# Ghost Shrimp & Cherry Shrimp question?



## thePWNISHER (Jun 18, 2011)

So I know ghost shrimp are feeders and they don't really survive unless they outgrow the betta and have some good hiding places. Are cherry shrimps in the same boat? I know they reproduce more and do ghost shrimps reproduce easily in a tank? I mean I plan to add some java moss and some shrimp but I was wondering which would be easier in a 10g with a single betta. Would the cherry shrimp reproduce like pond snails and run rampant or not?

Just some thoughts I had when looking at shrimp.


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## thePWNISHER (Jun 18, 2011)

how big do amano shrimp get? I saw one that I swore was 3 inches at the LPS the other day.


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## Nexangelus (Apr 29, 2011)

Ghost shrimp survival rates are entirely dependant on betta personality. From what I've read and experienced, the odds aren't great. They're cheap though, and a great test to see if you should make the investment in cherry shrimp, who are pretty similar in size, shape and longevity. As for reproduction, don't expect them to reproduce if there are other tank mates... The babies will get eaten almost immediately. 

Amanos on the other hand... Are my all-time favorite tank mate. They get to be about 2 inches or so max and I've had absolutely no problems getting them to peacefully live with my bettas, presumably because of their size. They're not an ornamental shrimp, which means they live almost 3 times as long as the cherries and do an unreal job with algae and bottom feeding. If you have live plants of any sort, I'd say you're silly not to have these guys. Even without plants, I'd say they're a good investment. Personally, I would never have a tank without amanos. Not only do they look cool, but they have the highest cleaning capacity of any tank inhabitant I've ever kept.

Plus, they sometimes hitch rides on betta tails, which is absolutely hilarious. Oh, and they won't reproduce, since their larval form requires salt water until they're in a juvenile state. Weird, but true.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Any type of shrimp except ghost shrimp can be hard to find so it's definitely worth trying a ghost shrimp or two to "test drive" your betta's willingness to share his home. The shrimp may end up being sacrificed to get the answer but at least you won't have spent a lot of money. Ghost shrimp are like $1.99, cherry and amano shrimp are about $4.99 or more, depending on your source. And lately Petco has been carrying bamboo shrimp which get about 3". I don't know how much those cost, though. And they don't ALWAYS carry them, either.


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## Nexangelus (Apr 29, 2011)

Bamboo shrimp are "filter feeders" meaning they eat particles in the water generated by waste. They're lower maintenance, but still require a fair amount of waste to feed on. I've never kept them, but I can only assume a single fish would not produce enough to feed them. That's why they're always dead in pet stores... Most keep them in their own tank, which leads to starvation.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Leave it to Petco to sell something like that without properly educating the public on its care. :roll:


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## Nexangelus (Apr 29, 2011)

I went to my first petco the other day... It smelled like ferret and had a terrible selection of bettas. They were all red or blue and the water they were in was disgusting. I'm glad I don't work there. We got dragons in where I work.

..Wait, that's off topic.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Yes it is but I have a magical way of leading everyone posting off topic without even meaning to.


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## masshiimarro (Apr 16, 2011)

are amano shrimp hard to care for? i know some shrimps like crystal reds or bee shrimp are very delicate...


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## thePWNISHER (Jun 18, 2011)

amano shrimp are easy if you have algae showing in any from my research. I figured that if I have enough moss ground cover I would try ghost shrimp since at the petsmart and petco here they are 26cents a piece. Cherry shrimp are actually almost always stocked at my petsmart and they are only $1 on weekends and they are always sold out whenever I'm in checking on latest shipment. Amano's I dont see anywhere I will have to mail order one if I get to that point.


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## CrazyCatLady (Jul 17, 2011)

I have 3 ghost shrimp that are doing great in my tank. Stefon is a wimp and does not bother them at all. As long as you have some plants (live or fake) for them to climb on as well as some places for them to hide, they are happy! IMO, they are the cutest things EVER!

BTW, Petsmart carries them for 33 cents each!

I would wait at least a month before putting them into a tank. That way there will be more than enough waste buildup for them to feast on! Mine eat anything, but they prefer sinking shrimp pellets.


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## Nexangelus (Apr 29, 2011)

Amanos aren't hard to care for at all. I have yet to feed them as they seem to survive on fish waste and gunk buildup on ornaments and plants. Definitely not hard to care for. If you really wanted to go all out I suppose algae wafers would work, but I hardly see that as necessary. 

They can be hard to find... My recommendation would be to go to your Local Fish Store and ask if they can special order them for you. That's what our store does when people want things that aren't available... Worth a try.


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## pens (May 17, 2011)

My betta kept trying to eat one of my female amano's eyes (because they look like pellets and bettas have an uncanny ability to stalk prey) until she became blind, constantly swimming around in panicked circles whenever anything brushed one of her antennas. I put her in my 29 gal and she's doing fine with her shrimpmates, she's probably still blind but you can't really notice a difference with the antennules that sprout over time or whatever.

That said, Amanos are great - they actually eat fish flakes once they learn to sense it. My amanos always compete with the other community fish for food, swimming upside down to the top of the tank to grab a flake before settling to the bottom to use their tiny feelers to shift and scrape tiny bits of food into their mouth. They do eat plants though, so you'll need to up your feeding schedule accordingly, or have enough/fast growing plants to regrow the eaten ones.

