i have never had a problem with keeping mine alive except when my temp raised over 100 degrees one day, and before i caught it my ghost shrimp where cooked pink. oh well they made good food for my briggs.
I threw 9 in my 29g planted tank a month or so ago and found over the weekend that of those, 5 are still alive and apparently thriving. One of the females is berried too.
They're not terribly easy to spot among the plants One of the females is very active though - she swims all over the front of the tank.
I believe all of mine have the red marks on their antennas and claws.
Ghost Shrimp is not a very accurate name there are different species that are sold as Ghost Shrimp.
The most common in the United States is Palaemonetes Paludosus - the American Freshwater Grass Shrimp. This species (normally has red or orange accents) is completely able to breed in freshwater.
I've had some with the blue markings on them- not sure what species they were- they wern't Paludosus, they grew slightly larger and had darker eggs of a bluish tint- but they didn't reproduce in Freshwater... I suspect the blue-tinted ones I had needed Brackish water... not sure what species they were.
The red accented one I have now- that I know are Palaemonetes Paludosus have started reproducing like crazy in my tank- although they seem to require moderately hard water before the larvae will develop. I had to increase the hardness before I saw any young.
Sometimes Macrobrachium Juveniles are sold as ghost shrimp- these will grow to adults that can be aggressive to other species of shrimp and some small fish.
Shrimp seem to be highly susceptible to bacterial infections too... it's harder to see in Cherry Shrimp- but I had a bacterial infection strike my colony wiping out about half of them over the course of a month (the infected ones look cloudy) - same infection seems to have wiped out most of my Cherries- although being bright red the cloudiness is harder to see.
I thought at first only my ghosts were infected- but because my cherry population has dropped dramatically I now know they too must have been hit bad.
Anyhow, don't buy any if there are cloudy shrimp in the tank. The cloudiness appears to be caused by some sort of immune response to bacteria infections. Particular concern is if the cloudiness has a yellow tint to it.