What do your ghost shrimp look like?

[Lance M.]

Just wondering cause it seems that there are many shrimp sold with the name Ghost shrimp. The regualr are just clear shrimp wiht no markings or anything. Yesterday I got some more and they look completely different. They have a couple small blue stripes wertical down their sides and have an extra set of claws. They are very aggressive too... When I got up this morning and looked at my tank there were at least three of the regular ghost shrimp cut in half in my tank!! (that looked wierd). Anyone seen these before?

I think I know what they are but I'm open to suggestions.

[dud]

Yikes! That sounds scary.

Hope someone wiser than me could offer some help. I'd hate to see my lovely ghost shrimps cut in half.

[hashbaz]

Japonica Amano Shrimp perhaps??
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...&TopCatId=1075

no experience but just a guess.

[TankGirl]

Amano shrimp won't eat other shrimp, and they don't have claws like that, so it may be more of a prawn. They will eat small fish, too.

[Fruitbat]

I'd certainly suspect one of the prawns. I've posted these before but I'm too lazy to hunt down the post they were in. These are two long-armed prawns that came in as 'ghost shrimp'. They were less than an inch long when I got them. The top one is now at 6 inches (and has eaten a loach), the bottom one is about 5 inches long.

[TankGirl]

You rock, Fruitbat!

[Lance M.]

Holy! Nice pics. They don't look like that, but what I think they are are Blue Claw Shrimp. I had three of them (about 3 inches each) for about three hours... I had to take them back. They were killing snails and other shrimp. But these shrimp I got as "ghost shrimp" look exactly the same just only about 3/4 inchs long.

I can't find any info on the blue claw shrimp.

[Lance M.]

O and what else do you have in the tank with those shrimp Fruitbat?

I've got a 5g tank that I grow out ghost shrimp for my show tanks. Been keeping ghost shrimp for years. One thing I have learned is you get a wide variety of shrimp species when you purchase ghost shrimp.

I once got a prawn in a bunch of ghost shrimp. Just like the pics above Fruitbat posted. Well this prawn made it into my heavily planted Discus tank as a baby. To make a long story short. I had to relocate the Discus. Remove all the driftwood and rock work. Uproot 75% of the plants and drain the water to remove this monster, once he got bigger and more aggressive.

He's now over 5" long and has his own 5g tank along with a red claw crab. It's close to two years old now. Prawns are great in thier own species tank. Reflecting back, Id rather have a couple of root canals than have to catch that crazy prawn again It really was that bad.

Moral of the story. Make darn sure what ever you introduce to a tank, will play well with others in the community.

[dud]

Great pics, fruitbat! That is one **** of a prawn.