Quote:
Originally posted by StephenH
I don't think L. ambionensis and L. wurdemanii belong in the same genus. The larvae are similar at Z-1 but start to look way different pretty quickly. L. wurdemanii are a piece of cake to raise but ambionensis are frustrating. Those ridiculously long chelipeds are a nuisance and are always getting fouled or caught on something. And who can concentrate for that long? I once got an individual through by accident. I thought they had all died out but never drained or cleaned the tank. Six months later, the tank was needed for something else and there was a little cleaner shrimp in there. Maybe that's the key - give every larvae about 50 gallons of space.
-steve hopkins
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Steve,I´ve been trying to contact you but nothing worked,PM nor e-mail.
While all these shrimps belong to the same genus:Lysmata,I agree with you that there are two well defined natural groups within the genus;the "cleaners"(L.ambinensis and kin -L.debelius and kin)and the "peppermints"(all the others)
While some peppers sometimes clean,"cleaners"are obligate specialists and depend of the success of their "cleaning stations"They wag their conspicuous white antennae which are the trade mark of their job,shared by unrelated forms like Stenopus hispidus.
Peppers have a (relatively)short larval life and are easier to raise,perhaps because of that.Larvae show a distinct coloration and show large paddles only in the last pair of legs (pp5).
Cleaners have long to very long larval phase and are hard to raise.They show three pairs of paddles (pp3,pp4 and pp5),the future walking legs of the adult.
I will soon start another thread showing the larval development of one of the peppers,so this can be seen.