"Lesser known are the indigenous aquatic invertebrates, which were the subject of a talk by Kristina Zitzler of the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany, on Wednesday, 2 November at the Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore. Ms Zitzler is presently developing her PhD paper on atyid shrimp speciation in Sulawesi’s lakes and her talk entitled "Evolution and radiation of atyid shrimps (Decapoda, Caridina) in ancient lakes on Sulawesi, Indonesia - a molecular and morphological approach" provided an overview of her still unpublished research."

"Extensive sampling of shrimp species from the island’s two lake systems and other habitats, along with molecular phylogeny (based on sequences of the mitochondrial genes 16S rRNA and cytochrome-oxidase-I (COI)) of Sulawesian shrimps as well as Caridina species from neighbouring regions revealed that at least three groups are present on the island: two consisting of riverine species with small eggs and a life cycle that involves downstream movement of the larvae, and a landlocked, lacustrine species flock with medium-sized eggs that hatch into larva without a transitional phase. Within this latter group, Poso contains a single clade while two clades were traced in Malili, indicating at least two separate colonisation events and evolutionary lineages.

Ms Zitzler notes that coevolution and a continuous arms-race between predator and prey has played a major role in adaptive radiation in the lakes. There are, for instance, species of fish with thick lips that enable to them to suck out shrimp dwelling in rock crevices. Endemic crabs have branched out as detrivores, omnivores as well as molluscivores with pincers strong enough to deal with hard-shelled snails.

There are at least 3 endemic Caridina species in Poso, while the Malili system is known to have 9 endemics and one non-endemic. Many other species of shrimp and snails remain undescribed. The lake-dwelling shrimps are also markedly more colourful and diverse in appearance compared to their less gaudy relatives in riverine environments. "

https://budak.blogs.com/the_annotated_budak/2005/11/shrimps_in_sula.html

This is what Werner Klotz has to say about the parameters of the Sulawesi lakes, which was posted online:

"These parameters seems to be no problem in this species. In the Towuti, Mantoano and Poso lakes you can find pH values between 7,4 and 8,2; the conductivity is at about 224 µS and the total hardness at about 6°DH. The water temperature is rather stabile at about 26,5°C. Only in shallow water regions near the shore the temperature can rise to 29°C.
Maybe the bigger problem with these species could be that the bright colored shrimp live rather substrate-specific (C. spongicola for instance, not imported for aquarium purposes until now, is restricted to a freshwater sponge)."

I hold a group of 35 cardinal shrimps which regularly carry eggs, with between 80-100 young shrimps. From my observations, I assume that the gestation period is between 18 and 20 days. What seems interesting is that the young shrimps grow fairly quickly in comparison to other kinds, young shrimps reach a size of about 1 cm within 6 weeks, which can be explained by the higher water temperature. Keeping the fresh water cardinal shrimp seems neither easy or difficult in my opinion, it is important to have constant parameters so that the ph will not fall below ph 7,5 and the temperature not below 26°C.

Together with the cardinal shrimps, I keep snails of the kind Tylomelania. The favorite food is Shrimp Wafers by Ocean Nutrition, otherwise I feed several flakes foods with higher contents of algae.

Here are some videos of my Sulawesi shrimps:
http://de.youtube.com/user/mura1972
- Mura