White Ghost Shrimp

[Contented]

I bought 4 ghost shrimp 3 weeks ago. All at the same time from the same shop. One week after I bought them 2 of the shrimp have turned opaque - one is definitely more creamy-white colour than the other. Both of the opaque shrimp are active, eating from the substrate. I keep waking in the morning expecting them to be dead - everything I have read tells me that this is a very bad sign in ghosties - but every morning I wake up and they are eager and ready to get the day started.

Does anyone have any thoughts about this or has anyone experienced this and the shrimp has lived?

My tank:
24 ga (90 L)
WCM minnows
Cardinal tetras
2 bamboo shrimp
4 ghosties
Sparsely planted (anubias, Crinum)
Marimo ball
Mopani wood
Aquarium grade gravel substrate

Fully cycled-ammonia 0 Nitrates 10 but
It's a very new tank - I started it about May 2

Currently I am treating my tank with heat and salt for an ich infestation of the cardinal tetras but the discolouration started well before any signs of ich appeared.

I am just getting back into the hobby/obsession after about 6 years off. I've never had shrimp before. Closest was a blue crayfish.

Also, off topic, would you recommend putting a piece of cuttlebone in for calcium for the shrimp? My pH is 7.5.

Thanks!

 

[Autumnsky]

I bought 4 ghost shrimp 3 weeks ago. All at the same time from the same shop. One week after I bought them 2 of the shrimp have turned opaque - one is definitely more creamy-white colour than the other. Both of the opaque shrimp are active, eating from the substrate. I keep waking in the morning expecting them to be dead - everything I have read tells me that this is a very bad sign in ghosties - but every morning I wake up and they are eager and ready to get the day started.

Does anyone have any thoughts about this or has anyone experienced this and the shrimp has lived?

My tank:
24 ga (90 L)
WCM minnows
Cardinal tetras
2 bamboo shrimp
4 ghosties
Sparsely planted (anubias, Crinum)
Marimo ball
Mopani wood
Aquarium grade gravel substrate

Fully cycled-ammonia 0 Nitrates 10 but
It's a very new tank - I started it about May 2

Currently I am treating my tank with heat and salt for an ich infestation of the cardinal tetras but the discolouration started well before any signs of ich appeared.

I am just getting back into the hobby/obsession after about 6 years off. I've never had shrimp before. Closest was a blue crayfish.

Also, off topic, would you recommend putting a piece of cuttlebone in for calcium for the shrimp? My pH is 7.5.

Thanks!

Yes on the Cuttlebone

Ghost shrimp don't live forever, but how did this all turn out?

 

[Contented]

Those 4 ghosties .... 2 turned white and died, I had a baby born and survived to adulthood, 2 seemed to just disappear (never found the bodies) and now I am down to 1.


Enjoy the small moments for they comprise life.

 

[Linwood]

Interesting to see this pop up. I bought 40 feeder ghost shrimp yesterday, and when I got them home they looked a bit milky. I added to the tank and (against the black sand) they look downright white.

So far I've hauled about 8 out dead, not all that bad considering they were feeders, but they really look white now. I'm wondering if any will survive.

I did the same in another tank, out of about 14, 11 survived, then continued to thrive (they have babies but it's a community tank and they do not survive the larva stage). But none of those were white before death.

So I'm not sure what to make of the whiteness. If I thought I could find them, I might haul them all out and start over.