Question about Ghost Shrimp

[Katz]

Hello everyone!

Just to say again, I love learning from this site.

As an update, right now I have all my previous fish that were in my 10gal moved into my 20gal, while the 10 gal is home of Louis, the Red Eye Puffer fish. I tried giving him a girl friend last week, but he clearly did not agree with my idea and I had to take her back. He even made the poor thing puff!!

Anyway, when I got him, I bought some ghost shrimp for him to snack on. Of course he hasn't eaten any of them, and they are doing great. In fact, one of them looks like she is full of eggs!!

The question is: will they breed like rabbits? I really don't want any more of them. They are not visually pleasing even though it looks really funny when they eat some orange sinking pellets... Do you think they or Louis will eat the babies, or should I get the one full of eggs out of there pronto??

Thanks for all your help!

[OrionGirl]

The odds of the larvae surviving is fairly slim. I've had numerous ghost shrimp make the effort, and only one batch of eggs survived--and that was in a tank with all internal filters and no fish. The puffer will probably take to the babies, if they do show up.

[Kagh't]

you have about a 0% chance of the babies surviving i'm afraid. around 60% are lost within the first two days because they can't moult, and the rest generally get eaten by other fish, and if you have a puffer, it's not gona do much good for them either...

[Katz]

well, not to sound mean, but that's a relief. I am going to Germany for two weeks, and was having these visions of my tank being just full of ghost shrimp, with Louis not knowing where to sleep...

Thanks again, guys!

[cdawson]

don't worry, he's a red eye. Sooner or later he'll wanna kill something. =)

[Katz]

well, he didn't bother the oto's, he didn't eat the shrimp, he didn't eat the minnow that came with the shrimp (which is growing very fast in my 20gal, what in the world do I have a minnow for???) ... The only thing he has attacked so far was Lucinda (the female Puffer), and he really, really likes snails... Strange little puffer. But sooo cute!