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Ok, the title of this thread is more of a teaser than a fact, but I would like to share a story with you that may come in handy if you ever plan to purchase Amano Shrimp, Caridina japonica.

Last Friday I felt the urge to visit my LFS, just to check on the current plants and fish that they have available. As you may or may not know, I have loads of Trigonostigma Espei and a few weeks back sold some of them to this LFS. They house about half of them (the others were snatched up by store employees) in a 10G tank in the back of the store, labeled Harlequin Espei "Tank Raised" and cost $1 more than the regular Espei (makes me a little proud).

Anyway, in their tank in the store are also a bunch of tiny baby Hatchet Fish and a group of Amano Shrimp. Of course I spent a significant time in front of this tank, checking to see if my fishies still recognize me (the fool I am ). All of a sudden, some major action in this tank caught my attention. I saw a Hatchet being pulled down by an Amano Shrimp, breaking free but being recaptured, and struggeling for a while before finally being able to escape for good. I couldn't believe what I saw . Then I observed the attacker a little closer. He looked just like an adult Amano Shrimp, even with markings on the back that look very similar. But there was one major difference, a visible claw (he had only one, must have lost the other during transport or in a fight, I later saw another of these shrimps with 2 claws).

Naturally, I went to an experienced sales person in the store and informed him about what I had seen. He knew about having another type of shrimp in the tank, but he didn't know that they attacked the fish. He informed me that they came mixed in with the Amano order. We both observed the tank for a little while longer and it was obvious that this shrimp was stalking the fish all the time. The sales person decided to separate them from the rest of the tank.

Anyway, a long story short and my advice to you:

If you purchase Amano Shrimp keep your eyes open that what you get actually are these shrimp. On first inspection, the "killer" shrimp looked just like them and I can see that it would be easy not to recognize the difference at first, in particular if you buy a bunch of them at once.

Oh, and no - my fish did not recognize me anymore

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

i used to have a crayfish in one of my tanks that i got off a local fisherman, he had cut the claws of the crayfish so that it would attack others in his bait bucket, i put it in my tank with my CL and the crayfish used to jump and grab CL as they swam by but couldnt hold on, great fun to watch, when it molted both claws came back as good as new. the crayfish was going fine till he climbed out of the tank and the dogs ate him

OH TOLEEDY!

Wow... in a way that's kindof cool, but distressing at the same time. Must have been some kind of small macrobrachium species. Clearly it didn't have algae-eating on its mind.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

Yeah, kind of cool, in its own way

Update - I went back to the LFS yesterday and what can I say, they are still in there. I guess the owner doesn't think it could harm the fish and Amano Shrimp in there seriously (or he forgot ).

I for sure would think that this shrimp is easily capable of eating all fry and small fish that it can get get.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Maybe that is why I have heard of amanos eating small fish, fry, and other shrimp. We have an imposter species instead.