can i put some ghost shrimp in my pond? i think they would be very good scavengers, after all they are the "underwater roach". but my experience with ghost shrimp i get as feeders is, they die within 2 days of buying them! ive tried leaving them in their own water with an airstone, brand new freshwater, tried brackish water, and even fully saltwater. all those attemps and the only one that seemed to work was the fully saltwater one, and only 2 shrimp stayed alive in there. any suggestions? (oh and i dont mind if my fish eat the shrimp)
ghost shrimp?
- Thread starter shadowspar
- Start date
The shrimp aren't dying because of the treatment you're giving them, they're dying because of the treatment they got before you bought them. If you can get some straight from the source- either an aquaculture place or the wild- you'll have better luck. You're in luck, because Florida is where most ghost shrimp are raised and also has abundant wild shrimp. Look for shallow, still, weedy water and run a net through it; you should get as many shrimp as you want.
Like Noto stated many die due to pet store care. They are very sensetive to chemicals in water but once established breed outside easily. ESP with our high ph florda water.
I have never seen any wild one's though know they are found in the state. I purchased 20 from a pet store placed them in plastic bin with aged water and floating frogbit as cover.
My plan was to see how they lived for min a week before putting in little pond . ALL 20 died.
Than I purchased 7 shrimp at fish farm feeder type . After 2 weeks all lived in bin and placed them in pond , few months later had COUNTLESS tiny ghosts .
I have floating frogbit which has long thick roots and when have to much frogbit throw extra away and thats how I saw the countless glass sliver looking babies.
I added few green cory catfish and long finned guppies after few months and big reduction in ghost shrimps though still have them though not by the drones like before.
You only need a few and thick rooted plants (if you have fish) and bingo lots of babies. The only fish IMO that makes it close to impossible to get any real volume of baby shrimps are mosquito fish .
I have never seen any wild one's though know they are found in the state. I purchased 20 from a pet store placed them in plastic bin with aged water and floating frogbit as cover.
My plan was to see how they lived for min a week before putting in little pond . ALL 20 died.
Than I purchased 7 shrimp at fish farm feeder type . After 2 weeks all lived in bin and placed them in pond , few months later had COUNTLESS tiny ghosts .
I have floating frogbit which has long thick roots and when have to much frogbit throw extra away and thats how I saw the countless glass sliver looking babies.
I added few green cory catfish and long finned guppies after few months and big reduction in ghost shrimps though still have them though not by the drones like before.
You only need a few and thick rooted plants (if you have fish) and bingo lots of babies. The only fish IMO that makes it close to impossible to get any real volume of baby shrimps are mosquito fish .
bbboys;3427952; said:
Have yours ever bred?.
I had them in 30 gallon tank with white cld minnows when I lived in NY . Ph was about 7.0 and they lived tops 2 months and did not breed.
I think ph might have been the problem and room temp .
crap! i have a school of 10 or so gambusia aka mosquito fish in my pond. guess if i do try it ill never get babies.
shadowspar;3432917; said:
Won't hurt to give it a try ESP if you have floating plants for the adults to hide in. I found the mosquito fish would even nip the adults .
Out of all the outside fish I have they seem to enjoy nipping,going after anything that can't eat them just for fun. Tiny terrors.
If you have 10 mosquito fish you will in time have 100 lol. If the fry have a place to hide .
Common pet store cheap platys will also eat mosquito larvae and will not bother ghost shrimps (male swordtails and mollies will sometimes jump out).
Muske;3435944; said:
The rain water PH in Miami is around 7.8 to 8.0 its liquid cement. My pond where the shrimp breed the most has Ph steady at about 7.8. I imagine due to driftwood.
In my area canal which are lime/coral rock based ph is 8.2 and SA,CA cichlids breed like crazy.
The Everglade outskirts where some say these shrimps are found (I have never seen any) the PH from what I heard from a turtle farm ph ranges from 7.2 to 8.2
i live in tampa, fl. and i wonce got a water hardness test, the readings was completely OFF THE CHART. like louie said, its liquid cement.