# What happened to my ghost shrimp?



## IanHulett (Feb 19, 2013)

I had 4 ghost shrimp in my tank with guppies. 
I have noticed over the past couple of weeks that one of my ghost shrimp turned white even though they were supposed to be transparent. He seemed pretty active until this morning when I noticed he was not moving anywhere. Normally I stick my hand in there, they back away. He didn't back away this time. So with one last test to see if he was okay, I pulled him out about an inch above water, and normally they would squirm like a regular fish would but he didn't. It seems he is dead. Without the antenna, he reached about 3/4 of an inch. But with the long antenna, he is about 1 inch and a half. So I don't think he was an adult when he died since these shrimp can reach 1 inch without antenna(I think). I am down to three shrimp now. I did some research and saw that they live to 1 year and a half. Can you give me a list of possibilities of why my shrimp died? Many thanks.

Should I put him back in the tank and let my clean up crew care of him or should I feed him to my land hermit crabs for when they resurface from their molts?


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Are you sure it was the shrimp and not just his exoskeleton? They shed it sometimes and it's white like you describe. Also one of the guppies could have attacked him if it wasn't his exoskeleton, Guppies aren't always nice lol


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## IanHulett (Feb 19, 2013)

I looked closer and there is definitely soft tissue inside the exoskeleton so I don't think he molted. I would be very happy though if that really were the case.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Mkay, yeah, just thought I'd bring it up. Sorry to hear though.

More often than not Ghost Shrimp are not as strong as Cherry Shrimp or other Neocaridinia shimp because they're overbred and not taken well care of because they are also used as feeder shrimp for larger fish. Same goes for feeder fish, many times you get disease from them because they aren't taken very good care of. So it's possible he was weak before you brought him home is all.


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## IanHulett (Feb 19, 2013)

So I should just buy Cherry Shrimp?


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

It's up to you. You can actually breed your ghost shrimp yourself, or well, they will eventually if you've got a girl and a boy ^_^ but I would keep them for now and see what happens. If they happened to all die, make sure the guppies weren't pestering them first and then get some Cherries or Amano or some other type if you still want them. Or you can find good home bred ghost shrimp online if you still want Ghosties and they should be better than what the store sells


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## IanHulett (Feb 19, 2013)

I have feeder guppies which I'm raising as pets. I did see a guppy every now and then nip at a snail but I have never seen them nip at a shrimp. I'll keep an eye out though with my remaining shrimp.


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## sandybottom (Nov 29, 2012)

are you sure it was dead? my ghosties turn milky white and stop moving for a couple of days before they molt.was it standing, or was it lying on its side curled up?


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## IanHulett (Feb 19, 2013)

It was on it's side actually.


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## 2muttz (Aug 16, 2013)

That really really does sound like a molt.... the exo shells can totally be deceiving, they look exactly like the actual shrimp, right down to having "eyes".... and I usually find them looking like a real shrimp all curled up on it's side...
(My husband has several times woken me up in the middle of the night because he came home from work and thought one of our ghosties had died... nope each time it was a molt.:-D)

To make it even more confusing the newly molted shrimp will, of course, hide for awhile, so it does appear to be "missing, presumed dead" !

I've never seen a dead one, we only have two and they've been going strong since June, but I believe that I read somewhere that when they die they actually turn pink, not white, and that is how you can best tell if it is a death or a molt? { I am open to correction from someone more experienced on this....}

Either way I'd leave the skeleton in the tank. My ghosts always eat the molts.


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