What do baby ghost shrimp eat?

Hey guys!

I just noticed two of my ghost shrimp are pregnant! I wouldn't mind seeing a bunch of little baby ghost shrimp but atm their in my 20 gallon with lots of other fish, who I'm sure would also like to see/eat lots of baby shrimp..

I don't have another tank but do have a bowl that I have some snails in.. would it be ok to put the GS in there?

What do baby GS eat?

and I read somewhere that they need slightly brackish water? is that true? and if so how can I create that with out going to the LFS
(I live in Cambodia they never have any of the products that get recomened to me on here)

 

Ok, this post made me curious so I researched a bit. This is what I found out: there are many different kinds of ghost shrimp, and while some require brakish water for their fry / babies, others survive just fine in freshwater, and unless you know what kind you have , especially if it is hard for you to get seasalt to create brakish water, maybe you can try in freshwater and hope for the best? The accounts I read varied on the issue of whether it is ok to keep adult ghost shrimp in a bowl for a prolonged period of time, so either it is ok to put pregnant female in bowl and remove her back to your regular aquarium after the young are born, or if one is to believe other sites they were saying that ghost shrimp can in general live just fine in a fish bowl. The maternity tank / fish bowl would ideally have some moss/aquarium plants in it. The tricky part of trying to keep ghost shrimp babies alive is what to feed them. Two homemade food recipes for feeding ghost shrimp fry that I found thus far were: an egg paste made out of hard boiled eggs, also Infusia made by putting a piece of peeled potato into dechlorinated water for a few days. Please keep in mind that what I said here is all based on a bit of online research, so hopefully someone more experienced will reply to your post, too. Good luck!

 

Thanks for the quick response! I know I'm in a bit of a different time zone so it normally takes a while for people to come online but that's ok!


Egg paste..?? just hard boiled eggs mashed up? potato water sounds pretty tasty !


I'll freshen up the bowl for them tonight and see how it goes..

with the babies/fry how long before they're fish proof?? any ideas? the biggest thing in the tank is Siamese Algae Eater.. and some pretty mean serpae tetra

 

I'd say when they're too large to fit in the mouth of anything in the tank.

 

I was wondering the same thing about the egg paste when I read about it, but I did not find any clarification. I am thinking it may be just the hardboiled egg yolk made into paste - perhaps with some dechlorinated water added? The main thing is that the fry cannot eat anything that is big like regular fish food and need something that's nutrition but more liquid or paste than solid, if I understand correctly. Best!

 

That would really depend on the type of fish you have. I mean, in many cases, GS are never fish proof.

 

Good point! However, since in this case the GS do reside in the same tank with the fish as adults, and it is a planted tank which presumably provides hiding places for shrimp, therefore there must be a time that is when they are larger than fry and yet presumably smaller than adults when these GS will be safe from these particular fish tank mates, I would think.

 

Good morning,

I have moved your thread from Freshwater Beginners to Freshwater Invertebrates/Ghost Shrimp section of the forum.

Thanks!

Ken

 

Thanks for all the info! I guess I'll try the egg paste in water one.. I think I read somewhere about getting a hard boiled egg and putting the yolk in some cotton (or sock) and then squeezing some out every now and then!? or was that a dream?