Quarantine New Snail And Shrimp?

hello,

We just picked up a pretty large mystery snail and 4 ghost shrimp to finish off our 20 gallon tank. I got them at a PetSmart with tanks that all looked well cared for because the Petco had a lot rougher looking fish.

The last fish I brought home developed Ich the next day, and id prefer to not have a repeat of that or worse. We have no cycled second tank, but I was wondering if we could keep them "quarantined" in a 1 gallon tank with no filtration for the short term? It looks like the bio load should be really low, and I have no problem doing water changes every couple days or whatever. I just don't want to cause an issue with the real tank that seems to be in pretty good order right now (*knocks on wood*).

Also, any tips on confirming that what I got are actually the ghost shrimp that won't be trying to eat my other fish? The ghost shrimp forum has me a bit nervous about my 40 cent buy! Thank you!

 

I don’t think you will have any problems adding them to the tank iv never gotten ich from the snails or shrimp I bought from PetSmart. If you really want to quarantine them, a one gallon sounds good. Maybe add a live plant or two like java moss or an anubias. Post a pic and we can determine that. Water change 30 percent once a week.

Also, keep out of sunlight

 

Hi, it is recommended to QT inverts as they can be carriers, but the time is 1-2 weeks instead of 4-6.
For ghost shrimp, it normally takes 3-4 days for them to color up a bit, so try not to check them till then. Ghost shrimp will had a red band on their two claw arms and two red dots on the tail. They will also develop a very slight patterning on the shell that whisker shrimp will not.
Shrimp are very sensitive to ammonia and nitrites, and even in a 1 gallon they will need daily water changes of up to 50%, trust me, I've tried that.

 

Sounds good on the 1-2 weeks. I can do water changes no prob in a 1 gallon, we are on filtered well water so I don't even have to treat the water.

I will try and get a pic in a Couple days once they color up a bit. Should I be feeding? I added 3 of the tiny NLS pellets to start.

Petco had whisker shrimp which I thought looked cool, but luckily I checked here before! The ones I got seem to have way less red/brown spots along their sides than the whiskers, but I'll get it at least a few days to confirm.

Thanks for the help!

 

Sounds good on the 1-2 weeks. I can do water changes no prob in a 1 gallon, we are on filtered well water so I don't even have to treat the water.

I will try and get a pic in a Couple days once they color up a bit. Should I be feeding? I added 3 of the tiny NLS pellets to start.

Petco had whisker shrimp which I thought looked cool, but luckily I checked here before! The ones I got seem to have way less red/brown spots along their sides than the whiskers, but I'll get it at least a few days to confirm.

Thanks for the help!

Sure! And I would feed them, I found the ghosts/whiskers to eat right away.
And there are quite a few different species of whisker shrimp, if you look up macrobrachium some look really cool.
And the ones I normally get from PetSmart stay mostly clear, but have a sort of blue iridescence to them and get a bit bigger than ghost shrimp.

 

Well, one of the four shrimp didn’t last the night. I scooped it out and used the opportunity to take a good look.

I don’t see any large pinchers, there are a couple red markings on the end of the tail and MAYBE a reddish band near arms? Also none of the other ones were eating the dead one, so maybe I did get actual ghosts instead of dangerous whiskers?

 

Those do look like the proper red markings on the tail. Expect a few more deaths over the next 2-3 days, since they're sold as feeders they undergo a lot of stress. I had one die within an hour or buying it.
Still be a little cautious, they're generally mixed up a bit. I've only bought them a few times from PetSmart, but the first time I got 6 and only two were ghosts, the second time I got 3 and only one was a whisker shrimp.