Are Ghost Shrimp Aggressive?

[wrs2]

I had a tank with a betta and some ghost shrimp that I found dead with his tail and fins eaten off. Today I found the new betta that I got Sunday barely alive being eaten by the ghost shrimp! They are her fins off and she wasn’t even dead! Are they usually this aggressive?

 

[Sarah73]

I had a tank with a betta and some ghost shrimp that I found dead with his tail and fins eaten off. Today I found the new betta that I got Sunday barely alive being eaten by the ghost shrimp! They are her fins off and she wasn’t even dead! Are they usually this aggressive?

ghost shrimp are bottom feeders, so they will eat anything that lands on the ground. If your female was laying down, she is weak and the ghost shrimp are just cleaning up. there is a species of shrimp that are extremely aggressive that look exactly like ghost shrimp. They are called prawns. or whisker shrimp. Here Freshwater Prawns

 

[Xx_Gemstone_xX]

My ghost shrimp have been known to pick on my guppies and kill them quite often so for any fish with long flowing fins yes they are agressive (it also depends on the personality of your shrimp)

I would not reccomend housing your ghost shrimp with any more bettas

I know that a lot of people claim that they are not agressive but I hope my story will help you out a bit cause I have SEEN mine attack fish three times larger than them

Mine are not prawns/whisker shrimp they are true ghost shrimp

 

[Sarah73]

My ghost shrimp have been known to pick on my guppies and kill them quite often so for any fish with long flowing fins yes they are agressive (it also depends on the personality of your shrimp)

I would not reccomend housing your ghost shrimp with any more bettas

I know that a lot of people claim that they are not agressive but I hope my story will help you out a bit cause I have SEEN mine attack fish three times larger than them

Mine are not prawns/whisker shrimp they are true ghost shrimp

some ghost shrimps are just plain old mean.

 

[wrs2]

I’ve had 3 bettas from this one store die in 2 weeks so I wasn’t sure if it was the bettas or the shrimp or a combo of both.

 

[Xx_Gemstone_xX]

Is it possible for you to send me pictures of the betta please?

It can help me determine if it is the shrimp or not

 

[wrs2]

The dead body? The male double tail had literally no fins left but he died last week so I froze his body. The female I haven’t done anything with yet.
But I have an outdoor pond in a pot with a mosquito fish so I am putting them in there. I only bought them to feed my hermit crabs with, not to keep as pets so at this point idk if I care what happens to them. I also got some small feeder guppies last week and I did catch one eating one and then the next day all of them were gone.

 

[Xx_Gemstone_xX]

If the fins are gone from the fish it is most likely the shrinp

 

[wrs2]

The male had zero fins left! But I'll send you a pic of the koi female.

 

[Xx_Gemstone_xX]

Yeah that looks like a shrimps doing

 

[wrs2]

But I wonder if the shrimp attacked the bettas or if the bettas were weak to start with and made them an easy target for the shrimp? Either way the shrimp are going!

 

[Thunder_o_b]

Yeah, ghostys can get a shrimpatude.

 

[Kylee]

Oh my goodness that is so sad!!

I got four ghost shrimp from Petco about a year ago, and only two made it. They ended up breeding and 3 of the babies actually survived without me even knowing they had been born. The mom got weak after that and the dad started to attack her so I moved her into a small tank and let her die in peace. Other than that I've never had my shrimp hurt any of my fish. I've always had guppies with them, and now have a few tetras, and I've never noticed any missing fins or anything that would make me think they've been picked on. Same with my ottos.

But it doesn't surprise me at all that you're having this issue because I've read many stories about aggressive ghost shrimp. I'm just really lucky I guess. It's such a bummer because they are so cool looking.

 

[E150GT]

I have two murderous "ghost" shrimp in a 10 gallon. I pulled them out of my 29 because I saw them attacking a serape tetra. I lost one serape and 9 neon tetras before I figured out it was the shrimp. I have to assume they are a machro of some sort. My 5 gallon has true ghost shrimp and they aren't aggressive at all except with each other when food is involved.