libertybelle
Aquarium Advice Addict
I am now the proud owner of five definitely-not-ghost shrimp that I bought thinking they were ghosts. I clearly wasn’t paying attention because I do know the difference between ghost and whisker shrimp! Help me decide where to put them!?
One is berried and I had planned to put it in my cherry and Pygmy cory tank temporarily to release young but that definitely won’t be happening now! So the shrimp tank is out! I have two other options. Here’s the pros and cons of each.
My original plan for the ghost shrimp was my son’s 29 gallon guppy tank. The guppies are messy eaters and I was hoping to add some (more) ghost shrimp to clean up the food that they ignore once it hits the ground. Plus I think they’re so much fun...
The 29 gallon tank is a breeding population of guppies, a few amanos/ghost shrimp, 1 oto (yes I know... more going in soon) and 2 mystery snails. Guppy fry would be an easy snack, I bet. Though admittedly... I am not selling guppies and a little population control wouldn’t hurt. Would just slow the rate at which I give them away and postpone having to separate the females if I run out of people wanting the guppies. I doubt the shrimp’s appetite could put a noticeable dent in an actively breeding guppy population?
The other option is my 55g. The 55gal is very heavily planted so there are a few amanos in there that hide extremely well. I never see them but the telltale molts float around the tank sometimes to tell me they are still there. The tiger barbs and full grown white skirt tetras would be happy for a ghost shrimp sized snack from time to time. Would the extra aggressiveness of the whiskers give them any chance in there? And on the other side of the circle of life... would the whisker shrimp be able to catch the rummy nose tetras and panda cories that are also in there. My suspicion is yes since they often rest near the substrate after lights out when they’re dozing.
What would you do? For now they’re hanging out in my quarantine tank with a couple mystery snails and a nerite. There is no huge rush to get them out of there but I don’t want my quarantine tank to have permanent fish eating resident shrimp!
One is berried and I had planned to put it in my cherry and Pygmy cory tank temporarily to release young but that definitely won’t be happening now! So the shrimp tank is out! I have two other options. Here’s the pros and cons of each.
My original plan for the ghost shrimp was my son’s 29 gallon guppy tank. The guppies are messy eaters and I was hoping to add some (more) ghost shrimp to clean up the food that they ignore once it hits the ground. Plus I think they’re so much fun...
The 29 gallon tank is a breeding population of guppies, a few amanos/ghost shrimp, 1 oto (yes I know... more going in soon) and 2 mystery snails. Guppy fry would be an easy snack, I bet. Though admittedly... I am not selling guppies and a little population control wouldn’t hurt. Would just slow the rate at which I give them away and postpone having to separate the females if I run out of people wanting the guppies. I doubt the shrimp’s appetite could put a noticeable dent in an actively breeding guppy population?
The other option is my 55g. The 55gal is very heavily planted so there are a few amanos in there that hide extremely well. I never see them but the telltale molts float around the tank sometimes to tell me they are still there. The tiger barbs and full grown white skirt tetras would be happy for a ghost shrimp sized snack from time to time. Would the extra aggressiveness of the whiskers give them any chance in there? And on the other side of the circle of life... would the whisker shrimp be able to catch the rummy nose tetras and panda cories that are also in there. My suspicion is yes since they often rest near the substrate after lights out when they’re dozing.
What would you do? For now they’re hanging out in my quarantine tank with a couple mystery snails and a nerite. There is no huge rush to get them out of there but I don’t want my quarantine tank to have permanent fish eating resident shrimp!
