# Ghost shrimp only tank



## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

I just put all my ghost shrimp into a tank alone so they can try to breed a bit.

what would be the best temp? I've read 68 to 82, which is a big range, wondering what would be best. If its lower 70's I'll just take the heater out?

How often should I feed them? They were in a tank with guppies and always looked like they got enough food. But I fed the tank once a day which might not be needed for ghost shrimp.

Also is it best to put in a veggie waffer or flake food?

I have a sponge filter running and for a little while I have a HOB going from another tank to seed it.

Also, do they care much about light? I tossed on a junk light I have so I can see them, but will they actually want light during the day? Tank is in my basement fish room so very very little natural light, but room gets kinda lit up by all the other tanks around. So do I turn their light on each day or just turn it on when I want to see them?


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## colio (Dec 8, 2012)

pyrrolin said:


> I just put all my ghost shrimp into a tank alone so they can try to breed a bit.
> 
> what would be the best temp? I've read 68 to 82, which is a big range, wondering what would be best. If its lower 70's I'll just take the heater out?


I would be careful with the upper range of that temperature. I have read in various places that ghosts don't like over 80. Also I had an ich problem a while back, and upped my temp to around 86. Most of my ghost shrimp in that tank did not survive the experience, poor little guys.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

I started out with Ghost shrimp. I still get a kick out of them and had fair success raising them. There's a thread on it here somewhere, how I got along the first time I tried to raise the zoeys.

I would say light is necessary. Once the zoeys morph into shrimplets, they rise to the top of the water column in the daylight and sink down into the cover at night. I had the tank well planted, with a big piece of wood and some rocks, lots of moss, leafy stem plants. First few days after they morph, they barely move, hanging head down near the surface. After a few days they start swimming more like adult shrimp do. You may notice what look like dead baby shrimp.. but chances are it's only moulted exoskeletons floating around. They will eat them, so don't remove them. When they are young, they moult often, so you'll tend to see quite a few bits of exo' floating about.

I found Ghosts preferred their water on the cooler side and mine were quite happy between 70 - 76, and a summer heat wave was really hard on them. I've never had a heater running, this place is too hot most of the time. I have fans going even now. Also bear in mind, if the tank temperatures fluctuate very much, it can kill the zoeys or shrimplets. So try to keep it very stable. The length of time it takes for them to morph is affected by temperature also. Mine morphed on the fourth day, iirc. As for feeding, I cultured green water and used a 50cc syringe to shoot about a hundred CCs of greenwater into the tank about three times daily, starting the day the female dropped her eggs and continuing until the shrimplets were big enough to start foraging, which means when I saw them crawling around on the various surfaces rather than hanging in the water column. Then I stopped the greenwater. If the tank is well established, the shrimplets just graze on the biofilm. They seem to spend most of their time on wood or the sponge filter, and some on the substrate.

Adult Ghosts will do fine for a few days at least without feeding. They'll graze just like the shrimplets do, on sponge, wood, even the glass. Pretty much anything. So a mature tank, well established, is the best friend you'll have for the shrimp.

Adult Ghosties seem to enjoy almost any kind of fish food too. I've seen them hang upside down from a floating flake while trying to eat it. I was using small sinking veggie pellets for my loaches and corys, and found the Ghosts love them too. [ Omega One Veggie pellets were the ones I used] They'll grab one and start trying to eat it before it softens up enough, then drop it and grab another, maybe while they hold onto a second one, to prevent other shrimp getting them. Greedy guts . They also really go for sinking shrimp pellets and when I feed bloodworms, they'll grab at both ends and rip the bloodworm in half arguing over it. They never seem to do any harm to each other - just bluff and bluster.

Adults also like meaty stuff. Anything that dies will be eaten with great relish, be it shrimp, snail or fish, no matter the size.

Just be careful not to overfeed, which will mess up your water. If there are leftovers remaining after a couple or three hours, you fed too much, so just cut back next feeding. I don't think I actually fed my shrimplets at all for at least a couple of weeks after they morphed, after I stopped the green water. They grazed constantly on every surface they could get to, especially leaves, wood and sponge.

One tip.. I found that I got much better survival rates if I took the adult shrimp out of the tank after the females dropped their eggs. Leaving the girls in the tank cut the numbers of surviving babies by at least half, though I have never actually seen a Ghost eat a baby one, I have seen them eat baby Cherry shrimp.. so it makes sense they'd eat their own kids, if they find one. So if you want to raise them, it will help if you can set up a 5 G tank just for raising zoeys. Put pregnant females in when they get close to dropping and then remove them after they do drop the eggs.


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

thanks for the info!!! going to lower the temp a tiny bit right now


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