I'm in the early stages of setting up a big tank of Tennessee native aquatics, and I was just thinking about M. ohiense. If they would work in the tank and I could actually obtain some, they would make an impressive addition.
Has anyone here kept them? How easy are they to maintain?
Are they compatible with moderate-sized fish (Lepomis, Fundulus, Notemigonus, etc.)? I fear the answer is no, but I thought I would ask anyhow.
Does anyone know of a source for them?
Has anyone kept Ohio River Prawns?
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, Feb 21 2008 05:56 PM
16 replies to this topic
#2
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#3
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Posted 21 February 2008 - 09:19 PM
Hey Newt,
I would contact Ray Bauer:
http://www.ucs.louis...rtb6933/shrimp/
He was one of the speakers at the Missouri Convention is just an all around great guy. It seems to me that he would be pickled to talk to someone interested in these shrimp. His website might focus on Caribbean shrimps, but don't let that distract you. He is THE shrimp man
Todd
I would contact Ray Bauer:
http://www.ucs.louis...rtb6933/shrimp/
He was one of the speakers at the Missouri Convention is just an all around great guy. It seems to me that he would be pickled to talk to someone interested in these shrimp. His website might focus on Caribbean shrimps, but don't let that distract you. He is THE shrimp man
Todd
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Posted 22 February 2008 - 01:28 AM
Yes. I have. I think you have the name wrong, though. I thought it was M ohione. Anyway, they are kind of cool. Like the other Macrobranchiums, they tend to be big and mean. Although, M ohione has smaller claws than many of the others. I did not keep fish with mine because I didn't want to risk the shrimps. Shrimps are very vulnerable when they molt. They often cannibalize each other at that time. And they make a tasty treat for fishes too. I imagine you could keep them with smaller fishes that wouldn't be able to really tackle them. Give them caves, like PVC pipes, to hide in. They will eat anything, including fishes, but healthy fishes in a decent sized tank would generally be able to escape, I think. Their claws are thin and weak. They will eat terrestrial and aquatic plants. This is a significant component of their natural diet. I don't think they leave the water to forage, but take plants that are hanging into the water or submerged temporarily. I passed mine along to the Toledo, Ohio Zoo when we moved. I got them from a fellow in Louisiana. Down there they call them "river shrimp". Apparently they are pretty common in the Mississippi River, though quite rare in their namesake, the Ohio. I don't have a good handle on it, but I've heard that, like many other freshwater shrimps, the larvae have to develop in salt water, ie the ocean. But I can't wrap my mind around how a shrimp gets from the Gulf of Mexico to Ohio! So I'm a little dubious of this for M ohione. Anyone know for sure?
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Posted 22 February 2008 - 08:21 AM
The Mississippi is SO modified at this point that anyone would trouble wrapping your mind around it. Even the big rivers historically were a gradient of lentic to lotic heterogeneity that would have given them little trouble making these migrations (we've heterogenized them all into lotic runs). Ray pointed out that now, they can't even get north of the Atchafalaya because of the river training structures alone (wing dams), unless it's flooded over top of them.
Todd
Todd
#7
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Posted 22 February 2008 - 11:11 AM
Thanks again, y'all!
You're right, Itsme, I got the specific epithet mixed up (I oughtta look before I type). But the genus is Macrobrachium ("big arm") rather than Macrobranchium ("big gill").
It's sounding like they would probably not be best suited for this community tank. I don't want to go to all the trouble of getting these things just to have them start murdering my fish and crawdads or being murdered by them, and if they prove incompatible I have nowhere else to put them. I sent an e-mail to Dr. Bauer, so I'll see what he has to say (I misspelled ohione in that e-mail too; how embarrassing!), but the outlook seems bleak. Oh well, it was just a stray idea anyways.
We still get occasional eels in the middle parts of the Cumberland and Tennessee, so anything's possible, I suppose. But it does seem like it would be pretty hard for shrimp to make much headway in the Mississippi's main channel.
You're right, Itsme, I got the specific epithet mixed up (I oughtta look before I type). But the genus is Macrobrachium ("big arm") rather than Macrobranchium ("big gill").
It's sounding like they would probably not be best suited for this community tank. I don't want to go to all the trouble of getting these things just to have them start murdering my fish and crawdads or being murdered by them, and if they prove incompatible I have nowhere else to put them. I sent an e-mail to Dr. Bauer, so I'll see what he has to say (I misspelled ohione in that e-mail too; how embarrassing!), but the outlook seems bleak. Oh well, it was just a stray idea anyways.
