# Ghost Shrimp Danger(?)



## MasterWallabee (Dec 26, 2013)

Hey everyone, I recently had a really concerning incident with my female betta and her two ghost shrimp companions. I recently moved the three into a new 10 gallon tank, a lot more spacious than their old one, and they've always gotten along great. However, for the past few days, I noticed the shrimp getting more and more aggressive. They would swim up and down the sides of the tank, even landing on top of my betta and harassing her with their antennas. She didn't seem to mind too much, but I looked into it anyway. 

(Here is a picture of my fish getting photobombed by one of her "buddies" http://i.imgur.com/seMO2Zm.jpg )

After doing some research, I found that the ghost shrimp I owned, which had two red dots on their tail as well as red bands on their antenna and front legs, are known to some as fish killers! 








(This shrimp is almost identical to mine.)

Naturally I was very concerned, and monitored their behavior at next feeding time. My betta likes to wait for her food to drop to the bottom and chase it down instead of eating from the top. A pellet she missed sunk to the bottom and, right as she reached it, the ghost shrimp was suddenly on top of her! It held her with all its legs and was almost the same size as she is. I almost had a heart attack but thankfully it let her go and scuttled off. 

The shrimp I was never really that attached to, I bought them to be janitors or food, but I certainly never expected them to try to make a meal out of my fish! I immediately removed both shrimp from the tank, and they won't be going near my fish any time soon! 

Has anyone here had the same compatibility issues with shrimp? It seems crazy that fish food would try to make a fish into food!


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## kittenfish (Dec 1, 2013)

The ghost shrimp won't be able to do any serious damage to your fish. It was probably just trying to steal the food pellet. Do you know if the shrimp were getting enough to eat? When I had ghost shrimp with my betta she would steal anything I tried to feed them, even if I just fed her. I don't think she liked their food either, she was just being a jerk.


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## Polkadot (Feb 10, 2013)

That sounds creepy.I considered getting a shrimp for each of my boys tanks,but decided against it after reading stories similar to yours about them attacking.I know alot of people have them without any issues,but I just wouldn't take the risk,even if there's just a tiny risk that they could do any damage to my boys.The thought of a shrimp creeping up on my bettas at night or something just isn't worth it. :blueshake:


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## MasterWallabee (Dec 26, 2013)

I was definitely feeding the shrimp enough lol, they had plenty of other food pellets around on the ground and would ignore them for a long time. It didn't even try to find more food after attacking her, so I don't know what provoked it. 

I know that my betta is tough and she could probably kill the shrimp if it bothered her too much, but since I've been prepping to get a school of tetras, I don't want to put them in danger. I also definitely won't be putting them in with my male betta because he's a rose tail. As tough as he thinks he is, all that baggage would probably weigh him down too much to have a very good defense. 

Polkadot, I'm pretty sure that most shrimp species are very peaceful and are more likely to end up as lunch than as killers. Cherry, bumblebee, and other small species of shrimp are great options. The problem is that "ghost shrimp" refers to a lot of different species, and some of them are harmless while other ones aren't. Plus, look how cute these guys are! 
http://www.theshrimptank.com/product_images/uploaded_images/bumble-bee-shrimp-2.jpg


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## Polkadot (Feb 10, 2013)

MasterWallabee said:


> Polkadot, I'm pretty sure that most shrimp species are very peaceful and are more likely to end up as lunch than as killers. Cherry, bumblebee, and other small species of shrimp are great options. The problem is that "ghost shrimp" refers to a lot of different species, and some of them are harmless while other ones aren't. Plus, look how cute these guys are!
> http://www.theshrimptank.com/product_images/uploaded_images/bumble-bee-shrimp-2.jpg


There are some nice looking ones,bumblebee sounds cute.


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