• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

Is this true?

Joined
Jul 31, 2003
Messages
1,312
I wanted to know if I could acclimate Ghost Shrimp to SW.


Re: live "ghost" shrimp as bimac food?|tgrupert|
this is one of those great aquarium falicies. If you could find FW GS they would cost about two dollars each. SW GS can survive in fresh water for a whiule, and they can also survive in brackish water. Almost all GS are the SW variety even if they are living in FW. they mack a great SW food because they have been in a FW dip for a long time. You may be able to find them very cheap at bait shops. Also if you want to raise their young you will need plants for the eggs to be deposited on, allso try to get nasty green watr. you won't need filtration for the babies.
 
Well, actually, ghost shrimp don't live very long in salt water, and you have to be careful and remove the dead ones.

I think they are good for young bimacs to introduce them to hunting shrimp. The saltwater shimp (the shore shrimp, for instance) are very fast and it takes an octo some time to learn to catch them. (but octos like them very much, even if they're small)

Here ghost shrimp sell for about 20 cents each, so they're not expensive.

Nancy
 
There are a lot of different species of FW and SW glass/ghost shrimps so you cant lump them all together like that...

They only survive for a short while in their alien environment because of their big exoskeltal suit of armour but they dont last long, i dont think it is posible to get FW shrimps into SW and vice versa.
 
Fw ghost shrimps are cheap here so I use them as a staple. The ones i get will tolerate about 1.05-6 sg. Depending on the size, the shrimp will survive 10 mins to 30mins in full strength seawater.
 
no, but i really have to be skeptical about it working.. they just arn't designed to go past brackish conditions... its like trying to get a marine crab into fresh water
 
I have also caught ghost shrimps in the tropics miles and miles from the sea...

There are lots and lots of different species of shrimp that have transparent bodies
 
There are saltwater shrimps which look like ghost shrimp. I don't know what species but I catch them once in a while they are more or less the same as ghost shrimp just that they have orange bbands at their leg joints.
 
That's one thing about Scotland... you cant ever get that far away from it compared to the US
 
Question:

Outside just getting another tank set-up for the ghost shrimp, how can you make them survive a bit longer than a few days?

I have one tank for seahorses that only eat shrimp, and I purchase roughly two dozen at a time and put them in a freshwater container. It never fails that within a day or two, at least half are dead. I feed them (gut load) and I even do water changes in the container!

Would they stay alive if I chilled them in the fridge similar to brine? Or is this their normal life span when not in a filtered system?
 
I have to say, the ghost shrimp do best in brackish. I have a 56gal brackish with the usual fair (moray, scats, monos, archer, puffers, toadfish). When I throw ghost shrimp in there (usually a dozen or more at a time), most get eaten, but I will always see some weeks later, hiding in foliage. I even saw one at my LFS that never got eaten in their brackish section and now has become a phenom there. Its is bizarre. The thing is the same transparent look, but is almost 2 inches long and think as a finger. Its huge, and very gangly looking.
 
Do you ever try feeding the shrimp? Try throwing in a few small pieces of fish and they shoud be fine. Some will also take freeze dried blood worms from the surface.
 

Shop Amazon

Shop Amazon
Shop Amazon; support TONMO!
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Back
Top