Godzilla, the shrimp

[Praxx]

Holy cow, batman

I went to see the "Monsters of the Deep" show at The Fish Gallery today. Parents, don't let the little ones dabble their fingers in there! I got Tom to feed the koi and within a few seconds, I saw a crustacean that would make the lobsters in the tank at the seafood restaurant blush. He had to be at least 14 inches long. All I got to see of him was the long arms and the front of the carapice. Tom then said, "Oh, yeah, but there's big one in here, too."

Sure enough, within a minute or so, I saw claws. Big claws. I didn't get to see him from the side, but I would guess from the elbow (?) to the where the pincer started was 9 or 10 inches. The pincer itself was easilly 3 inches long. Now, extrapolating relative sizes from my dinky 2 inch Macrobranchium sp., that would have to make him going on two feet long! Time to fire up the barbeque for sure.

Oh holy CR*P! I got sent here from this link. The Macrobrahim Lahs that you saw in the koi pond at FG? That was my baby Petula! Here's the story:

I used to work at Dallas North. I had a freshwater shrimp I had rescued from them, about 4" long, who was kept in a 55G. While at work one day, I was told over the Nextel of another shrimp rescue I might be interested in. When I got back to the shop, they pointed out the shrimp for me: a giant female M.Lahs, nearly 9" in length! Well, I took her home and put her in the 55 with Jaques (the 4" FW shrimp). She did alright for awhile: she ate nearly 3 dozen large comet goldfish a week, molted every five weeks, and spawned like crazy. The tried to kill Jaques one time by ripping off all but three of his legs, one eye and one antenna (he remolted in four days, but I gave him away anyway).

Well, near the end of July '04, I had decided that I was going to turn the 55 into a plant tank/farm, so I asked around to see if anyone wanted Petula (who was now almost 12" long w/o the claws). FG said they'd take her, and when I brought her in the styrofoam container, the fella poured her right into the koi pond. I imagine she kept the population in control because any fish less than 6" was toast.

I'm glad to see she made it up until the "winter" we just had. I know she's no longer around, they just cleaned out that pond a month or so ago, and no Petula. Nice to see that someone else got enjoyment from my baby tho.

This is my girl Petula, the day I got her.

 

[derajer]

I used to have a macrobrachium shrimp. I mentioned him when I first started visiting this forum and someone helped me to identify it as a Macrobrachium Thailand. Regardless of what anyone says they are predeatory. Mine was only 3 inches long and he at 2 Killis, 5 Neons, 6 Ghost Shrimp, and a squeaker tale. I had a friend who owned cichlids, he bought one and it was fine until it grew to about 6 or 7 inches then it started killing his cichilds.