# Breeding Ghost Shrimp



## Vladdy

I bought 10 ghost shrimp as feeders for 10 for a dollar. They appeared to be very healthy and none of them had any milky coloration. The biggest was a little more than an inch. Do you think they will survive? 7 of them are females carrying green eggs. I want to raise the fry and breed the ghost shrimp. I need to know how to raise them. I have a molly and a tiger barb being kept with the shrimp. I need some advice on raising the fry when the eggs hatch. What can I feed the fry when they hatch? Also, can I keep the eggs in the tank with the shrimp or do I have to keep them in a seperate tank? Has anyone here ever raised ghost shrimp? Thanks for your help.


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## wondabread

I have kept these guys for a long time. They are fun to watch. However, I constantly have berried females but have never once seen babies.

Tiger barbs make short work of ghost shrimp too, so be warned. As far as feeding the babies if you get any, just let them eat the food you feed the adults or if you take them out (or move the adults just before she drops the babies) green water, bbs, infusoria, anything tiny will work.

Aside from practicing breeding, these guys are quite worthless. They are fun to watch, but you can get RCS for around $1/each and they will fetch much more demand. There is a reason ghost shrimp are 10/$1.00.

Also, these guys die for absolutely no apparent reason. They are short lived, and when I buy 20, 10 might make it a week, 5 into the second month. I consider them the otos of inverts.


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## Dwarfpufferfish

“Ghost Shrimp” and “Glass Shrimp” are generic names given to a wide veritiy of shrimp that are of similar size and are clear in color. The most common in North America is the American Glass Shrimp.

And contrary to what Wondabread stated above these shrimp are very long lived when they are healthy, but getting healthy shrimp from a dealer is nearly impossible! Why?
Because they are sold as feeder shrimp so the are shipped in containers that are EXTREMELY over crowded with horrible water conditions and are then stored in poor conditions at the stores.

My second and third generation American Glass Shrimp have lived for 2-3 years already!

To read a little bit about how they breed go here:  http://www.theshrimpfarm.com/blog/?s=american+glass+shrimp+breeding+program and read some of the older posts! Good luck!


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## rasetsu

I got a handful of ghosties and have had them for about a month now in a 29 gallon. The only other inhabitants are a rubberlipped pleco, a couple of mystery snails, and 10 white clouds. I was doing a gravel vac the other day and see something tiny dart away. It was a baby ghosty! I also have 4 berried females. Of course of the adults dropped dead last night so I guess the population is going to remain at status quo.


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## CTSpeed413

Vladdy said:


> I bought 10 ghost shrimp as feeders for 10 for a dollar. They appeared to be very healthy and none of them had any milky coloration. The biggest was a little more than an inch. Do you think they will survive? 7 of them are females carrying green eggs. I want to raise the fry and breed the ghost shrimp. I need to know how to raise them. I have a molly and a tiger barb being kept with the shrimp. I need some advice on raising the fry when the eggs hatch. What can I feed the fry when they hatch? Also, can I keep the eggs in the tank with the shrimp or do I have to keep them in a seperate tank? Has anyone here ever raised ghost shrimp? Thanks for your help.



Where did you find them for 10 for a dollar???
I can't seem to find them any cheaper than $.33 
They are cheap as free in FL, but not so in TX - to my knowledge.

Thanks!!! :icon_smil


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## Vladdy

CTSpeed413 said:


> Where did you find them for 10 for a dollar???
> I can't seem to find them any cheaper than $.33
> They are cheap as free in FL, but not so in TX - to my knowledge.
> 
> Thanks!!! :icon_smil


They sell them here as feeder shrimp for 10 cents each


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## anastasisariel

Yeah, most ghost shrimp die because of how they are handled sold as feeders. I caught some wild which almost anyone in North America can do in creeks and especially silty pools separated from the main creek. The ones I caught faired way better than the ones I've purchased but hey even some sold as feeders will survive. If you want them to breed they will eat just about anything; I would feed them spirinia algae and/or shrimp food and keep them as cool as you can get your tank indoors as they are a temperate species so I could only assume that a lower temperature (65-75degrees) would be better. I did have shrimp breed but the young never survived in a community tank. My tank was a native setup; temp was probably 68-70 degrees.


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## Ravenmoon

Ghost shrimp are hard to breed...I've hard berried females as well but I've never seen any babies.


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## CTSpeed413

Vladdy said:


> They sell them here as feeder shrimp for 10 cents each



LOL, ok, where is "here"? :icon_roll

I've had ghost shrimp, usually bought a buck or two's worth at a time while stocking up on guppies, (well, you only need 4 to get 100) loaches, pleco (1or 2) tetras, danios, angels

had quite a good variety going when we lived in Tampa - had a little shipwreck that the loaches hid in , some breeder boxes for the guppies, then abandoned the breeder boxes after the guppies took over!
somehow, the ghost shrimp were actually able to reproduce. Mortality rate was probably higher than the guppies though but eventually I didn't need to buy them anymore - unless some of the more aggressive loaches got hungry! LOL

so - where is "here" anyway VLaddy??
:smile:


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## anastasisariel

I only think they are hard to breed because most people have them in tropical setups and they are a temperate specie.... and I seriously doubt there are many people who have ghost shrimp tanks other than for feeders...yuk!:redface: From what I've read the young have no larval state.. and its definitely not a brackish specie... we have tons here in Missouri.