Also, if you prefer handling fish by hand like I do, you'll definitely want a net for these guys because of their telson reflex. It's okay if you don't know what this means, because I think it's more fun for everyone to learn the hard way. And they actually swim a lot, like fish with legs! I should've gotten a malacostraca tank instead of a fish tank, as they're so much more entertaining, and a lot less demanding.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Got to be honest, I saw some at my LFS the other day and they looked like aquatic spiders. Not my thing but great for anyone who wants one.  Is the telson response similar to the so-called "tail flip escape," the telson being the fan tail of crustaceans?


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## pens (May 17, 2011)

Yup, it makes them impossible to catch! If you buy them (you should!! they actually are aquatic spiders in a very broad sense, so you know you're getting the real thing) make sure they're not the same as 'cleaner shrimp' (usually cheaper but afaik they're the same species, unless the store uses that name for ghost shrimp) and check the bag for moulting when you get home. I got a set of 3 a while ago and wasn't careful with a lil dude who moulted in transit, and he died shortly after, I guess those shrimp undergoing a moult tend to be easier to catch I guess. 

Amano shrimp have an interesting way to spawn too; the females are usually pregnant too, at least at my LFS, constantly fanning their brood of eggs attached on undersides. These eggs will be released and hatch into tiny free-swimming larvae that you can barely make out with the naked eye if the female is stressed (i.e. having her eyes eaten out), but apparently won't make it to adult stage unless they're in brackish conditions. A convincing hypothesis I've read is that the reason for this is that the eggs are released in ocean-going streams/rivers, where they then flow to salt water where the larvae hatch. I'd really love to breed one of these guys some day, but oh well, at least my betta had a field day hunting all the eggs/larvae down.

Oh and the best part of amanos - according to a breeder, the transition between larva and adult shrimp is when they start swimming forward instead of backward!! That's the most adorable thing I've heard in my life.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

pens, if you ever do get to breed amanos, post a few pics, it sounds fascinating. And get a video of that larva/adult transition.


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## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

Glad you posted this, definitely plan to start out with some of the cheaper shrimp to see if they can make it when I start up my sorority.

But uh, definitely no touching, spiders of any sort creep me out, at least cherry shrimp look interesting, not just like a bug


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Maybe it was because the amanos and ghost shrimp are clear/whitish. I don't know. One of them was moving around in the front of the tank at the LFS, belly to the glass and there was something about those legs wiggling that just did me in.


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## pens (May 17, 2011)

I'd love to get to breed them! I doubt I can carve out enough free time out of my schedule, but we'll see.

All shrimp are bug-like - phylogenetically speaking, crustaceans are sister groups to hexapodans (insects) after all. Amano shrimp are just way bigger, so those weird undersea bug features stick out a lot more.

They feel weightless when they crawl on your finger, it takes a little bit of time to get used to the weirdness of the feeling. I'm still startled every time they pull their telson reflex on me though, when they're out of the water you hear a loud CRACK as they flop around while you scramble to rescue them, I swear they're breaking the sound barrier with their tails every time they do that.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

:shock: I'll have to hang around my pet shop until someone buys one and the employee goes to get it out of the tank. That telson reflex does sound crazy, like they're backfiring or something. Do they have to be horizontal (normal) to pull that or can they pull it when they're upside down or at any other angle? Like, could they use it to propel themselves out of a net as you try to catch them?


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## pens (May 17, 2011)

It's a reflex caused by synchronized contractions of the tail area (the meaty part that you eat) so shrimp can do it anywhere, but the resultant motion depends on the sweeping motion of their tail and swimmerets and only propels them backward. So in a net or out of water, they'll probably just flop around like fish, but once they wise up they can still walk around normally like an aquatic cockroach looking for a way to disappear forever.

They don't use it to escape from aquariums though, my shrimp spend most of their time swimming upside down at the surface and I've kept them in an uncovered aquarium for weeks without any problems... The times they do get out is when they accidentally shoot themselves out of the water when trying to escape my net or a hungry betta.

As for stopping them from escaping from nets, you can try catching them from behind  they're relatively slow (betta-speed) swimmers in the forward direction. Also my betta poops in big spherical blobs and one of my amanos is clutching onto it like a pastry bun close to his mouth, slowly filtering tiny pieces inside... yum!


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

I've got to ask, are/were you a science major? You're as educational and twice as interesting as a Nova program on public tv. I'm learning a lot about shrimp from you. Still think they're too bug-like but I'm learning how interesting their behavior is.

And uhm, about the amano and the poo . . . what a lovely mental image I have now, hahah.


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## Kaoru (Jul 28, 2011)

thePWNISHER said:


> Cherry shrimp are actually almost always stocked at my petsmart and they are only $1 on weekends and they are always sold out whenever I'm in checking on latest shipment. Amano's I dont see anywhere I will have to mail order one if I get to that point.


Your Petsmart sells cherry shrimp o___o;;?! That aint right. Do you think if I bug my Petsmart they will carry them too? The only store that carries cherry shrimp here costs $5 each! And thats on sale...Amanos are only 3 bucks though =3=. If you have any fish stores near you, you could always ask for them to order amano shrimp for you. Save on shipping that way haha.


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## Vizja13 (Jul 18, 2011)

Hmm, I was thinking about tracking down some Cherry Shrimp near me (love the red) but now you have me thinking about Amanos.

I have a rather lazy Oto in my 5.5 gal...would that cause problems with any of the shrimp?


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