Baby Ghost Shrimp Advice Please (:

[Gatorrr]

Hey, I'm Sarah and this is my first time here. So hello to everyone Anyways..I bought a yellow bellied slider and decided, along with my feeder guppies, to get him some ghost shrimp. When i got them and put them into the tank I naturally spent like all night, since im an insomniac, researching ghost shrimp and everything about them that I could read. Then I figured out that two of my shrimp were pregnant and so I felt horrible. I'm a sucker and I didn't want my turtle eating the pregnant fish and killing all the babies, so long story not so short i moved them into my tank with my guppy fry. I read on some of the forums that it's really hard to keep ghost shrimp babies alive. So I mean, I'm trying but I didn't have my hopes up. And now I have like a ton of babies in a 2.5 gallon tank. A filter big enough for a 3 gallon tank, with a pre-filter on it. I also have a heater in there, a plant growing, and a clay head with moss growing on top. I know there were like tons of little babies in the shrimp. I was watching them the other day. And I saw like maybe 5 babies so far. I feed the guppy fry ground up fish flakes, and i put a bit extra for the pregnant momma and the baby shrimp. Since I've never done this before. I was wondering if I'm doing anything wrong and/or if I could do something more to make things better. Both of he shrimp had their babies. I took one of the shrimp out because I saw that her belly was empty, but the other one still has like 4 shrimp inside that I see. So for now I left her in. I've seen the babies around the tank recently and they're so cute So yeah, any tips, comments, suggestions...that would help :thumbsup:Thanks

 

[Bubbles2112]

When you say that you have ghost shrimp I am thinking specifically of Palaemonetes paludosus. Palaemonetes paludosus have a larval stage in their development before transforming into replicas of the adult shrimp. I don't think that you are describing Palaemonetes species as you reference baby shrimps in particular and can count the babies that one of the mother shrimps is still holding.

Is it possible for you to post photos of your adult shrimp or photos from the internet of the shrimps that most resemble the females? Differing types of shrimps have different requirements as do fish but I think their particulars are being met as the babies are alive. You also have covers on your filter intakes so that helps bunches to prevent the babies from getting sucked up the tubes. One thing to note though is feeding extra food probably is not necessary at this point. Shrimps eat biofilm inside the tank that covers everything and will be picking up the leftovers. There is a chance of overfeeding the shrimps and in my experience, baby shrimps can be impacted quite fast with the result being a major die off. All this can happen when the water parameters look normal and nothing else appearing to be out of sorts. This being said--sounds like you are doing very well with the shrimps! Enjoy them cuz baby shrimps are very entertaining to watch as they grow.

 

[TheShrimpFarm]

I agree with Bubbles2112, sounds like you may or may not have ghost shrimp. But it does sound as though you are doing a good job. I also agree, don't overfeed. That's the biggest mistake most people make. We go a couple of days between feedings and when we do feed, it's not much.

Oh....almost forgot, if you have ghost shrimp, when they are really young, they don't have "feet". You will see them floating UPSIDE DOWN in the tank. They can't swim so they just go with the flow!!