bought some shrimpies

[FastFly67]

I've been interested in doing a shrimp tank for a while. Saw Petco has some chost chrimps at 33 cents a peice so i figured i'd try my hand at the cheapo ones first
these things are just so cool to watch

 

[bs6749]

I wouldn't relate your ghost shrimp experience to that of dwarf shrimp such as RCS, yellows, etc. which are much easier to keep alive IMO than ghost shrimp. Ghost shrimp are generally sold as feeders and that's why they are so cheap. They are often sick and diseased as well. I purchased 24 of them back in September or October and have maybe 6 of them alive still and that includes one that I raised from the larval stage. All of my RCS, yellows, and snowball shrimp are THRIVING. They eat algae and pellet food for the most part and ghost shrimp are more of a detritus feeder and scavenger but I still give them some flake once in a while. Overall, I don't see why you need "experience" if you are wanting some of the Neocaridina species of dwarf shrimp like RCS since they are extremely hardy. Expensive crystal red shrimp (high grades) on the other hand I wouldn't recommend getting right away. You'd be better off getting less expensive CRS (The lowest grade, C-grade, sell for about $3 each). The higher grades such as the ones I have were on average $14 each. It really sucks losing those!

 

[missileman]

Whisker shrimp are very hardy as well and not expensive at all.
I paid about $2 each for the five I have and to spite my best attempts at killing them they continue to thrive and have grown quite a bit in the past few months that I have had them.

 

[FastFly67]

the one that i really want are the blue pearl shrimp

 

[TheNamelessPoet]

I picked up 2 ghosts as well and man... it was like they really were ghosts... i could not see them for 3 days... then there they were... I have a 20 gallon... how many can I have (sew below for the tank)

 

[nycfatcow]

Hey man,

Ive gotten ghost shrimp as well before...they definately live up to their name... they hide most of the time....

I definately second getting red cherry shrimp... I started out with about 25 of them and in months my colony grew to 50-60 strong... you can find them on aquabid.com, they are fairly cheap 20-30 bucks for 20 of them or more... Just remember that these shrimp are tiny and larger fish will probably snack on them.

 

[FastFly67]

I picked up 2 ghosts as well and man... it was like they really were ghosts... i could not see them for 3 days... then there they were... I have a 20 gallon... how many can I have (sew below for the tank)

From everything I've read, you can have like 100 in a 10 gallon. They have a very low bioload. All of mine are actually gone. I know I offed two of them myself, 1 with a falling piece of driftwood, one with a gravel vac. oops
I'm looking into some RCS since most people are telling me that ghost shrimp should be mostly kept for food. /shrug

 

[miniflea84]

^ You can keep them just for the sake of keeping them if you want. I have four in my tank (originally seven) and they are interesting enough on their own I think. They also do a great job of keeping algae levels down.

 

[FastFly67]

Maybe I should have said 'since they're bredly mostly for food, they aren't that healthy to begin with' (see post #2)

 

[gzeiger]

That much is true. I think they're really interesting to watch. I have probably a hundred myself, and they liven up the tank a lot. They are a preferred food for anything that can swallow them, though.

I only have wild-caught ones, so mine are quite healthy. I've had probably a single-digit number of deaths (enough shrimp in the tank I can't be completely sure), which is low enough I think it's just old age. If you know anybody on the Gulf coast they might send you a net full

 

[miniflea84]

Their tendency to die is offset by the fact that they are dirt cheap. I originally bought seven, and four (that I can see, possibly there are five) are left and doing well.

 

[TheNamelessPoet]

lol Mine reappeared 2 days ago (well 1 did) now its gone again lol... its like my dissabearng snail who was gone for 7-10 days then reapeared!!!