We still get occasional eels in the middle parts of the Cumberland and Tennessee, so anything's possible, I suppose. But it does seem like it would be pretty hard for shrimp to make much headway in the Mississippi's main channel.
#8
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Posted 22 February 2008 - 01:47 PM
You're right, Itsme, I got the specific epithet mixed up (I oughtta look before I type). But the genus is Macrobrachium ("big arm") rather than Macrobranchium ("big gill").
Oh, thanks! I've been misspelling that for a long time.
#9
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Posted 22 February 2008 - 05:21 PM
Hey Newt,
I would contact Ray Bauer:
http://www.ucs.louis...rtb6933/shrimp/
He was one of the speakers at the Missouri Convention is just an all around great guy. It seems to me that he would be pickled to talk to someone interested in these shrimp. His website might focus on Caribbean shrimps, but don't let that distract you. He is THE shrimp man
Todd
Oh, I'm connecting the dots, finally
Did Ray Bauer talk about M ohione? Was Chris there with his video camera? Any handouts? Sorry I missed that! 
Did anyone see M ohione on the collecting trips? Photos? Thanks!Mark
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Posted 05 April 2008 - 11:03 PM
THose are just too cool!!! Just great. Another invert I want LOL
#11
Guest_Irate Mormon_*
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Posted 06 April 2008 - 11:07 PM
I would contact Ray Bauer:
Wasn't that the kid who got hit by a train in the movie "Stand By Me" ? Based on the Steven King novella "The Body".
Sorry for the derail. Talk amongst yourselves.
#12
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Posted 06 April 2008 - 11:18 PM
I have kept wild caught M ohione in a small patio pond with koi (one of the large black rigid ponds like you see in the garden centers at home and garden big box stores). They outlasted most of the koi many of whom became the victims of snake or raccoon raids. They never really got much bigger than about 5 inches (claws not included).
#13
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Posted 17 August 2008 - 02:28 PM
Newt, have you ever encountered this species in the wild in your area?
#14
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Posted 18 August 2008 - 09:18 AM
I have not, and I am not aware of anyone who has caught them in Tennessee. I suppose they must be in our section of the Mississippi mainstem, but I doubt they make it into the Tennessee and Cumberland systems past the first dams.
The only Macrobrachium I see around here are the Asian species that some of the local farmers raise in their ponds.
The only Macrobrachium I see around here are the Asian species that some of the local farmers raise in their ponds.
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Posted 18 August 2008 - 02:46 PM
I have not, and I am not aware of anyone who has caught them in Tennessee. I suppose they must be in our section of the Mississippi mainstem, but I doubt they make it into the Tennessee and Cumberland systems past the first dams.
The only Macrobrachium I see around here are the Asian species that some of the local farmers raise in their ponds.
I have seen them in the lower Ohio River upstream of the the Cumberland Tennessee confluences.
In housing them, I think they do better without structure.
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Posted 18 August 2008 - 10:59 PM
This is the map of M. ohione distribution in the Mississippi River system from Dr. Bauer's river shrimp research page:I have seen them in the lower Ohio River upstream of the the Cumberland Tennessee confluences.
Black line = present day distribution; red dots = pre-1930's
Some more insight on distribution from Missouri Conservationist Online:
Once common in the Mississippi River below St. Louis, where commercial fisheries once existed near Chester and Cairo, Ill., Ohio shrimp were thought to be extirpated (locally extinct) in the Mississippi River bordering Missouri and Illinois since 1962. In 1991, however , Conservation Department biologists and a student from Southern Illinois University rediscovered them.
Edited by Ouassous, 18 August 2008 - 11:01 PM.
#17
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Posted 19 August 2008 - 06:44 AM
Range map needs to be updated. These guys from Southern Illinois and maybe students you are refering to.
Poly, W.J., and J.E. Wetzel. 2002. The Ohio shrimp, Macrobrachium ohione (Palaemonidae), in the Ohio River of Illinois. Transactions of the Illinois State Academy of Science 95(1):65-66.
Subsequent visits show Ohio shrimp occuring futher up stream near Indiana border. Maybe further but collection gear / efforts targeted crayfish.
Poly, W.J., and J.E. Wetzel. 2002. The Ohio shrimp, Macrobrachium ohione (Palaemonidae), in the Ohio River of Illinois. Transactions of the Illinois State Academy of Science 95(1):65-66.
Subsequent visits show Ohio shrimp occuring futher up stream near Indiana border. Maybe further but collection gear / efforts targeted crayfish.
Edited by centrarchid, 19 August 2008 - 06:44 AM.
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