should live for a good few years if you buy tiny babies. They grow up really fast and live longer than if you buy fully grown adults, which you can't tell the ages of.

 

[spawner]

2.5 years from settlement. Buy small to medium shrimp.

 

[BeanAnimal]

So the lifespan of most shrimp is 2.5 years?

 

[spawner]

For fire shrimp, yes about 2.5 years tops.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Hrmm sad... I would like my little buddies to be with me longer.

Is there a good resource showing the lifepsans of different shrimps?

 

[spawner]

There is no good data out there on ornamental shrimps. I know the life span of this group becuase I work with them in the lab.

Stenopus tend to live for several years. I would stay with the small species like Stenopus tenuirostris (blue coral banded shrimp) if you got that route.

I would think that 2.5 years is a good life spand for most of the small decapods we have in our tanks. It is foresure longer than they would live in the wild. Think of it this way, you can try new flavors out ever few years.

 

[The Shrimp X]

hmm thats odd. I got the largest fire shrimp when i set my 29 gallon reef up and that was over 2 years ago. he was pretty big when i got him ... he seems very healthy and happy...

 

[spawner]

I hope it is healthy and lives for a while, just don't expect them to live for much more than 2.5 years, you might get 3 years out of it. Do you only one or two?

 

[swiseman]

Crap! I have had my pair for just about 2 years now. I just assumed they would last forever like a lobster. Oh well, when the last one goes I'm getting a pair of Cleaner Shrimp next. At least I'll get to see them.

 

[BeanAnimal]

don't think the they live any longer... same family of shrimp

 

[damselindistress]

This was a BIG guy... I did pick the largest... now I know better. Thanks everyone.

 

[swiseman]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6539637#post6539637 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BeanAnimal
don't think the they live any longer... same family of shrimp

I have to learn to write more clearly. I meant when the Bloods pass on I will replace them with cleaner shrimp.

 

[spawner]

Now that is looking on the bright side of things, every few years you can get a new set or different species and at the same ensure that your shrimp are living a very happy full live in captivity.

 

[duongtony]

lifespan.

lifespan.

I had mine for 3 yrs now.

 

[Javeo]

Another thing that should be mentioned is that being exotherms, their life span is affected by the temperature you keep them at, i.e. warmer the water the faster their metabolism and shorter their lifespan. im not really sure how much of a difference it makes in shrimp, maybe a few months but it does have an effect.

 

[spawner]

This is a good point. We don't have any real data on it, but they molting cycle is decreased about 2-4 days with 2 degrees C temperature increase. Fire shrimp live in about 20 meters of water or deeper normally, so they are water around 25-26C and I would be that temps around 28-29 would shorten their live quite a bit.

This would be farily easy to model, but would take some time in the lab and quite a few shrimp. It would be an interesting study.

 

[Javeo]

maybe i'll do it for my masters, or phd.

 

[spawner]

that would be an interesting thing to look at. Just need a large number of shrimp and a few differnet species. Bauer has tried to use some cohort stats work to determine wild populations life spans of Lysmata wurdemanni in Texas, but I wouldn't relize on the data becuase Lysmata has no where near a linear growth rate, so size class data is hard to measure. It would be a ton of work and take at least 2 years to complete. Plus you have the complicating factors of captive life. You'll have to dig through the literature for similar work on other groups.

 

[Javeo]

i think TMC captive breed them here, im sure they could provide accurate hatch data. It would indeed be a very interesting project to undertake, and at least something i'm interested in, im so bloody tired of ELIZA's grrr