Beware of the Ghost Shrimp!

[Sarah E]

I bought 6 ghost shrimp, cute as can be, and put them into my tank with my beautiful bettas, cories, etc.... i came in, saw 1 fish damaged, thought it was from my betta. This morning, woke up, found her dead. Found another fish dead and half eaten. Upon research, Ghost shrimp killed them. Ghost shrimp will eat sleeping, injured and dead fish... dead fish, i'm fine with... Sleeping? Nope! They are also known to eat their own kind AND capture slower swimming fish and eat them... like fancy guppies, they grab their tails....

That's the LAST TIME i buy a fish without researching!

 

[Scouser]

Shrimp are inverts lol

 

[iheartmyed9]

Ghost shrimp will do this? I had no idea. Mine stay hidden to keep from getting ate.

 

[FishManSinceFive]

Get a border loach they will eat them i got one and all my shrimp disappeared then i found out they love eating small invertabrates

 

[gabysapha]

I absolutely agree with the OP! I bought a bunch of ghost shrimp once, I thought they were entertaining. But I sensed something a little evil about them....

And yup, I witnessed them catching my platties in mid-swim and began eating them alive.

Needless to say, I have not purchased ghost shrimp since then. I don't want to! There are so many other harmless and more beautiful shrimp out there! Plus, it's so hard to breed ghost shrimp successfully.

 

[WhiteWolf]

What are the more peaceful shrimp? I had a whisker shrimp I had to get rid of once because he kept going after my fish. All the ghost shrimp I have had have gotten eaten by my fish. I am going to get Guppies soon and I want shrimp with them, but I had never heard of ghost shrimp being aggressive.

 

[gabysapha]

What are the more peaceful shrimp? I had a whisker shrimp I had to get rid of once because he kept going after my fish. All the ghost shrimp I have had have gotten eaten by my fish. I am going to get Guppies soon and I want shrimp with them, but I had never heard of ghost shrimp being aggressive.

Oh goodness, whisker shrimp were worse than ghosties for me. I think they are more predatory and that's why. I thank Petco for selling me a "peaceful" fish that turned out to be very aggressive.

The peaceful shrimp are going to be the ones that eat algae, for sure. Red cherry shrimp are easy to get from forum members here, and they are beautiful and reproduce easily. I really love them. There are other color morphs of red cherries, and other species like tiger and amano. You have a lot of choices.

 

[siva]

Look up pictures of red claw macros and make sure that isn't what you got by mistake. IME a ghost shrimp won't be able to kill a healthy fish. They will definitely eat fish that are already dead, and I think thats more likely the case here.