How long do your Ghost Shrimp live in your tank?

Aquaman9001

Aquaman9001

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Aug 18, 2016
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Just out of curiosity and some concern, I was wondering how long other's Ghost Shrimp last in their tanks.
I've had 5 myself and after a little over a month I have only 1 left. My tank is not heavily planted yet and is only 2 months old. So I know where I can improve on the quality of my tank, I'm just curious on your experience with Ghost Shrimp and what their average lifespan is! :cool:
 
Ghost shrimp are short lived shrimp but up to a year is certainly obtainable. But it depends on how old the shrimp actually are when you get them besides other factors. Once you tank is more mature and has more plants Amano shrimp would definitely be my suggestion! Average life span is 18 months to 3 years but I've had some live MUCH longer than that.
 
I could be how you acclimate to your tank. From experience, shrimp are a little more sensitive then fish.
 
I've had ghost shrimp live ~6mo or so, being surprised by a sighting when trimming the plants in their tank. I haven't kept ghost shrimp in years now since I was introduced to red cherry shrimp. You'll have more shrimp then you want to keep if you switch to RCS.
 
I think I've had some live almost 2 years, not as long as other neocaridinia shrimp I've had though (Crystal reds, Pearl Blues,etc.). But on average since they come into my LFS more as "feeders" unfortunately, they are usually very unhealthy and in jam packed conditions. Soooo, if you ghosties live past the first 2-3 weeks (which is when the sick/weak ones usually die off) I find they usually live around a year from then on, maybe longer if you got them young. Even if healthy, but you got them as an adult, 6 months or less isn't uncommon however as many have experienced.
 
Ghost shrimp are one of the hardest to acclimate it seems. It may be how they are treated by the dealer but massive losses for weeks are common. I found really hard water and lots of salt helps ghost shrimp and feeder guppies survive initially in my tanks. After the deaths stop I slowly change out the water to normal. Last time I had some ghost shrimp reproduce in my 10g for 6months before I moved everything to another tank and now I can't find them. I just bought more yesterday and haven't checked the survival rate in the 5g I setup for them but about half were carrying eggs or young.
 
Yea I think they do get shocked more so than most other freshwaters as well, to be on real safe side I always recommend drip acclimating inverts, it only take a little more time and one small bucket/container and air hose. Think it helps keep the weak ones from pet store from going into complete shock going into your tank, and like we said first few weeks are most critical.
 
I have 5 left out of this last dozen. They are the green egg kind instead of the clear egg kind again. It's another problem that "ghost shrimp" aren't even always the same species and sometimes feeders are actually saltwater shrimp. I always check for eggs as a sign of freshwater and some healthy individuals and the green egg bearers seem to do better. At least 3 are still carrying eggs or young under them.
 
Aquaman9001 said:
Just out of curiosity and some concern, I was wondering how long other's Ghost Shrimp last in their tanks.
I've had 5 myself and after a little over a month I have only 1 left. My tank is not heavily planted yet and is only 2 months old. So I know where I can improve on the quality of my tank, I'm just curious on your experience with Ghost Shrimp and what their average lifespan is! :cool:
Click to expand...
Bought one about 2 weeks ago. It was dead the next morning.
 
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