Shrimp in a bowl

[tyrel]

I am wanting to keep a ghost shrimp or two (or six ) in a betta container I orgionally got for jumping spiders.

I have heard they won't survive without salt in the water, and wont shed their skin properly without iodine. The Aqarium salt I have dosent seem to have iodine in it. Could I just use Idodized salt from the department store? How much per gallon?

And how often should I change the water for one shrimp in a "too small for a betta" container? Partial water change or complete?

 

[MarkP]

I keep ghost shrimp, and the "Salt in the water" thing depends on which kind of Ghost Shrimp you get.

Marine and Freshwater Ghost Shrimp are hard to tell apart by looking at them, and if you buy em as feeders (Say, 10 for a dollar), you won't really know.

 

[tyrel]

I didn't mean marine, I ment brackish.

 

[JustOneMore20]

The ghost shrimp I know of are freshwater. They don't need salt. There may be a type of shrimp that need brackish water, but I don't think they are called ghost shrimp. I looked on petshrimp.com and the only shrimp they have that look like ghost shrimp are glass shrimp (another name for the common ghost shrimp) and they are fully freshwater.

 

[tyrel]

Well, the sign at the petstore says they require salt.

Could I use iodized salt from the department store? How much per gallon? How many water changes with one shrimp in a small betta container?

 

[MarkP]

Odd, the information I got from petshrimp and other places differed. Here's the petshrimp link I used

Petshrimp.com link

http://www.petshrimp.com/glassshrimp.html

This shrimp does not require brackish water for larvae development as some of their cousins that hail from brackish water and marine habitats (such as Palaemonetes pugio and Palaemonetes vulgaris). Unfortunately, it is very hard for the general hobbyist to tell all the different Palaemonetes species apart, as they look almost exactly the same. Many shrimp keepers end up buying the brackish water Glass Shrimp, which do not last long in freshwater tanks.

A more technical discussion is availible at The Krib

http://www.thekrib.com/Fish/Shrimp/

Palaeomonetes shrimp are commonly referred to as either ghost, grass, or glass shrimps....

The Palaeomonetes group can be effectively divided into two categories; brackish and freshwater. The use of the common names is often quite confusing, so for the purposes of this article I shall use only the scientific names in this section. 12. Palaeomonetes kadakensis or paludosus shrimp are found in predominantly freshwater systems. While Palaeomonetes pugio or vulgaris shrimp are found in brackish and/or marine waters and cannot tolerate extended exposure to fresh water. These differences, however, do not affect their physical descriptions.

So, Palaeomonetes kadakensis or paludosus would do great without any salt.

Palaeomonetes pugio or vulgaris would require brackish or marine water, and Iodide Salt.

They look the same to me- In fact, after hours spend trying to identify the ones I have, I am still waiting to either see babies or dead bodies to be sure.

I don't have any deep suggestions on what salt to use- I don't do brackish or marine. My suggestion would be to get the freshwater varient, and not worry about brackish water, adding enough salt for PWC's but not too much due to the evaporation, etc.

Of course, you might trust your LFS more then I do. Of course, mine sells em as feeders, not as pets in their own right, so they don't do much checking into the shrimp.

 

[Guest]

I keep ghost srimp in a 75g planted tank and have never added salt to any of my tanks and less there is ick in the tnk. But knock on wood I havn't had ick in over yr in any of my tanks til just the other day when I took over a fish from a buddie. Who I had giving him and seen how nastey his tank was and took them back. Now with my shrimp they lived without salt of any kind for going on 3 yrs and breed and spawn larva.
Now your talking about keeping them in a small bowl with just water changes. If your going to keep them that way your going to have to add air to the tank/bowl.Shrimp have to have a air supplie to survice therenot like the betta and can come to the surface for air. They'll dyi way before they ever spawn.
I myself have breed them and raised 100's of the little guys to keep my population up in my 75g tank. I have also again never once added salt of any kind to there water, They've done great this way and shad there skin all the time. The new little ones are always getting new skin it sems like once a week there a shell in the tank from them. I keep the shrimp with Kribs,GBR's,Apisto's, guppys, puffers,ADF, killi's, red flags and they never touch them, not even thou I feed live brine shrimp to them every night. By the way ghost shrimp love the brine shrimp. They will swim around the tank after feeding and get what left on the plants, wood ,anything.

 

[hc8719]

your not keeping anything in the bowl besides ghost shrimp?

when they say salt, they mean aquarium salt, i add 1 TBL for every 10 gal
be careful, the very large shrimp might pick on the tiny ones...

and they say only 1 shrimp per gallon, but that is considering room at a bottom

example...so dont put 3 shrimp in a 3 gal bowl, because the bottom is really small, they like their space

 

[JustOneMore20]

I wouldn't put shrimp in a bowl at all....not even a 3g bowl. If you want shrimp, setup a 10g tank that has atleast a sponge filter.

 

[Guest]

I wouldn't put shrimp in a bowl at all....not even a 3g bowl. If you want shrimp, setup a 10g tank that has atleast a sponge filter.

That's it a bowl just want work for breeding them. most ghost shrimp use plants to spawn on and it's hard to keep anything in a bowl alive other then java moss. I'd keep java moss in the 10g toallow the fry some place to hide from the mother. Once the fry is droped then the mother sould be pulled anyway or she will eat them.

 

[hc8719]

because shrimp almost exclussively walk on the bottom, they need walking space, like us

you dont live in a room that is 3'x3' but has a high ceiling do you?