AMAZONAS
H.-G. EVERSCherax sp. “Apocalypse Red Claw” Crayfish1 |
Cherax sp. “Apocalypse Orange Tiger,” intro-
duced in AMAZONAS September/October 2017,
has a red cousin. The new form seen here for the first
time lives not far from the locations of the well-known
variant with white-tipped blue claws, close to the border
between West Papua in Indonesia and Papua New
Guinea. The animals imported by Aquarium Dietzen-
bach strongly resemble the blue form in color and differ
only in having fire-red claws. The location of Cherax sp.
“Apocalypse Red Claw” is even more remote and diffi-
cult to reach. In this area there are still no good roads,
and the recently imported specimens were taken to
the nearest village on foot and by motorbike. We would
like to see the few animals that have been imported
bred in order to establish this attractive species in the
hobby. Aquarists who are lucky enough to acquire them
can contribute real pioneering work.
—Hans-Georg EversAustralatya obscura, Bamboo Filter-Feeding Shrimp2 |
I noticed something strange in one of our recent
Amano shrimp imports. In the past we had
occasionally received a few Atyoida pilipes, a dwarf fan
shrimp, but this was something else. I immediately put
it into its own aquarium, where it quickly positioned
itself in the strongest current. Instead of the dorsal
stripe seen in A. pilipes, this specimen had two distinct
vertical stripes on a rather pale, milky body. After a few
days the specimen was finally identified: it was a male
Bamboo Shrimp, Australatya obscura, a species de-
scribed by Han & Klotz in 2015. After talking to Werner
Klotz and Martin Kruck, I can offer some information
about this rare specimen.
Australatya obscura has caused some confusion,
as Atyopsis moluccensis is also called Bamboo Shrimp
in the United States. Because of this, Kruck suggested
that for the time being we should use only the scientific
name, which refers to the shrimp’s lifestyle (the Latin➊ CHERAX SP. “APOCALYPSE RED CLAW” ➋ AUSTRALATYA OBSCURA
➌ BARYANCISTRUS XANTHELLUS “VERDE” ➍ HAPLOCHROMIS TWED-
DLEI ➎ PROCAMBARUS ENOPLOSTERNUM ➏ NEMATABRAMIS EVERETTISPECIESSNAPSHOTS
An amazing new crayfish,
Cherax sp. “Apocalypse Red Claw”