Ghost shrimp ID?

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Ashley
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Ghost shrimp ID?

Post by Ashley »

I got 6 ghost shrimp from Petsmart a couple months ago, in the end only one survived (as far as I know) and she is a monster. I didn't realize how big she'd gotten until I recently added some cherry shrimp. It's difficult to get a good picture, but I got a few last night, hoping to determine if she actually is a "ghost/glass shrimp" or something else. She's molted twice (very nicely, too) in the past 3-4 weeks.
She NEVER swims (that I've seen) like the RCS do, only crawls around the tank. She stands very tall up on her legs, unlike the other "ghosts" I had and unlike the cherries. She does have a fair amount of color to her, but I know that can be the case with ghost shrimp, anyway. She's about the same size or a little larger than my dwarf crays, so I'm just starting to wonder if she's a large adult ghost shrimp or a juvie of some other variety since she just seems to get bigger and bigger..
http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p86/ ... rimp-1.jpg

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p86/ ... hrimp3.jpg

Here she is by a berried RCS. She actually looks smaller in the photo, probably because the RCS is closer- she towers over those things (But has yet to show any real aggression, just waves her arms at anything that gets too close to her).

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p86/ ... imp2-1.jpg
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Ashley
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Re: Ghost shrimp ID?

Post by Ashley »

Oh, and she's got eggs that I first noticed just a couple days ago. Green eggs. If that makes a difference. I've been checking every male cherry shrimp I see to make sure it's not actually a ghost... I've not seen another ghost shrimp for quite a while, so I'm convinced she's the only one in there. Not sure how long it takes after mating to see the eggs on the swimmerets.
7Enigma
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Re: Ghost shrimp ID?

Post by 7Enigma »

Definitely a ghost shrimp. I have 3 in my cherry tank at work and they look exactly the same. They have no green like the pictures on Mustafa's ID page, but do have the red segments on the appendages when seen in the proper light. They will/should swim if you add food (if none is around) and they will hoard food for themselves and swim into the middle of the tank to prevent their food from getting eaten. Mine even invert, swim to the surface and skim food from the top of the water...they really are the acrobats.

And they do get VERY large. Mine are at least 3-4 times the size of the largest female cherries and extremely interesting to watch their behavior (much more aggressive than I would have expected to each other when the tank is fed, they seem to keep calm near cherries though). I've seen eggs but have never had a surviving baby (or even seen the remnants of one) and from Mustafa's ID page they are relatively difficult to propagate due to the early stage requiring specific feeding in most tanks.
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Carlo
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Re: Ghost shrimp ID?

Post by Carlo »

Hey guys! I was also wondering if a shrimp I have is in fact a ghost shrimp. Let me know what you think. I'm questioning because she just seems so big compared to the others, and she has stripes
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LoriSue
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Re: Ghost shrimp ID?

Post by LoriSue »

Carlo wrote:Hey guys! I was also wondering if a shrimp I have is in fact a ghost shrimp. Let me know what you think. I'm questioning because she just seems so big compared to the others, and she has stripes
I can't see the pix very well, and I am far from a shrimp expert, but it looks like a Prawn and not a GS. I have breed GS before but I don't keep them now.
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Carlo
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Re: Ghost shrimp ID?

Post by Carlo »

Thank you, I have done more research, and it turns out it is a Macrobrachium Lanchesteri.
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