ghost shrimp???

I went to the pet store today to get a betta. They only had 4 bettas there and I didn't like any of them. I wondered into the other fresh water fish area and decided on two yellow mollies. Housed with the mollies were these little shrimp. The sign said they were ghost shrimp. I talked to the pet store worker for a few minutes about how to keep shrimp as pets. Once I realized that these cute lil shrimp were super easy to keep I got one. Has anyone ever had ghost shrimp before? Any tips on keeping this little guy happy and healthy with his fish buddies?

They tank I have them in holds two gallons of water. I have a tank light on them too. Thanks for any advice!...pics are welcome too! I just love these little guys!

:love: Yes I have heard of them before.. They did a Bio & Intro on them one morning on the Today Show.. They are neat looking.. However I know nothing about keeping one.. Good Luck & I know you will do well.. Whats the new name??

My shrimp's name is Skampi. The two new fish don't have names yet.

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Originally Posted by lute

My shrimp's name is Skampi. The two new fish don't have names yet.

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Lol...Shrimp Skampi! :D

They don't really need anything special. Just keep the tank clean & feed the fishies & it'll be fine. But they do have very short life spans.

If you see it turn white, it's going to die soon.

If you see something like it's brains moving in it's body, thats normal, you're just observing its digestive system in action :)

If you see a 2nd shrimp but it looks hallow, remove it, because your shrimp has molted it's old shell so it can grow.

If you look carefully your shrimp will infact have colour on it. Some have yellow markings, red marking, & if your lucky like me, You'll have BLUE shrimp. When I say blue I mean their whole body is blue, BUT you can't really tell unless they are in an all white container hehehe

I buy 20-30 of them at a time for my 90gal tank. Usually after 6 months they are all dead. I believe they need saltwater for the young to live.

If you want a friendly pet shrimp that you can enjoy for years, get a Flower, Banana, or Rock Shrimp (they all look the same IMO).. they do get a little larger so you might want a 5g tank.

I bought a few ghost shrimp for my 55 gallon tank, because they were cute and interesting. The next morning when I got up, they were all dead ... on the floor! They apparently crawled up the air tubing and out of the tank where it was open in the back of the hood for the tubing, filters, etc. It was sad. :( So just make sure you have a completely covered tank!

Please tell me you aren't trying to keep mollies in a 2 gallon tank.

King2005, Thanks for the info! I didn't know they had such a short life-span. I'm kinda bummed.

Ya, I had 3 of them once, They're pretty cool but yeah mine only lived a few months :(

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Originally Posted by lute

King2005, Thanks for the info! I didn't know they had such a short life-span. I'm kinda bummed.

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No problem. I currently have 1 in my 90gal & she's been in there for nearly 6 months!

Now there 2 classes of shrimp. Community & Aggressive. Any shrimp you see with no pincers, just tiny little feeder arms are community friendly. Anything with LONG front arms or claws are aggressive. Now the Banana shrimp have fan hands, they are also community friendly & soooo cool to watch!

This is a banana shrimp (fan hands)
http://www.fishlinkworldwide.com/fis...ana_shrimp.jpg

This is a rock shrimp (fan hands)
http://www.atlasaqm.net/images/uploads/zebra_shrimp.jpg

Found a nice pic of a ghost shrimp
http://collegeishard.tv/blog/ghost-shrimp.jpg

Oh I nearly forgot, Red Cherry Shrimp! They are small, they can breed in fresh water & they are pretty! Community friendly & they are small!
http://www.petshrimp.com/redcherryshrimp.html


Here is a nice website with diff pet shrimp
http://www.petshrimp.com/shrimpspecies.html

WOW! Thanks for the websites! My Skampi does last week. I think he had been at the petstore for a while as he was the biggest one there. I'll have to try again. I did enjoy the shrimp as pets. They are fun to watch and are for sure more active than fish.

Shrimp, Crayfish & snails are some of my fav tank pets. I'm getting 3 Red Crayfish from my friend soon. Her's bred & she was hoping for some Blue Shrimp. But they all came out diff shades of red/brown. They are also really neat to watch, but they can be aggressive, so they need to be well fed (I use dry cat food as their meat source... no grains/chemicals). My blue Lobster didn't eat any of my fish & I think thats why, as her original owner got rid of her for eating the other fish.

I bought a whole bunch of very small ghost shrimp to feed my pumpkinseed a few years ago. He ate a few of them and the rest escaped climbing up airlines filters and whatever else they could get hold of. I've had crawfish a couple times too. One lived in my tank peacefully with the pumpkinseed for many years until it decided to molt outside of it's little crawfish house... once. I came home to a messy shell and a fat fish. Both were very well fed ahead of time. I guess you can only distract natural instinct for so long. :(

Indeed they are so funny!!!

was scuba diving this week in Gozo and there is this dive site its called shrimp cave and there are hundreds of them. They had blue tummies with red lines along their body. They are funny because some of them are bad tempered, they charge at you, when you point your torch some run away but some guard their territory! Lol! Funny!

And yes I'm talking about sea water here.

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Originally Posted by karyn674

Indeed they are so funny!!!

was scuba diving this week in Gozo and there is this dive site its called shrimp cave and there are hundreds of them. They had blue tummies with red lines along their body. They are funny because some of them are bad tempered, they charge at you, when you point your torch some run away but some guard their territory! Lol! Funny!

And yes I'm talking about sea water here.

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That's funny! I didn't think of shrimp as aggressive animals.LOL

I have two ghost shrimp with my other fish in my aquarium.

The only care tip I give to you is to give them at least one plant they can climb/hide in! My shrimp love hiding in my plant and only run about at night time. As soon as I put my shrimp in the tank for the first time, one of them ran to a pine-needle-leaf that fell off of my plant and chomped away at it!

Here is a good website with information. Contrary to the claims of this forum, this site says they can last up to 2 years! How exciting!

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/inv/ghostshrimp.php

-D