Ghost Shrimp Longevity

[Constantine24]

I've read they can live as long as a 1 1/2 years, and then I read in one of these threads they only live a couple of months. Any opinions from people who have owned these type of shrimp?

[Mustafa]

If by "ghost shrimp" you mean the American ones that live in freshwater(Palaemonetes paludosus) then their natural lifespan is more than a year. However, since many people do not know how to keep shrimp properly they rarely survive more than a couple of days or weeks in most people's tanks. That's why people think they only live months. Also, since these shrimp are in a very bad condition (i.e. sick) at the store already (mostly sold as "feeder" shrimp), they are already unlikely to survive for a long period of time.

Plus, the shrimp are bought as adults and if a shrimp is already 9 months old for example and it only lives a little over a year anyway, then it will die in a few months if kept under optimal conditions.

So, "ghost shrimp only live a couple of months" is a myth created by lack of knowledge.

[badflash]

I just got 30 ghost shrimp locally. For 10 cents each I couldn't pass them up. These were all adults and looked to be healthy. I've only lost 1 so far (after a week) so these seem to be plenty healthy and hearty. They seem to be able to handle pH spikes rather well. One of my "ponds" (35 gallon tub actually) spiked up to 9.8 when my buffer got overwhelmed by an algae bloom, but they rode through it just fine, at least so far. The main group is keeping my riccia nice & clean. Accidents are not as costly with these as with the cherries. They have a bigger apitite too being bigger shrimp.

They clean algae pretty well as long as that is all there is to eat. They seem to eat anything though. I tried out a few in my daphnia tank and come morning there was not a single daphnia left. How they could eat that many daphnia in one night I'll never know.

Anyone try to breed these on purpose? I understand the hatchlings are planctonic and feed on micro critters and algae. I would imagine the adults would eat them given a chance after seing what they did to the daphnia.

[badflash]

One more thing. The ghosts co-exist with guppies OK. The shrimp get a littly uppity when I dump some daphnia in. They get a little agressive competing with the guppies for them. The guppies defer as the shrimp are bigger.

[badflash]

I now have a female Palaemonetes with 30-40 eggs on here swimmerlets. Nice & green so far. I'm told they go yellow before hatching.

I'm going to isolate here in a separate tank and see if I can't beef it up with some copepods, monia, and green water. As soon as the eggs drop, I'll pull her out. I'm afraid they would eat their own considering what they did to my daphnia.

Anyone that wants to give me some hints, I'd appreciate it.

[badflash]

A guy on e-bay was selling ghost shrimp for $10 for 100 shrimp. Due to a communications screw-up the shrimp spent the night in the post office and I ended up with only about 30 shrimp making the trip.

The good news is that I ended up with 8 good females with eggs which I now have isolated in a single tank. I also have a good batch of monia and green water going. I'll also be starting up a batch of fresh water rotifers for defence in depth. Eggs are green so I think I have a few weeks before the "blessed event" takes place. I've got lots of riccia for them to hide in when the time comes. It is too dense for the adults to easily get into.

[badflash]

Some of the ghost shrimp eggs have hatched! They don't look like plankton to me, but they do swim oddly. They are free swimming, look just like the adult shrimp, but the are tail hangers and seem to be floating head down. I could have missed a stage, but this is definitely a baby ghost shrimp!

Looks like green water and monia will get them started.

[Mustafa]

Congrats on your baby shrimp!b If you look closely you will find out that they do not look like the adults. They are true larvae, but at a very advanced stage and much bigger than the larvae of many other shrimp species.

[badflash]

I've actually got a picture if I can ever figure out how to upload.
Can you do movies? If so how?
These guys are too small for me to see clearly. They fload head down and have that distinctive hump back that ghosts have. Lets hope that what is growing in my tanks is enough. I have 2 more females with green eggs and rotifer resting eggs on the way.

[badflash]

The little ghosts came out of hiding today. I'd say they are around 1.5mm and now are big enough that with my optovisor, I can actually see they are shrimp & walking on the bottom.

Looks like the minimum is green water, monia, and what ever lives with them. I'll bet I'd get more if I'd had rotifers. Of course getting anythingout of the tank that might eat them, and having lots of places to hide, like riccia, is needed too.

[soritan]

That's pretty cool. I'm liking my shrimp so much, I'm thinking of attempting to survive a brood myself when time comes to pass.

How many are there?

A good place to upload is http://www.photobucket.com

If you make the photogallery 'public', it will even generate the BBCode for you.