# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna > Invertebrates >  Shrimps: Malayan vs. Yamato

## focus-T

I went to Ben @ Tiong Bahru wanting to buy yamatos. He had strongly recommended against Yamatos for riccia. he said those over hardworking fellas will rip the riccia apart. Not so by their Malayan cousins.

any comments?

----------


## Simon

cant answer for the rest, but whe I had yamato with riccia, they didnt do anything to them.. IMO, yamato r the most hardworking algae eaters I come across.. cases when yamato attack riccia, mainly becoz the tank is low in algae

----------


## CK Yeo

I agree with Simon.

----------


## BFG

Will these shrimp attack cabomba plants?

B.F.G

----------


## sherchoo

I had Yamatos in my 2 footer together with _Riccia_. They did not seem to bother them even when it was low on algae. Guess I'm lucky.......

----------


## David

usually yamatoes ......when low on algae feed will start to attack any plant they can feed on....there are two solution to this ....reduce the population or feed them algae wafers.

----------


## hoppinghippo

exactly which algae do malayan and yams target? same or diff algae? and do they attack spot algae on leaves?

----------


## hwchoy

my ex-yamatos ignore the algae and fight with the fishes for flakes [ :Embarassed: ]

----------


## CK Yeo

no. they are pretty useless against spot algae. How you expect them to scrape off the algae?
Shrimps are more scavangers and are opportunistic. Algae is not its only food source. They eat everything and anything they can find in a tank.

----------


## hwchoy

BTW, has anyone come across the Temasek shrimp in LFS or FF? Apparently these have the feather duster like the wood shrimp but is around the size of malayans.

----------


## Plantbie

Can anyone enlighten me the difference between the 2? Thanks

----------


## kelstorm

as in to identify or what they do???

----------


## Simon

difference? size, markings on the body, feeding behaviour... u shld have do a search in the forum.. think MECH ever posted the pics..

click here for yamato

----------


## Plantbie

Hmm... differences in the cleaning work they do, which is more hardy and why there is such a huge price difference?

----------


## juggler

TheKrib.com has a page dedicated to shrimps, with photos: Freshwater Shrimp in the Aquarium

----------


## MECH

> ----------------
> On 8/27/2002 10:42:55 AM 
> 
> Hmm... differences in the cleaning work they do, which is more hardy and why there is such a huge price difference?
> ----------------


Yamato......good algae eater........heard those available in SG is from Taiwan
Malayan.......so so algae eater.......from Malaysia
Malayan is a little bit more hardy than Yamato
Both r suitable for SG climate

 :Razz:   :Razz:   :Razz:

----------


## Plantbie

Thanks.

But till this point in time, i saw malayan shrimps eating my dead Yamatos.. hee hee

----------


## vinz

Yeah... shrimps are good at cleaning up dead fishes (or shrimps) too.

----------


## justjoin

how abt grass shrimp(those feeder from LFS) then?

R they algea eater ...?

----------


## BFG

Glass shrimps are scavenger imo. Got a few in my tanks but all will reappear when I feed my fishes. Also, they will eat christmas moss coz my moss that I bought from Gen X which came attached 2 driftwood all disappeared. Saw them munching peacefully like having buffet. Sometimes harass my cories, thinking that the cories are dead.

----------


## chaq

i dunno if any of you pple have encountered this before ... but yamatoes in my tank rip off all the riccia in my tank ... but the malayans didnt

----------


## Plantbie

Till now those Yamatos still dare not touch my Riccia yet, so does they Malayans.

----------


## DEA

means you have a lot of food in the tank for them [ :Grin: ]
yamatoes are more hardworking, is true
but malayans are more hardy and don't appeal as much to fish like apistos
+ they're tons cheaper

----------


## greenthumb

How to differentiate between the two?[: :Smile: ]

----------


## sherchoo

Physically Yamato are bigger and they have black dots on the body. You can get them at Petmart at $12 for a bag of 20. You can call them to check if they have stock.

LFS list

----------


## DEA

yamato



malayan

hth

----------


## kunner

Hi all, I am currently hunting for some yamato shrimp and have one bad encounter at petmart. Guess wat, I was at pet mart yesterday and discover the Malayan shrimp size is bigger than Yamato!!!! The price is still the same!!!! :Mad:  
I use to think Yamato is much more larger than Malayan????
Where can I get those "normal" size yamato? Allen any chance in Qian Hu???

----------


## Simon

ben at tiong bahru has yamato

----------


## DEA

what? malayan has the same price as yamato?
i think it's just the batch of shrimp they happened to get
usually the malayans are smaller than the yamatos
in this case it's more likely you saw big malayans and small yamatos

----------


## cyberjoe

Sorry whats the dif between malayan or yamato? but which one nicer to keep?

----------


## Simon

joe, we compare malayan and yamato interms of algae eating capabilities.. so yamato is more hardworking

----------


## kunner

Allen, hows the shrimp doing in your tank???? Just discover something.... they are not tiger shrimp nor Bee shrimp becos I got both of them (no wonder the price is different). There is a big contrast. The most important thing is they not only eat algea but other food too. I was feeding my L046 with beef heart and find these shrimp also eating. Don have a Dcam to take down the different but see if anyone here know what shrimp we r getting.

----------


## mandz

hi guys, need some identification help here...

i bought some shrimps just now at pasir ris farm.... they claimed that they're yamatos.... selling at 50cents each... however, they are really small and somewhat looked like malayans to me.... 

can someone pls help and let me noe how to distinguish the two? (if possible?) the shrimps have a stripe on their back.....

appreciate it... just want to know whether i've been chopped.... :Sad:

----------


## wks

Yamato shrimps have transparent bodies with spots. Malayan shrimps usually come with many colours. You can search the Internet for yamato shrimp pictures. If you have a 50 cents malayan shrimp, well its way too expsensive.

----------


## mandz

> ----------------
> On 6/5/2003 1:46:39 PM 
> 
> Yamato shrimps have transparent bodies with spots. Malayan shrimps usually come with many colours. You can search the Internet for yamato shrimp pictures. If you have a 50 cents malayan shrimp, well its way too expsensive.
> ----------------


hi wks, but after reading http://www.thekrib.com/Fish/Shrimp/, they mentioned &amp;quot;One of the most distinguishing traits of the Yamato shrimp is that it is much more attractively colored than the other varieties. Their bodies are light brown to opaque with a tan stripe down their back&amp;quot;

they come in different colours too? 
i'm looking at them now and they dun seem to have the spots on their body.... however, they do have the tan stripe on the bag as described in the krib and their tail is dark coloured.... *confused*

----------


## hwchoy

this is a Yamato, usually 2-5cm in size:



this is a Malayan, usually 1-2cm in size:

----------


## mandz

ok realized that those were not yamatos... went back to the farm and got a FULL refund... UPZ for that farm... now i'm in search for the real yamatos...

----------


## eGGS

Can you tell me which farm did you get the malayan shrimps from?

Tks

----------


## mandz

why? it's so expensive u won't want to buy.

----------


## barmby

Go Nature Aquarium. They gave good rates compared to travelling all the way fishfarms......

----------

