Krewetki w akwarium słodkowodnym

Euryrhynchus sp.

Twelve of these shrimp accidentally came in a transport from Malaysia. Eight of them died. The rest is alive since December 2004. I had no idea then what kind of shrimp they are and I didn't expect them to survive. After checking the water they arrived in, we let them into a tank with a setup of roots and rocks, with water parameters: GH-6, kH-3 , pH-6,7 , NO3-0 , PO4-0,07. And that was the last we were to see these creatures for some time - they kept hiding. Every time we tried to feed them, an hour later we had to clean the tank of food the shrimp haven't even touched. After analysing the conditions they might live in nature, we added oak leaves and changed the aquarium to an aquapaludarium, with a very gentle hang-on filter. 2 weeks later, after feeding them a little cyclops, I finally managed to see one of the Euryrhynchus sp..
They rarely leave their hiding-places (under the oak leaves and among the rocks). We feed them frozen food - mainly roe, crab eggs, cyclops, sometimes chopped krill. They don't accept flaked food. Four of these shrimp live in a 25 liter tank. Since they measure only about 2 cm, the tank is quite spacious. We know absolutely nothing about them.

Paweł Szewczak

Operation "see the Euryrhynchus sp." is for very patient people. I decided to take a look at them when - already in a new setup - Paweł claimed they were "bolder than ever" ;)
After we threw a bit of frozen cyclops into the tank, the shrimps decided not to show up for about 20 minutes. Finally, one of them timidly looked from behind of a rock, grabbed a piece of food and disappeared within a fraction of a second :) I didn't have time to take a closer look. A moment later the rest of the Alpheus, clearly embolded with the lack of sudden movements in front of the tank, came out of their dens. I've never seen shyer shrimp. The tinyest movement provokes them to withdraw among the rocks. Taking photos is extremely difficult, as they don't like to pose and flee just when it's time to press the release button of the camera. After sitting in front of the aquarium for over an hour, we never saw them near the front glass - they don't show up in open space. These shrimp are probably naturally shy, it is possible they live in waters occupied by predators, so the inclination to hiding is a way to avoid getting eaten.
Euryrhynchus sp. is a very beautiful creature. Characteristic pincers, not common for other freshwater shrimp, make it a real rarity. It would be nice to find some info on this shrimp, unfortunately, there is nothing about it on the net. This leaves us publications in science magazines we hope to check out shortly.

Jackie Sawicka

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