Hawaiin Micro Lobsters

[Ghostie]

Here's a picture of my Hawaiin Micro Lobsters!

They are very relaxing and fun to watch. Always swimming about the cage and scavenging and playing.

They are in brackish water. (salt and fresh mixed).

I bought them from Fukubonsai website and had them shipped to me from Hawaii two years ago and they're still going strong.

They live like 20 years or something crazy like that and eat spirulina algae.

Sorry, hard to photograph through water and tank walls. Pics kinda blurry.

So I have these Micro Lobtsers (Holicondra Rubra Opae Ula shirmps) and Mantids. Now I need a Mantis Shrimp. :lol:

Anyways, I find these guys relaxing and neat to watch. They look exactly like real lobsters when you see them up close.

 

[lancaster1313]

It always nice to have long lived pets. Do they swim with all those little legs, like shrimp do? How long is the biggest one?

 

[LauraMG]

I LOVE

LOVE sea life! I think they're super neat! I hope you can get some better pictures of those because I would love to see what they look like! I actually just went to the Oklahoma Aquarium today and spent the whole day there! Oh, and I have a half sleeve tattoo of ocean life too. So, they seem really neato!

 

[Ghostie]

Yes, they are just like shrimp, only they look just like lobsters. lol

If you were to ask me, I'd say all shrimp like creatures are similar.

I have grown Brine Shrimp (Sea Monkeys), Triops and owned grass and ghost shrimp before and they are all somewhat similar and also very different.

Lots of little appendages flipping around on all of them though. :lol:

These Hawaiin Micro Lobsters are very tiny and hard to see their features unless you use a magnifying glass or have very keen eyesight. I can see their features with my bare eyes but quite a few of other people I know cannot. I don't know if it's just because they don't care to stare at a tiny sea particle as long as I do to see "things" happening or if they just really can't see and need a magnifier.

I see their microscopic claws gleaning algae from the rock and putting it into their mouths at a thousand miles an hour. They are constantly "shoveling" food into them. When you feed them they all swim up the the surface and "filter feed" on their backs while skimming it off under the surface.

Really neat little things. I catch them doing odd stuff sometimes too. They used to have snails in their cage but they have long since died off unfortunately and I can't find any that were that small at any of the local pet shops.

They eat their own algae for food. You would never actually have to feed them. Some people enclose these shrimp into sealed glass ecosystems and they can survive in there for years if you know how to balance the light levels by moving the microcosm to lighter or darker areas to control the algae growth, which can either help to kill or help to feed the shrimp... depending on how much of it there is.

The bonsai guy I got mine from believes in feeding them because they are much more active though and does not like the sealed micro-ecosystem designs out there. He thinks they are cruel. I would have to agree to an extent.

Anyways, here's a picture from the retailers website I got them from, depicting size.

Honestly this picture does them no justice. Their little tiny white claws that shovel food into their mouth all day are not visible in this picture, and is half the fun to watch them do.

 

[Ghostie]

Ohh I get to start my 4.5" Triops Canciformis when I can afford another 10 gallon tank to grow them huge in. Those are crazy. Giant shield shrimps that only live a month or two. :blink:

 

[lancaster1313]

Those antennae are definitely lobsterlike to me. Those things look great. I am one of those people who could study them for hours. :lol:

 

[Ghostie]

I can actually see the spirulina particles going into their mouth and making them have dark colored innards. I know when they are hungry because they start to turn more transperant. hehe.

I feed them about once a week or so. Sometimes twice if I Feel generous. The guy says that's too much but I love them and they don't die from it so good for both of us.

Hmm for some reason the photo above doesn't actually show just how long their antennae are! The antennae are the longest part of the shrimp and very thin and they bow outward around them.

 

[lancaster1313]

I just looked up a fukubonsai site, I guess that they are shrimp. They could make a cool gift for my daughter, But I will be the one who cares for them for a couple years. :lol: It would be great if they could live until she is an adult.

 

[Ghostie]

I guess they are actually endangered archelean pond shrimp the cruise back and fourth between ponds and lava tubes with periods of total darkness for many years. Weird story with these.

I like them because they help me to remember my trip to Hawaii. Of course all the little flippy appendages too.

Hehe.

 

[lancaster1313]

I like the way the little flipperleg things under them move when they swim, and when they hold the eggs with them. A trip to Hawaii would be nice too. I have never left the east coast of U.S.

 

[LauraMG]

That's so awesome. My sister is one of those people that thinks sealed ecosystems are awful too. She likes to lecture me about that way we keep our 2 goldfish.

Those are very cool little creatures though. You need to sick Yeatzee or Yen on those things to get some up close and personals of those little guys! I Googled them and could not find any better pictures

 

[Rick]

Very neat. Have never heard of them before. I went to Hawaii a couple years ago myself.