Shrimp

[squish]

Hi all, i have a question regarding shrimp (ghost) is it illegal to keep these shrimp, reason im asking is coz i have a dwarf lion fish at about 1 1/2" and im stuggeling to get him to eat frozen and i can not find any shrimp out there and starting to get a little worried!!

[Zoom]

Yes. ALL shrimp are Blacklisted and illegal in South Africa.

The only shrimp that is not blacklisted is Brine Shrimp.

[oscar freak]

I'm assuming its a marine fish maybe masa would be a better place to get help for this situation?

[Vis]

Marine shrimp is not BL though.

[Slojo]

Try feeding him small guppies.

[SalmonAfrica]

Unfortunately I have to agree with Slojo on this one.

Have you tried dangling a small chunk of bait fish in front of it? Wobbling it around may make it appear life-like and induce a strike reaction from the lion fish.

[viskop]

rather mollies though - they can adapt to salt water better than guppies - can't they? Mind you - its not like the guppy will have all that long to live....mhuwahaha

[wearsbunnyslippers]

how can local shrimp be on the import blacklist?

local fauna and flora will require a collection and keeping permit, you can contact environmental affairs (http://www.environment.gov.za/), good luck getting them to come back to you..

[squish]

Thanks for the help guys, tryed the dangling thing last night with a small peice of hake but he was not intrested ganna try again tonight and if no luck will try a mollie or so.

[Slojo]

Sometimes these Lionfish take only live food like small Guppys,Small Mollies,Small Goldfish etc.
Do not worry about the saltwater as the fish will not have time to adjust to these parameters.........:sick:

[Sean J]

You can get a collection permit from the local post office apparently. Go there, get the permit and go collect glass shrimp from rock pools. They should supply the lionfish with enough nutrition for a while. I would rather use marine shrimp than fresh water fish. They do not eat fresh water fish in the wild, but they do eat ghost shrimp.

Good luck.

[Zebra Pleco]

You can get a collection permit from the local post office apparently. Go there, get the permit and go collect glass shrimp from rock pools. They should supply the lionfish with enough nutrition for a while. I would rather use marine shrimp than fresh water fish. They do not eat fresh water fish in the wild, but they do eat ghost shrimp.

Good luck.
Agreed, or you could also try river shrimp, plenty of those available, not ideal but at least it will give you some breathing space until you can get him to eat frozen foods. A friend of mine used to collect fresh river shrimp daily to feed his lionfish.

[oscar freak]

is that possible i thought collecting from rivers was a NO NO

[Zebra Pleco]

is that possible i thought collecting from rivers was a NO NOAh geez, my first post in like 6 months and now I'm in kak with the blacklist, lol. Best I shut my mouth.:p

[Vis]

I'm in kak with the blacklist


Maybe not the BL but with conservation :)

And be a little bit careful what you take out of our filthy rivers these days.

[SalmonAfrica]

Rather leave our river shrimp as they are, seeing as our freshwater ecosystems are a little bit 'broken' already what with all these invasive aliens, pollution problems etc.

Stick with the livebearer idea. Black mollies can adapt to marine conditions relatively easily, and once there (assuming they survive long) will even reproduce in such conditions - more food, even if kinda small.

I'm against the idea of live fish as food but I'd rather see one fish get munched than another slowly suffer and starve.

[Whipme]

Caridina Nilotica, that's what most of our local shrimp are, very well studied at Rhodes University. They're pretty much just ghost shrimp.
With the correct permits you shouldn't have any issues getting some of these from local rivers and they can apparently be found in most, but them being almost transparent will make finding them very difficult. Speak to your local conservation people to find out if it's legal to keep them after collection and you might be able to set up a colony that you can use to feed your lionfish. From what I've heard they seem to be more prolific in winter, so to get them to breed you might need very cold water.

This research paper mentions them throughout, but page 81 deals with location (mostly KZN and Eastern Cape): http://eprints.ru.ac.za/159/1/slaughter-msc.pdf
This paper deals with their lifecycle, and predates the one above: http://www.ewisa.co.za/literature/files/153.pdf

[Slojo]

Due to the current state of pollution none is to be found in any of our ecosytems in Gauteng specifically,but parts of Mpumulanga and the Northern Province still have.
They are one of the first species that will die out in an ecosystem should there be any pollution present.
So a link in the chain has been broken and it is expected to have an impact on the local specie of fish soon.

[Naomi]

Squish, try Mollies, my uncle keeps lionfish and they work excellent for him!
He's on MASA PM me and Ill put you in touch!

[Xtreme Wife]

I got mine on freeze dried shrimp very easily.Pleas do not use liver, it is very bad for saltwater fish,mollies works too. But if you want to get them off live food, try the shrimp.