There is not a whole lot of info available about the Malaya Shrimp as of yet and it is very new to the USA having been imported in 2005 by Mustafa Ucozler and only offered to other hobbyists as recently as August 2007. This shrimp was imported to Germany in the early 2000s from Malaysia, it is from Mustafa of Petshrimp.com in the USA that I got my Malaya Shrimp. There are now several others I know of in the hobby that are keeping these shrimp since I have now shared some with others as well, but they are still not seen for sale on a regular basis. Often as well you will see shrimp that are not actually true Malaya Shrimp offered for sale and I recommend you know for sure what you are getting before buying! I will continue to update this page as I learn more about successfully keeping and breeding these shrimp.

What attracted me to the Malaya Shrimp was the fact that this shrimp has a wide range of different color hues that the Females show from Reds to Blues as well as Greens in different intensity with white lines crossing the back. The males are not as colorful and lack the white markings of the females, but are still quite nice looking in my opinion.

An interesting thing about this shrimp is that the young hatch as larvae and become small versions of the adults in a few days time. The larvae either rest on the substrate or in the moss of my tank and even on the sponge filter unless disturbed then they twitch away and float in the current until coming to rest again. This process happens in freshwater unlike many other species of larva producing shrimp which require brackish water for the young to survive. The larval stage of the Malaya Shrimp lasts about 3 days and then you will start seeing small but fully developed shrimplets about 2mm in size. I mean they are tiny when compared to other shrimp fry and you will notice the eggs the females carry are also very small.

This process of larva changing to shrimp all takes place in freshwater as mentioned above and I was able to observe the young in all stages from larva to shrimp and it is a very interesting process to say the least and these shrimp really carry allot of eggs holding better than 50 on average in a tight group under the tail from what I have seen in my tank. The female is pregnant for only 16 days give or take a few depending on water temp until hatching. The young are clear with some tinting color wise and sexing is impossible until almost fully sexually mature when the females will begin to show their stripes.

I feed Malaya Shrimp as you would any other shrimp in the hobby and care is also the same. A clean well cycled and mature tank will keep them healthy and happy and thus far I have had no real problems keeping these shrimp and having them breed and the females stay berried most of the time saddling again while carrying her eggs. They then are berried again within a few days to a couple weeks of having giving birth or at least this has been my experience so far. This is a very prolific shrimp when they are in a environment that suites them.

I have not really had these Malaya Shrimp for very long (10 months) so can't really share much more info, but I will offer up more as I learn more myself. I have now my colony in a 65 gallon aquarium and they are doing very well and I am able to share some in the hobby from time to time.

Below are some more photos of these beautiful shrimp starting with a male that somehow lost a leg, but shrimp as you may already know are able to regenerate appendages after a molt. Next is a female carrying just a few eggs this is her first batch and small for these shrimp. The third photo is of a two week old baby on the glass of my tank

My Malaya Shrimp are tank raised by me and kept in excellent health and I do have some available for purchase from time to time. I prefer to sell only juvenile shrimp from 1/4 to 1/2 inch long because they ship and adapt to your tanks parameters better and live a longer life than if you are sent adults that you have no clue as to age. Your Malaya Shrimp will live from 1 to 1.5 years on average so getting youngsters is a good idea. Please check my AZ Inverts Store for availability