Experience with Alpheus Heterochaelis?

[gobby]

I'm researching a zoa or macroalgae tank, and while I initially planned on a coral-only setup, these pistol shrimp caught my attention:
Alpheus heterochaelis.

They can be kept communally, tolerate varying salinities, and even breed in aquariums (found a few research papers on that). The main drawbacks seem to be their burrowing nature, making them less active, and the noise they produce.

Has anyone had experience with this species? I'm also considering a mantis shrimp (Neogonodactylus wennerae) or possibly keeping both in separate enclosures.

 

[BristleWormHater]

Pistol shrimp are very commonly kept and do quite well in reef tanks especiallywhen paired with a goby. I would assume this species would do just fine.
Mantis shrimps are great in species-only tanks I'll link a YouTube channel that keeps mantis shrimp.

 

[BristleWormHater]

Heressome helpful videos

 

[gobby]

Pistol shrimp are very commonly kept and do quite well in reef tanks especiallywhen paired with a goby. I would assume this species would do just fine.
Mantis shrimps are great in species-only tanks I'll link a YouTube channel that keeps mantis shrimp.

I appreciate the links! I think the native florida species are actually paired with crabs which aren't available in the hobby but it seems that they've made their way to aquariums in the form of hitchhikers and haven't done too many issues. Yah, I'll probably keep a mantis shrimp in a seperate tank. Maybe 1 coral and 1 macroalgae? Those two have been my favorite sea critters!

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I'm researching a zoa or macroalgae tank, and while I initially planned on a coral-only setup, these pistol shrimp caught my attention:
Alpheus heterochaelis.

They can be kept communally, tolerate varying salinities, and even breed in aquariums (found a few research papers on that). The main drawbacks seem to be their burrowing nature, making them less active, and the noise they produce.

Has anyone had experience with this species? I'm also considering a mantis shrimp (Neogonodactylus wennerae) or possibly keeping both in separate enclosures.

Glad to see you're doing your research! (And I'd love to see the papers you found if you don't mind sharing them)

Yeah, to my understanding, they wouldn't be the most active critters out there, but if you can get them burrowed up against the glass, I'd imagine they'd make a nice display critter.

Here's the info I remember seeing on them:

Yeah, Alpheus heterochaelis won't pair with a goby - they actually pair with Atlantic Mud Crabs (Panopeus herbstii):

Just pointing this out, Alpehus heterochaelis is actually a known filter feeder, not a predator:

"Along the U.S. mid-Atlantic seaboard, the bigclaw snapping shrimp, Alpheus heterochaelis (Say), is associated with intertidal and shallow subtidal soft-sediment habitats (e.g., oyster reefs and mudflats) and is reported to be restricted to shallow burrows and depressions beneath oyster shells adjacent to salt marsh habitat (Hay and Shore, 1915; Williams, 1965; Nolan and Salmon, 1970; Lippson and Lippson, 1984; Williams, 1984). These shrimp are relatively sedentary, filter feeding from within their shelter from waters drawn into burrows by paddling with modified pleopods (Nolan and Salmon, 1970; Lippson and Lippson, 1984)."*

"Alpheus heterochaelis, another filter feeder, is commonly found among shells (Williams 1984)"**
https://academic.oup.com/jcb/article/23/4/876/2679872https://www.researchgate.net/public...fs_by_resident_fishes_and_decapod_crustaceans

 

[gobby]

Glad to see you're doing your research! (And I'd love to see the papers you found if you don't mind sharing them)

Yeah, to my understanding, they wouldn't be the most active critters out there, but if you can get them burrowed up against the glass, I'd imagine they'd make a nice display critter.

Here's the info I remember seeing on them:

Very late reply but they are pretty easily bred in research labs to study their snapping potential

Larvae of Alpheus heterochaelis from North Carolina hatch from large eggs as advanced zoeae, usually moult three times, and exhibit almost no linear growth during a short (4 days at 25°c) larval development. Stage I lasts 6 hours at most and is sometimes skipped; III lasts about twice as long as II. Individuals simultaneously exhibiting characteristics of Stage III and the postlarva were occasionally seen. The three zoeal stages and postlarva are described in detail and illustrated. Stages in embryonic and juvenile development and the hatching process are briefly described.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00222937300770231Also able to be kept comunally?

We collected specimens of A. heterochaelis from two sites in North Inlet Estuary: Oyster Landing (33°20'58.5″N, 79°11′19.2″W) and Clambank Creek (33°20′03.7″N, 79°11′32.7″W). We collected animals from oyster beds during daytime low tides, at depths of less than 1 m, using hand nets on 10 July 2017, 7–9 August 2017 and 18 June 2018. After collection, we held animals in natural seawater (NSW) in individual containers on a shaded outdoor porch. Within 5 days of collecting animals, we fixed them for morphological examination, used them for transmittance measurements or transported them to the University of South Carolina (Columbia, SC, USA) for physiological and behavioral experiments. At the University of South Carolina, we held animals communally in a 227 l tank filled with NSW at room temperature (∼22–23°C), a salinity of 35 ppt and a 12 h:12 h light:dark cycle in which light was provided by two 24-inch TrueLumen Pro LED fixtures (Current USA, Vista, CA, USA). We fed animals twice per week with Hikari Crab Cuisine (Kyorin Food Ind. Ltd, Himeji, Japan).

https://journals.biologists.com/jeb.../224469/Vision-in-the-snapping-shrimp-Alpheus
I am surprised of them being filter feeders. I've read papers suggesting that they will take juvenile clams. So they will likely take snails. I want to try them with sexy shrimp but I'm not sure if it will work
https://eurekamag.com/research/016/...3NCkBJKGyAx481pFqlO6B4_MFQESISBm5heiUIHrn-dT3
As a bonus here's a picture of their complete life cycle

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Very late reply but they are pretty easily bred in research labs to study their snapping potential

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00222937300770231Also able to be kept comunally?

https://journals.biologists.com/jeb.../224469/Vision-in-the-snapping-shrimp-Alpheus
I am surprised of them being filter feeders. I've read papers suggesting that they will take juvenile clams. So they will likely take snails. I want to try them with sexy shrimp but I'm not sure if it will work
https://eurekamag.com/research/016/...3NCkBJKGyAx481pFqlO6B4_MFQESISBm5heiUIHrn-dT3
As a bonus here's a picture of their complete life cycle

Neat, and thank you!

 

[gobby]

Neat, and thank you!

kinda sucks that they aren't kept too often with their variable color forms and ease of breeding, they could be saltwater's neocaridina shrimp. If only they were more surface active

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

kinda sucks that they aren't kept too often with their variable color forms and ease of breeding, they could be saltwater's neocaridina shrimp. If only they were more surface active

Yeah, these are neat critters, and a little more surface activity would probably draw a lot more people to them or some of the other cool shrimp species out there.