Where are those shrimp?

Jessu

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Dec 27, 2006
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I started off with 14 shrimp. I asked for ghost shrimp but there seeemed to be diffrent species. They were all mostly clearish. I know 1 died, anothers head fell off. I figured they where just weak ones. I just got a better heater for my tank. The temp is around 83F. They are hard to find because they are clear but today I counted 7. All the surriving look like the one in this pic. Im starting to think that mabye the others died off because they needed cooler temps. Does that sound plausible?
americanglassshrimpredqi9.jpg
 
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That looks like what I get as a ghost shrimp, 3 for $1. What else lives in your tank? Shrimp are tasty snacks for a lot of things.
 
[Shrimp are tasty snacks for a lot of things./QUOTE]

Yep, they last 5 minutes at the most with my JD's.....
 
All the other types are dead/cant find. Its just those types in the pic that I see. The tank mates are neon tetras, dont think they would be eating the shrimp. I did see a shrimp eating another shrimp today I didnt see the red sopts on the tail of the one being eaten. I deff. had a few species of clear shrimp to start out with.
 
I never though the little neons could take down the shrimp. I guess they are about the same size. The neons mouths just seem so tiny. There are ottos in the tank. I think they only ate algae.
 
Do you have any cover for the shrimp? I only have 2 ghosts and they free swim back and forth in front of all the fish and none have tried to take one on. I have 2 mollys and 11 molly fry, 1 platy, 1 swordtail, 1 cory, 2 dwarf gouramis, 2 otos, 5 neons and 2 SAEs. Everybody gets along great in 46 gallons. I have good plant cover thats short, medium and tall. A place for everyone I guess.

Q
 
I really don't think that your neons would have/ could have killed your ghost shrimp.

Here's your information:
Temperature: 83F
Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate: Not mentioned
GH and KH: Not mentioned
Tankmates: Neons and Otocinclus (can I assume some snails?)
Types of "Ghost Shrimp": Two

First of all, there are a lot of species sold as ghost shrimp. If you received, what looked like, two different species then you may have gotten brackish and freshwater types. The brackish types would have died pretty quickly in fresh water.

Also, ghost shrimp (Palaemonetes paludosus) require pretty hard and basic (high pH) water for long term survival. So, if your water is soft with a low pH, that may have killed them. All shrimp also require very low nitrates and no nitrites or ammonia.

Thirdly, ghost shrimp sold as feeders (and those not sold as feeders) are often very poorly kept. This is because they're just going to be used as food and aren't needed to be kept alive in the long term. The shrimp may have just been in very poor health when you got them.

The last thing I would assume is that your neons killed them. Neons will eat baby shrimp, but would have a hard time taking down an adult ghost shrimp. Now, once the shrimp has died of other causes, that's another story. The neons may very well pick at a dead shrimp.

That's my opinion.

Sam
 
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