Ghost shrimp in a 5 gal?

[Alistriwen]

I'd like to keep a few ghost shrimp in a spare 5 gallon tank I have as live food for my fish. I have a few questions about them.

1) Do I need to filter the tank or will small water changes every few days be enough?

2) What do I feed these guys?

3) I keep relatively small fish, will probably have some angels soon, but right now the biggest are some rosy barbs and a few sword. Will the adults be too large to feed to my fish? If so how do I get babies out of them to feed to the fish?

4) Are Java Moss and Hornwort good plants for the ghost shrimp?

 

[wolfcichild027]

its really hard to keep ghost shrimp in a small tank they need a small filter our bubbler and i fed mine black worms they suck them up like spagheti pretty funny because theyre stomachs are in there heads and since theyre see through you can see the worm go in and bunch up in the stomach but pretty much any fish food will work

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

A 5gal would be fine, but you really need to have a filter and cycle the tank beforehand, as such shrimp are very sensitive to ammonia and nitrites and will often drop dead and the slightest sign of them. Heating isn't nesarsary as long as the tank is kept at a stable room temp in the tropical range.

The plants you mentioned at fine, the shrimp shouldn't be eaten by the other fish like angelfish as long as they are given plenty of cover via planting and are not too small to be swallowed whole by the angels.

What sorts of fish do you currently have and how many and what size tank are they in?

 

[Alistriwen]

I currently only have Guppies, a Platy, Sword/Platy crosses and some Rosy barbs. We have 6 guppies and our female platy in a 20 gal, 2 female rosy barbs being conditioned for breeding in another 20 gal, 2 male rosy barbs and 3 sword/platies in a 30 gal and we also have quite a few empty tanks, some of which are set up some are not. I imagine the adult shrimp are too big for my fish to eat, but the baby shrimp should be a good source of live food I was hoping, since we decided on frozen, instead of live, brine shrimp.

 

[guppy]

I kept several in a 1 1/2g tank with a few glo-light tetras. The tank had a UGF. The shrimp ate tetramin flakes that settled to the bottom with no problem. It was a nice night light for the bathroom countertop.

 

[PEVINE11]

i have 3 ghost shrimp in my 5 gallon hex. they eat leftover flakes, and the yhover to bloodworms when i feed that ( pretty cool to watch )

 

[rob page]

i have a few in my 10g. feeder tank also, i had 7 now i have 5. the bigger goldfish ate some i am assumeing?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I currently only have Guppies, a Platy, Sword/Platy crosses and some Rosy barbs. We have 6 guppies and our female platy in a 20 gal, 2 female rosy barbs being conditioned for breeding in another 20 gal, 2 male rosy barbs and 3 sword/platies in a 30 gal and we also have quite a few empty tanks, some of which are set up some are not. I imagine the adult shrimp are too big for my fish to eat, but the baby shrimp should be a good source of live food I was hoping, since we decided on frozen, instead of live, brine shrimp.

Your stocking sounds fine (depending on the exact genders of your guppys), however it would be good to get another 2 female platys (since platys are sociable fish and enjoy the company of their own kind) and 4 more rosy barbs as they are shoaling fish and a pair is not enough for them to shoal properly in .

I would avoid getting angelfish for now though if you are not getting anything larger than a 22gallon, angelfish really need at least a 3ft long 2 high and 1ft wide tank as they are rather "tall" fish and grow to a fair size (about the size of a large outstretched hand). Also be wary that angelfish can pair up for breeding quite easily when they mature, and may reck havoc on the rest of the tank as the pair defend a territory to lay eggs in from the rest of the fish in the tank.

 

[Alistriwen]

Well, currently we have an empty 55 gal, 2 empty 30s an empty 20, 15 and 3 x 10s. Our female platy seems ok on her own, she seems to swim with the guppies happily, but we do plan on expanding our platy collection in the future. She's really only a temporary resident there, we moved her in after she delivered a huge load of fry as we didnt want her back in the 30 gal with the super aggressive male sword.

As for the barbs, we've got 4 and they've been fine together in the 30 for over a month and a half now. They left the other fish alone, in fact they got chased by our male sword . They actually spawned in the 30 gal a few times as well, but the fry were too tiny for us to have much hope of rearing many. We did capture a few and move them out of the tank though, 2 are growing with some baby swords . Right now we have our females alone in the 20 so they can get ripe with eggs and we can control the spawning process. In a week or so we'll be doing a 50% h20 change, upping the temp and throwing in the males. A day later all four will be back in the 30 gallon.

Our hope with the shrimp was that they'd breed and their babies would be small enough to feed to our adult fish and our larger fry. Realistically, we probably wont do angels because this project will likely have to be dissassembled in 7 months and moved elsewhere and Angels take several months just to pair off.

 

[sr20det510]

I keep a 5 gallon tank in the garage with ghost shrimp. All I have running all day is a sponge filter and they are doing very well. I change the water everyweek (2 gallons). I feed them live blood worms.