Arcitalatrus sylvaticus (lawn or land shrimp)

Have any of you used lawn shrimp in bioactive media or as food for salamanders? I have a bunch going and might try some on some C. pyrrhogastor on land.

I've no experience with them but am interested in learning more - how do you house them and how fast do they reproduce? From where did you get your starter culture? Do you know if they are a good source of pigments, like carotenoids?

Eager to hear more!

HJ

I'd never heard of them, but I bet they'll be as good for pyrrho belly colour development as aquatic shrimp. Three terrestrial juveniles I sold in 2013 were (rightly or wrongly) raised aquatically from then on almost exclusively on live and defrosted brine shrimp. They're on a more varied diet now, but they're the only captive bred pyrrhos I've seen that are indistinguishable from imported ones.

I picked them up at a Hamburg reptile show. I've read that they are a good source of pigment. My concern is that they burrow most of the time.

I remember reading a post on land shrimps in a overseas forum,

The poster mentioned how they failed to thrive in eco-earth(coco fiber) settings but fared better in a moist(almost wet) soil, fed on tuna. They also seemed to be attracted to the decaying smell of canned tuna.

My concern is that a lot of amphipods are a vector of various parasites and nematods...

Rupert said:

My concern is that a lot of amphipods are a vector of various parasites and nematods...

Click to expand...

From what I have read, in regards to scuds at least, is that the parasites and nematodes need more than one host species to complete their life cycle (for example, water fowl in addition to scuds). So, if amphipods are cultured for multiple generations away from these host species then subsequent generations will be disease - free. I collected my current scud population from a local lake and am leaving the culture to "age" for a year while I wait for all the first generation scuds to die and I am left with only their progeny (a year because I read that they can live "up to 12 months," so I hope I don't have any Methuselahs in my population!)

So, if this information is true I wonder if it can be applied to other species of amphipods like lawn shrimp. We need Ed Kowalski to come back...

HJ