View Full Version : Ghost shrimp dieing
carolinyens
05-12-2009, 1:40 PM
So I bought 15 from the LFS. I initially bought them to feed my sunfish, kind of a treat. Ive always been one to not stick to the same diet, variety is the spice of life so to speak. So when I brought them home in my 10 gal, I noticed that all but one of them was 'berried'. So Im like cool now I wont have to buy anymore. Well a week later, they've started to die off. My ph is 7.2, ammonia 0, cant remember what my nitrite n nitrate levels were but they werent high. The lfs guy said that they were in brackish water, I drip acclimated them to the tank. I wouldnt think that this is a problem bc its been a week and figured that if it were that then they would be dead sooner. I feed them snail jello(msjinkzd recipe) and some hikari gold cichlid pellets. Its not a crazy big deal bc like I said these would be feeders. Its just that I'd like to have a self sufficient system going and its not going the way I planned. Any help/tips would be great.
I'm no expert... and can't offer much help:
But one thing I've read is that "Ghost Shrimp" can actually refer to lots of different types of Shrimp from freshwater kinds through Brackish and Saltwater varieties.
If sold as a feeder- this kind might not have been able to tolerate freshwater for very long. Some that are tolerant of freshwater need brackish water to reproduce- so if they came from brackish water the young might not have hatched anyway.
carolinyens
05-12-2009, 2:00 PM
ok so basically im SOL, makes sense. My lfs doesnt know the cultivar and probably wouldnt find out for me. The husband usually works at the store and he's not a real enthusiast(at least from the conversations that Ive had with him). Ive never seen his wife who I assume is the enthusiast bc when he doesnt know what Im talking about he says "you should talk to my wife" but she's never there. Oh well, I have noticed that after feeding my fish some of the dieing shrimp that now they are willing to eat cichlid pellets.
I really don't know... one of the shrimp experts on here might know how to tell if yours are real freshwater ghost shrimp or one of the varieties sometimes sold as ghost shrimp. All I know is there are more than one kind of shrimp sold as ghost shrimp and some are really saltwater shrimp.