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## crimsonbull57

I accidentaly had them reproduce in my 10. I guess it evaded my guppy till it got big enough. I would suggest LOTS of java moss for the shrimplets to hide in.


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## CTSpeed413

They ARE the circle of life! They eat fish poop, and the fish eat them - and disregard my question from earlier VLaddy, for some reason I thought I saw Frisco TX by your name. I almost exclusively went to Pet Mart on Bush, then 56th st - once I discovered them. It's a mom and pop type store and they have a great variety. Now, I'm in Frisco, TX, I can't find them for less then $.33, which I blamed on the economy until I found my friend who still lives in Tampa got them for 10 or 12 for a dollar like I'm used to.
on raising them - 
I did a bit of Googling and found that all you really need is a good hiding place for them. We "lucked" into getting ours to reproduce; they are excellent little scavengers! That's why I would want them to breed to eat, and be eaten!! : D
kind of like snails to loaches - but ghost shrimp are much more desirable than snails...in my humble opinion.

When ghost shrimp get cloudy, it's caused by copper in the food. check your bottom feeder pellets for - copper sulfate - it slowly kills them - I found that out too late. I was also surprised at how much fish food has copper in it.
Good reason to stick with Omega one or Hikari - expensive but worth it. Amazon usually has good deals on it. anyone found cheap ghost shrimp in TX? Frisco to be exact? 
I may "go fish" like DPF....


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## ycbs

If you have a Pet Supermarket (it's a chain), they have them 10/$1. I've seen them at PetSmart and Petco for $.33 and $.25 each. Even saw them at a LFS that were calling them "Algae Eating Shrimp" and selling them for $2 each. I informed them of what they really were and the next time I went in, they were selling them for $.50 each.


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## CTSpeed413

ycbs said:


> If you have a Pet Supermarket (it's a chain), they have them 10/$1. I've seen them at PetSmart and Petco ......



Yup, I think it's because I'm so far inland - which doesn't make a whole lot of sense, because they are freshwater, but I'll just have to keep getting them at PetSmart for $.33, and provide better hiding places. I just have to spend $16.50 instead of $5.00 to get what I want, it could be worse. At least "regular" fish aren't also 3x what they cost - or I would not have finally set my tank back up. I think since my loaches are accustomed to eating snails, they also like the ghost shrimp too. I'm going to have to just buy a bunch of them and give them good shelter - maybe some of that moss too.

Still waiting for my bulbs to grow into plants.
Thanks all!


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## Vladdy

CTSpeed413 said:


> Yup, I think it's because I'm so far inland - which doesn't make a whole lot of sense, because they are freshwater, but I'll just have to keep getting them at PetSmart for $.33, and provide better hiding places. I just have to spend $16.50 instead of $5.00 to get what I want, it could be worse. At least "regular" fish aren't also 3x what they cost - or I would not have finally set my tank back up. I think since my loaches are accustomed to eating snails, they also like the ghost shrimp too. I'm going to have to just buy a bunch of them and give them good shelter - maybe some of that moss too.
> 
> Still waiting for my bulbs to grow into plants.
> Thanks all!


It isn't rare for fish to eat shrimp. Chances are that the shrimp will make a tasty snack for the fish.


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## fibertech

Petsmart on Coit in Plano has ghost shrimp


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## cjp999

I've managed to raise about 40 ghost shrimp the past few months. Like most, I started with 10 feeders from the LFS. This was about a year ago when I first setup an aquarium (now I have 5!). Like most experienced, half died in the 1st two weeks. The other 5 did well, berried a lot, but in a tank full of fish and strong filtration, there was no hope of the larvae surviving. 

About 5 months ago I was down to 3 females, all of which were berried and looked to be at the same stage of gestation. I moved them to a 5g with a sponge filter. A week or two later all the eggs hatched within a day. I removed the females as the eggs hatched. At first I saw no signs of life, but then after a couple days the "head standers" started to appear floating in the water column.

Although I had good visibility into the tank, I never counted more than about 10 floating in the water column. However, after a month or two I ended up removing about 40 babies shrimp into two separate 10g tanks. They have been doing great ever since. Some have even berried while still quite small. I don't believe I have lost any since. I recently cleaned one 10g and it still had 21 shrimp in it. They even survived 3 days of 94F temps when my heater go stuck on.

I use well water. PH 8.2. Rather high Kh and Dh (can't recall exactly offhand). Temp around 78F. 50% water change every two weeks. Both 10g tanks are low light. One is well planted and gets fertz and Excel, the other doesn't.

I should add that I have had rather poor luck with RCS. Started with 20 about 9 months ago. Now I have two. Never had any young or saw any females berry. I'm about to take another stab at RCS under different conditions (No fertz and no Excel).


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## cjp999

I should add that I fed them baby brine shrimp and brine shrimp food. I witnessed the larvae eating both. You can actually see them go after the particles of food as they float nearby.


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