Ghosties

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Persephone

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Aug 13, 2013
Messages
32
Location
Ontario, Canada
Was at big Al's last night wasting some time with the family (my daughter LOVES the shark they have so we go at least once a week to see him, lol) and I have absolutely fallen in love with the ghost shrimp :) I can't wait until my tank is done cycling so I can get a few of these little guys!
In a 10 gal with 2 male guppies and 3 mystery snails, how many shrimp do you think I can get?
I'm still a little ways off of getting them (long story short, I was told by a different pet store that I could put fish I to the tank right away and ended up losing all my female guppies during a ammo spike cuz the tank was not cycled... I had no idea about tank cycling before searching why my fish were dying and finding this forum, you guys are amazing!) so I will definitely be waiting for everything to cycle and stabilize before adding any ghosties :)
 
Glad you found us and learned about cycling! I'd say it's the most important part of fish keeping, but the least known about!
I've heard that you can have as many as 10 shrimp per gallon of water because their bio load is so small.
 
Really?, I can have that many even with the other things in my tank?

I'd love to add 10 ghost shrimp to my tank :)
 
Yea, ghost shrimp are awesome providing that you get the non aggressive type. They are super cheap, hardy, and breed like crazy.

And yes, like the others have said, you can have alot of them in there if you wanted to. They wont mess with anyone else either, my ghosties get along with everyone just fine, and i have all sorts of other bottom feeders including snails.
 
Yea, ghost shrimp are awesome providing that you get the non aggressive type. They are super cheap, hardy, and breed like crazy.

And yes, like the others have said, you can have alot of them in there if you wanted to. They wont mess with anyone else either, my ghosties get along with everyone just fine, and i have all sorts of other bottom feeders including snails.

How to I tell if they are an aggressive type?
 
The Ghost shrimp sold at Big Als for feeders are not aggressive. The issue arises because there are at least 3 different species of shrimp all called Ghost shrimp.

But the ones at Al's are palaemonetes, a fresh water shrimp native to the southern USA, not aggressive at all, though they will argue with one another over food items, they don't fight. I've bred them, and it's not too hard to do, but a well matured tank is essential for the zoeys to survive. Zoeys are what their eggs become after they hatch. They don't have babies that look like adults, they have larval babies instead.

I've posted a few times here with pretty much all I know about these guys, and I like them quite a lot. I think they're very cute. Not hard to keep, but they prefer cooler water than most tropical fish do. 70 - 76 F is fine, and they're easy to feed. Mostly eat biofilm, but will love pellet, algae tabs and fish flakes too, and algae, though it is not their primary food, they do eat it too.

They remind me of cartoons from when I was a child. Harried looking chubby business men, clutching a hat to their heads in one hand, a briefcase in the other, feet churning up dust as they try to run fast in a high wind.. terrible cartoons.. but Ghost shrimp always remind me of this image from my childhood.
 
They remind me of cartoons from when I was a child. Harried looking chubby business men, clutching a hat to their heads in one hand, a briefcase in the other, feet churning up dust as they try to run fast in a high wind.. terrible cartoons.. but Ghost shrimp always remind me of this image from my childhood.

Hahahaha, this is why I love them too! They just look so cute and silly, scurrying around :)

If they already have eggs (as a lot if them did) would moving them to a new tank (once I'm ready!) stress them so that they wouldn't lay the eggs? I just ask because I would like to have them breed, but if bringing them to a new tank would stress them, I would make sure to get shrimp that weren't berried.

Thanks fishfur, that info was great :) I can't wait to learn more about these cute little critters
 
They usually don't drop the eggs. I get berried ones often, eggs and zoeys that don't make it go to feed my fan shrimp.

They are less sensitive about being berried than the dwarf shrimp are as a rule.

If you want details on how to raise them, let me know.
 
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