Ghost shrimp and grass shrimp as food

[machoburrito]

Hey everyone I was wondering if it would be ok to feed a tiger Oscar, jack Dempsey, and a jaguar ghost shrimp and grass shrimp every now and then as a treat? Can you guys and lady's enlighten me please!!!! Thank you

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Hey everyone I was wondering if it would be ok to feed a tiger Oscar, jack Dempsey, and a jaguar ghost shrimp and grass shrimp every now and then as a treat? Can you guys and lady's enlighten me please!!!! Thank you

My LFS sells ghost shrimp as feeders, so if they'll eat them it should be fine. It's good to gut load ghosties with high quality food before feeding them to fish. MY GSP will be getting them as part of their regular diet .

 

[machoburrito]

So when you say gut load what should I put in them and can I just take the claws off and dump them in or is that bad?

 

[Mr. Limpet]

So when you say gut load what should I put in them and can I just take the claws off and dump them in or is that bad?

My LFS said to feed them really good fish food, or even some human food like veggies just before you put them in the tank for the fish they're going to be fed to.

I don't see claws per say, on my ghost shrimp. Just long, thin arms that they use to pickup left over food in my Betta community tank.

 

[machoburrito]

Well the ones that my local bait shop sells has one large and one small claw lol can I just put those in my tank instead of breeding them? Or is that bad for my fish? Thank you for your help.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Well the ones that my local bait shop sells has one large and one small claw lol can I just put those in my tank instead of breeding them? Or is that bad for my fish? Thank you for your help.

Humm... I'm not sure. Are they really ghost shrimp, how big are they? Personally, I wouldn't put shrimp from a bait shop in my tanks, you never know what kind of disease they'll bring with them.

Mine get about an inch, max. and I get them from my LFS for .08 each and when my GSP are ready, they'll get feeder guppies for .12 each. I plan to gut load both for the GSP.

 

[machoburrito]

Yeah they are about an inch in length also and they are ghost shrimp I made sure to ask also I've call a lot of fish stores already and none have grass or ghost shrimp

 

[Rokuzachi]

One large and small claw sounds less shrimp-like and more... lobster/crayfish/crab like. But I'm not a crustacean expert.

 

[machoburrito]

I just googled it and it is a ghost shrimp it matches the picture to the ones at the store so I don't think we are on the same type of shrimp what about grass shrimp is that ok to feed?

 

[machoburrito]

Mr.limpet you must be talking about grass shrimp they are the ones with little hands for feeding.

 

[Rokuzachi]

If you google "ghost shrimp", you get results for two different species. There is a picture of one, "Neotrypaea californiensis", which is clearly not the standard, 6-10 cents a piece aquarium ghost shrimp. That species clearly has one large and one small claw, and according to the info available on it, is a burrowing shrimp.

The common aquarium ghost shrimp, as far as I'm aware, is Palaemonetes spp.

So which one are you saying looks like the one you saw at a bait shop?

 

[machoburrito]

Neo. Californianesta one is the one at the shop

 

[machoburrito]

The second one is the grass shrimp which is Also at the bait shop

 

[Rokuzachi]

Ghost and grass shrimp are often the same thing in shops. I've never in over a decade seen N. californiensis at an aquarium shop. Putting that together with the fact that you found it at a bait shop, I'm inclined to think that it's not something that's commonly used in the aquarium trade.

I'd just stick to ghost/grass or red cherry shrimp. If you decide you want to breed your own (which is a better idea than buying them from a stock tank at a store for health reasons), red cherry shrimp are the way to go because they don't go through a larval stage like the others.

 

[machoburrito]

Ok that sounds good thanks guys for all your help!!!

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Mr.limpet you must be talking about grass shrimp they are the ones with little hands for feeding.

Nope, ghost shrimp. Her'e s a pic that looks kinda like mine. Maybe there's more than one kind?

http://www.tropicalaquarium.za.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ghost-shrimp.jpg

 

[machoburrito]

Lol yeah we call it grass shrimp but I can see why people call it ghost shrimp.