Holy cow- baby ghost shrimp!

J

JamieMonster

AC Members
Mar 16, 2012
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Chicagoland, USA
Real Name
Jamie
Did a little cleaning in my male betta's tank, that is also serving as my baby snail nursery for the time being, and I found something QUITE unexpected- about 5 teeny tiny baby ghost shrimp! I was under the impression that these guys breeding, and the babies making it past the larval stage was pretty much nil, so, to find them there was a bit of a shocker! Looks like that tank is a nursery tank for all kinds of babies, now- what's next, spawning neons? I could only get a picture of one, and it isn't that clear- these little guys are next to totally invisible, unless you catch them on top of something with the light shining through them, but, here the little dude is! How fun! Look to the left side of the round part of the decoration, and you can see him!
baby ghost shrimp.jpg

baby ghost shrimp.jpg
 
very nice! i had a few babys too witch i was surprized about because i didnt have a sponge prefilter on my hob. dont know how they made it past that.
 
Awesome, dude. I've never had them make it and my water conditions were pristine :(
 
Nice. I've always just heard that they eat the babies. So maybe you've got enough hiding spaces for them to hide out?
 
Thanks, guys, the comments are so appreciated! I thought they ate the babies, too... and I also do not have a sponge pre-filter on the HOB filter in there. They swim right past it without any problems. I'm going to pick up a sponge pre-filter this weekend, anyways, though. Yep- there's a really bushy fake plant in there that I think gives them TONS of hiding spots, as well as a bunch of anacharis in the tank that they can cling to, too. Just to give you an idea of their size & how closely I zoomed in, the baby blue snail in the pic is about 1/4 of the size of a frozen green pea, and the round part of the decoration he is on is only about the diameter of a quarter. SUPER tiny! Hehe!
 
jayla2251 said:
Nice. I've always just heard that they eat the babies. So maybe you've got enough hiding spaces for them to hide out?
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Ghosts can be rather aggressive not only babies they'll take advantage of other adults who are molting and eat them too, they're not above grabbing fish fry either. The biggest hurdle with raising ghost shrimp is getting them to live past the first week when they go through the larval stage, they're easy pickings for fish then and can get sucked into filters.
 
TL1000RSquid said:
Ghosts can be rather aggressive not only babies they'll take advantage of other adults who are molting and eat them too, they're not above grabbing fish fry either. The biggest hurdle with raising ghost shrimp is getting them to live past the first week when they go through the larval stage, they're easy pickings for fish then and can get sucked into filters.
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Thanks so much for the awesome pointers, Squid! So far, mine have been super docile... I have the Palaemonetes Paludosus variety, though, and not the super aggressive little lobster looking ones. (sorry, terrible with Latin names. Starts with an M... I'm sure you know which variety I mean. LOL.) Do The palaemonetes variety still have a tendency to be aggressive?
 
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