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Ghost shrimp as pets


Kelly S
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Who else has ghost shrimp that are not intended as food? Honestly I got them to see if these fish would harass them before spending more on Amanos. I do have a rainbow shark in this tank but based on my research, it might be the most mellow version of its species. Now that the shrimp have been in there a couple of weeks, they're getting brave. I regularly see one or 2 swimming all over like the cherry shrimp in the other tank do, and tonight they're joining the celebration over Vibra Bites. 2 of them are now carrying "treasures" around. They're definitely hard to see when not swimming, and they have lots of good hiding places, so I'm not positive how many are still there, but they're definitely more entertaining than I expected!

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I have ghost shrimp in all my tanks except the goldfish ones. They live with betta, guppies, gourami, whole mix of small fish species  and they don't care about their cohabitants, they just prosper and procreate and clean the tanks of everything dead. Love the brave little crustaceans. 

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I use ghost shrimp when starting a tank. After a tank has been cycling for a little bit I introduce a few snails and ghost shrimp for a bit before adding fish and other creatures. They usually last for a couple months, but I do still have one hanging out in my cylinder tank from almost 4 months ago. 

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22 hours ago, Fonske said:

I have ghost shrimp in all my tanks except the goldfish ones. They live with betta, guppies, gourami, whole mix of small fish species  and they don't care about their cohabitants, they just prosper and procreate and clean the tanks of everything dead. Love the brave little crustaceans. 

I didn't think they would breed in an aquarium. That would be great if they would!

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I did a quick search and the sites that came up indicated that they will breed in fresh water; the difficulty is getting the young to not become food lol. I don't remember where I got the idea that I shouldn't expect them to reproduce... Maybe just because several sites indicate that they are generally managed before purchase as feeders, and may therefore not be healthy enough to survive long enough to breed. Looks like Amanos are more finicky though.

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Ghost shrimp are adorable and certainly have personalities of their own. In several tanks of mine they have totally lost all fear of me and now any time I stick my hand in the tank they clamber over through the plants to come ride around on my hand and groom me.  They seem to enjoy taking a 'ride' around in my cupped hand and there's  often squabbles about which shrimp gets to claim my hand (some of the big mommas don't want to share). 

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And they do indeed breed in fresh water. Just needs to be decently hard water (Florida liquid rock water works great) as they need that calcium and they need to have plenty of food available for the fry (green water, and plenty of plants so they can go after biofilm) and not have fish that eat them. Or, just have enough plants that some of the babies can hide and live to outgrow the fish mouths. That's how I've let them do it. 

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I bought them a few times for feeding my figure 8 puffer and threw them i several tanks.  I usually have half of the group die within the first week then the rest do fine.  Ive actually had them breed in my brackish 29g and fresh 10g the colony has been going strong for a couple years.  

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