Marble wood shrimp

Atya scabra

Also known as Camacuto shrimp, Marbled fan shrimp

FreshwaterShrimp

Marble wood shrimp (Atya scabra) — (c) Tom Kennedy, some rights reserved (CC BY) · cc-by

Care at a glance

Temperature: 73–82°F (23–28°C)
pH: 6.5–7.5
Adult size: 3.9 in (10 cm)
Minimum tank: 20 gal (75 L)
Temperament: Peaceful
Social behavior: Social
Swim level: Bottom
Difficulty: Medium
Breeding: Hard
Rarity: Rare
Origin: Atlantic-slope streams from Mexico to Brazil and West Africa
Family: Atyidae

Overview

A large, heavy-bodied fan shrimp that filter-feeds from the current instead of hunting or grazing. It is peaceful and gets on with calm tankmates and dwarf shrimp, and it likes company of its own kind, so keep two or three where space allows. Give it brisk flow and a raised perch, a stone or root near the outflow, where it can sit and comb food from the water with its feathered front legs. It will quietly starve in spotless water, so feed the current: powdered and liquid foods, crushed flake, and fine frozen foods dusted upstream of its perch. Allow around 75 liters or more with real flow and strong oxygenation.

In the wild

The marble wood shrimp lives in rocky, fast-flowing streams on both sides of the tropical Atlantic, from Mexico south to Brazil and across to West Africa, holding station in riffles and rapids. It wants the same at home: strong flow, high oxygen, and boulders or wood to anchor on. Keep the water warm, 23–28 C, and neutral to slightly hard around pH 6.5–7.5, with a little mineral content to support its shell.

Good to know

Atya scabra is one of the larger members of Atyidae, the fan shrimp family, reaching about 10 centimeters and sometimes more. Its front legs carry dense fans of bristles used to strain plankton and detritus from moving water rather than claws for feeding. Breeding it in an aquarium is hard, because it is amphidromous: females release tiny larvae that must wash down to the sea and develop in salt water before returning upstream as juveniles.

Did you know

Because its larvae have to ride downstream to the sea and back to mature, wild marble wood shrimp spread along whole coastlines, and a home colony can never replace itself from within the tank.