Well now that this topic has somewhat worn itself out, let me answer this way.
If you are asking about ghost shrimp & fish waste because you *want* to have shrimp and are wondering about what they need to stay fed, the answer is they definitely do not stay alive on fish poo. They will eat uneaten fish food (flake, pellet, whatever), they will eat live or frozen food (bloodworms, etc.), and they will pick at & eat stuff (microorganisms) all over your tank that is too small for us to see with our unaided eyes.
If you are asking about ghost shrimp & fish waste because you were hoping that adding a ton of ghost shrimp would reduce or eliminate the need to vacuum the gravel as part of your regular tank maintenance, the answer is no, neither ghost shrimp nor any other critter out there commonly seen in the aquarium hobby will do that. Honestly, the closest you can come to reducing your need for gravel vacc-ing is to have a very heavily planted tank, and let the fish waste remain as fertilizer for the plants.
On a side note, while ghost shrimp are among the heartier of the dwarf shrimp species, they still tend to be more sensitive to water conditions than even "sensitive" freshwater fish. They also tend to not last long in a community tank, either because something eventually eats them, or else because fish pick at them (perhaps "playfully," but pick at them nonetheless), which stresses them out and leads to their death that way. So just be warned that *often*, ghost shrimp do not fare well in community tanks. The more plant cover you have, the more successful you are likely to be.
If you are asking about ghost shrimp & fish waste because you *want* to have shrimp and are wondering about what they need to stay fed, the answer is they definitely do not stay alive on fish poo. They will eat uneaten fish food (flake, pellet, whatever), they will eat live or frozen food (bloodworms, etc.), and they will pick at & eat stuff (microorganisms) all over your tank that is too small for us to see with our unaided eyes.
If you are asking about ghost shrimp & fish waste because you were hoping that adding a ton of ghost shrimp would reduce or eliminate the need to vacuum the gravel as part of your regular tank maintenance, the answer is no, neither ghost shrimp nor any other critter out there commonly seen in the aquarium hobby will do that. Honestly, the closest you can come to reducing your need for gravel vacc-ing is to have a very heavily planted tank, and let the fish waste remain as fertilizer for the plants.
On a side note, while ghost shrimp are among the heartier of the dwarf shrimp species, they still tend to be more sensitive to water conditions than even "sensitive" freshwater fish. They also tend to not last long in a community tank, either because something eventually eats them, or else because fish pick at them (perhaps "playfully," but pick at them nonetheless), which stresses them out and leads to their death that way. So just be warned that *often*, ghost shrimp do not fare well in community tanks. The more plant cover you have, the more successful you are likely to be.
