# Ghost shrimp without heater?



## mmelnick (Mar 5, 2010)

Will Ghost shrimp be able to make it long term in a small tank without a heater? I keep them in the 40 gallon sump of my 125 gallon tank to eat on detritus and whatever food ends up down there. But I have a 2.5 gallon aquarium laying around and I was wondering if I pulled out the gravid females and let them hang out in there if they would be ok and if the baby shrimp would be able to hatch and grow to adulthood. I would not be running a heater in this tank. Before investing in a heater for a small tank I would buy a 10 gal and use a heater that I already have. It seems like investing in a quality heater for a pico tank would be more expensive than buying a 10-20 gallon aquarium.

The temp in the room I would be keeping them in fluctuates between 68-75 degrees in the summer and 68-65 degrees in the winter.

And... if this works out I might switch to RCS some day. So same question for them.

Thanks!


----------



## greaser84 (Feb 2, 2014)

Yup the temps are fine for those shrimp. I don't have a heater in any of my shrimp tanks.


----------



## jasonpatterson (Apr 15, 2011)

mmelnick said:


> But I have a 2.5 gallon aquarium laying around and I was wondering if I pulled out the gravid females and let them hang out in there if they would be ok and if the baby shrimp would be able to hatch and grow to adulthood.
> 
> <snip>
> 
> And... if this works out I might switch to RCS some day. So same question for them.


Yes on both counts. I kept both species in tanks in my unheated, poorly insulated basement in Cleveland for years. It regularly got into the 40s. RCS really don't need the birthing/grow out tank though. 

They're endotherms, so their metabolism will basically stop if it gets really cold, but if they're just room temperature they're quite happy. Neither variety is a tropical animal.

The grow out tank for the ghost shrimp will need to be mature for them to have a realistic chance of surviving without special feeding. You could probably get away with feeding them some sort of plankton mix instead.


----------



## mmelnick (Mar 5, 2010)

Great. Thanks guys.



jasonpatterson said:


> The grow out tank for the ghost shrimp will need to be mature for them to have a realistic chance of surviving without special feeding.


I just pulled some sand out of the 125 gallon tank that's been up and running for 2 years. I also used water from that tank to start it. I was hoping that would be enough.


----------



## treyLcham (Sep 9, 2014)

I keep mine in 75-77*water with no problems at all  and no heater. One of my favorite shrimps 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------

