# New ghost shrimp = ragged betta tail?



## Vashnic (Sep 29, 2012)

Bought a couple ghost shrimp (Palaemonetes paludosus according to tank) from Petco yesterday, somewhat amusing to watch Betta chase them away from his pellets, woke up to big ragged chunks missing from his tail! :shock:

His tank only has live plants and small smooth driftwood pieces--could ghost shrimps be nibbling on his tail fin at night??? Their claws are so tiny! Or is he somehow ripping his tail when chasing them away? Or some unrelated cause that coincided with new shrimp? Water has been stable and just did a 50% WC before putting shrimpies in.

Thinking of switching out for red cherry shrimp.


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## Mahachai (Sep 15, 2012)

It's likely that during the night he was fustrated with his tail and thought it was another fish/shrimp.

or

Possible but, unlikely there's another shrimp species that looks like ghost shrimps but are carnivorous Amano shrimps and they eat fish.


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## Vashnic (Sep 29, 2012)

Here is a picture of the shrimps (roughly an inch long) in question:



Is there some way to tell apart the Macrobrachium from the normal ones?

And tail-tears :-


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## OrangeAugust (Jul 23, 2012)

Hmmm. I don't know what the differences are between the two types of shrimp. But that shrimp looks just like my ghost shrimp. Your betta is very pretty! I think he may have started biting his own tail. He might not be happy with having tank mates.


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## Olympia (Aug 25, 2011)

Ghost shrimp have been known to attack betta fins, actually.


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