Baby Shrimp

[Siientx]

Last night we caught a baby shrimp while getting water for our crabs. I put him in a tank with tap water and added in some salt water. He seems fine and i put some calamari squid in there for him to eat. How do i properly care for this animal? What should he eat, etc?

 

[benjen]

Give us a bit more of a clue... There there are hundreds, maybe thousands of species of shrimp out there.
What does the shrimp look like?
Where did you get it from?

If you just caught it from the ocean, the best chance it has for living is to go back if you haven't got any idea of species or needs. Invertebrates of all sorts are usually very sensitive to water quality.

 

[Siientx]

I don't know what species he is. He came from saltwater..

 

[Siientx]

I just found out it was a grass shrimp!

 

[benjen]

OK... Grass shrimp are also called ghost shrimp. They are brackish water shrimp. They are detrivores and algae eaters, so they'll eat most things that they can find. You can find Ghost shrimp species in almost any type of aquarium set-up, from fresh to full salt. I don't know what species you have and what sort of parameters it tolerates, but you are best off trying to mimic the environment it came from.

Ghost shrimp are frequently used as live food in the aquarium industry. You can probably feed it decaying plants, live brine shrimp, small worms like bloodworms, or algae. A varied diet of some sort is your best bet to get it what it needs.