armadillo

Hi everyone. Here's to all ghost shrimp owners. We're considering getting them for our 10G and we'd appreciate your thoughts on the following: Complete newbie's questions, so please bear with me if they're really silly)

- are they picky eaters?
- how many is a good number (minimum). Would one be happy on its own?
- do they produce much waste, or are they in fact a good cleaning critter?
- will they attack other fish of the likes of dwarf otos or upside down catfish?
- would they make reasonable tank mates for ?
- do they make vaccuuming the gravel a nightmare? (because you have to avoid sucking them up in the bucket all the time)
- do they make good tank mates for molly fry?
- do they eat algae?
- do they 'swim' far up? Or strictly bottom dwellers?
- any chance they'll breed and the population will get out of control? Like some snails do?
- is it totally silly to consider putting them in with dwarf puffers? Would the puffers just gobble them up?
- what sort of substrate is best? We were thinking sand.

Well that should be it for my 100000 questions. Thanks guys!

griffin

nope!
no real min, i don't think. i think one could be happy on its own.
produce about as much waste as most shrimp (not much). can't really speak to their cleaning abilities though.
doubtful
basically anything that won't eat them :P
not really, they tend to swim away from where the siphon is
yep
maybe, not really sure
they'll swim all over, definately not just a bottom dweller
possible, but doubtful
not totally silly, but the puffers could easily decide they want a shrimp dinner. sometimes they won't decide they want it until many months later though.
i like sand, as it's easy to maintain and cheap to use

armadillo

Thanks a lot for all the answers, Griffin, it's much appreciated. So you have one (ghost shrimp)? You sound happy with it. Are they nice to have, then?

griffin

i actually don't have any ghost shrimp right. i used to have a few, but that was a long time ago. i currently have red cherry shrimp.

i think shrimp in general are nice to have

armadillo

Cool. Thanks again for all the info, Griffin. I'll be looking forward to this nice different addition to our tanks. I was advised to get ghosts (can't remember why), then if the gosts worked out, to try a cherry or two.

Butterfly

Ghost shrimp are really cool. If you feed the different colored food you can see it travel through their digestive tract The only problem I can forsee is the molly fry will one day be big enough to eat them. thats what always happens to mine something in the tank always eats tehm.
Carol

griffin

pbby because they're cheap, so you can find out if the other fish will attack? if they do, you won't lose much with ghost, but if you find out shrimp are ok, you can go with more expensive shrimp

armadillo

Griffin: Wow, how expensive are cherry shrimp? I wouldn't pay extra for a bit of colour! Yeah you're right. I think that was the reason I was advised to start with ghosts (ghosts = cheaper).

Carol: Thanks, Carol. I was thinking of having some in the fry tank (as clean-up crew), and some in the dwarf puffer tank. But I would remove the fry once they're, say, 3 months old. Would they chomp them at 3 months old already? Actually, turns out they're not a great clean-up crew.

Butterfly

They are ok in a fry tank, neither will hurt the other. I just think their unique, we did the experiment with veggie flakes and they looked green, then with color flakes which were red and they looked kind of red then the clown loaches had them for lunch
Carol

vin

We have two actually...They are very rarely seen as they are very shy....Swordtails may find them to be tasty snacks, but mine haven't touched them.....Just make sure you have plenty of places for them to hide. They do eat waste which is nice...Occasionally I will see one snacking on some fish waste....They will breed, but my guess is that the eggs would make a nice snack for just about any omnivore.

They will help any bottom feeders keep the tank clean and they will also eat algae. They do climb and are very fast when it comes to swimming....I haven't had an issue with vacuuming gravel with ours....They move away from the tube pretty quickly.

darkwolf29a

I just bought 20 of these little guys, and girls.

They'll eat anything. In fact, the first thing they did was find a dead guppy I thought I lost awhile ago. They made short work of him, that's for sure.

The nice thing is, I'll have to do water changes now, but I don't think I'll be vacuuming much, since between them, the pleco, and the snails....I got the cleaner crew from some place nice and warm. LOL

Joy44

I started out with three because they were three for a dollar! I only ever see one. I don't know if that is because someone ate the other two or if I only see one at a time. Mine stays hidden in the cave with my pleco. I am going to get more of them because they are so interesting to watch but I did hear that they can be known to eat fry because fry sleep at the bottom of the tank and that is when the shrimp nab them. I don't know though I don't have any fry in my main tank. Good luck and I think they will make a nice addition to your bf's nut tank.

griffin

cherry shrimp are usually a dollar or so if you can find them. ghost are usually 10 for a dollar or so, so there's a pretty big price difference. i've never been able to breed ghost shrimp all that well, but from what i hear, cherries are relatively easy to breed

armadillo

Wow, that sounds cool (aside from their lunch end!)

armadillo

That sounds great. I like the idea that they are a good clean-up crew.

armadillo

Wow, seriously? Are they really that good? Because I was thinking of having them in the small tanks, to keep the algae under control (rather than using chemicals).

armadillo

Mmmm, food for thought.

he he he, they are special alright.

mirna

I was wanting to purchase some ghost shrimp too. I am wondering if they release a lot of waste. I have a 20g tank with 2 angelfish, 2 ryukin goldfish, 1 rainbow fish and 1 pleco. How many ghost shrimp would be okay to have without overcrowding my tank. Also do ghost shrimp get diseases like the fish do? What types of diseases do they get and are they more prone to disease?