Ghost shrimp, cherry predators?!?
Posted: Sat Nov 27, 2010 10:31 am
Hello everyone,
I had a bad surprise when I came to work today to check on my invert tank. I have a 10 gallon lightly planted (anubias barteri) invertebrate-only tank that is heated and filtered and been doing great the last month. I purchased 15 cherry shrimp from a local auction and they were doing great in the tank cleaning up the algae and eating the little bit of flake/crushed up algae wafers I fed twice a week. In this tank I also have 3 ghost shrimp that are full-size. The trouble started on Wednesday before I left for the holiday. I did a 25% water change and fed some crushed up algae wafer. I did turn off the filter to let the food settle and forget to turn it back on for 2 hours (I know I know!). I added 5 drops of prime to the outflow of the filter to take care of any minute ammonia that might have been the cause of the deaths. But everything looked fine and I thought I had dodged a bullet.
Before I left for the day I noticed one dead ghost shrimp and 1 dead cherry. I immediately sucked out the ghost shrimp but the cherry was being busily munched on by one of the 2 remaining ghost shrimp. I did not try to separate the ghost shrimp from the dead cherry (he was already half-eaten). I left for the holiday and hoped when I came in today there would be no new casualties.
But when I walked in this morning and looked in the tank (tank lights are on a timer for 10 hours a day) I couldn't find a single cherry. I have looked 3 separate times now and there is NO TRACE that a cherry ever was even in the tank. The 2 ghosts are cruising around the tank doing great. It's like someone at work is playing a dirty trick on me and fished all the cherries out of the tank!?!?!
Now I've read on here and other places that glass/ghost shrimp are not aggressive to dwarf shrimp, but my own experience with these guys is that they are hyper-aggressive to each other when feeding. I had stopped feeding flake food to them 2 weeks ago and switched to the crushed up algae wafer for fear of something being wrong with the flake food (because every time I fed I would count one or two less the next day). But now I'm wondering if this particular strain of ghost shrimp (and I have confirmed they are in fact American ghost shrimp) is a much more violent and territorial beast similar to the macro's?
They tend to stay away from each other and when crossing paths will seem to attack each other slightly before they separate. Feeding time is the worst because they frantically try to get all the food for themselves and there is definite violence with their appendages. I don't know if the living conditions in the tanks (Petsmart is where I purchased these) is causing this or what, but I'm starting to believe my original instinct that it's not just my tank conditions causing the issue.
Now I know the first thing you will say is I'm overfeeding/etc. But here's the deal. I'm feeding a TINY amount of flake/crushed algae wafers only once or twice a week. No food is left to rot in the tank and I've got a large (meant for 20-50 gallon tank) HOB filter with a sponge on the intake to prevent sucking up shrimp and to supply them a place to graze, and this is a 10 gallon tank. My water quality is pristine to the point where my anubias is clearly showing signs of nutrient deficiency (yellowing), but I don't dose fertilizers for fear of harming the shrimp.
I'm in the process of contacting the supplier of the cherry shrimp to hopefully get another batch. If so I'm seriously considering testing out my hypothesis with one of the cherry shrimp to see if the ghosts actively attack the cherry, or whether they are just eating them once they are dead (again the odds of ~10 cherry shrimp dying while the 2 ghost shrimp are fine seem very unlikely to me). I know it sounds cruel/sick, but for my own sanity (and furthering the understanding of the ghost shrimp's behavior) I am giving serious consideration to testing this out. My hope would be for immediate attacking (similar to the way they go after flake food) which would directly confirm my suspicion rather than having to sit and watch them for a couple hours/days as that is not practical at my work.
Thoughts?
justin
I had a bad surprise when I came to work today to check on my invert tank. I have a 10 gallon lightly planted (anubias barteri) invertebrate-only tank that is heated and filtered and been doing great the last month. I purchased 15 cherry shrimp from a local auction and they were doing great in the tank cleaning up the algae and eating the little bit of flake/crushed up algae wafers I fed twice a week. In this tank I also have 3 ghost shrimp that are full-size. The trouble started on Wednesday before I left for the holiday. I did a 25% water change and fed some crushed up algae wafer. I did turn off the filter to let the food settle and forget to turn it back on for 2 hours (I know I know!). I added 5 drops of prime to the outflow of the filter to take care of any minute ammonia that might have been the cause of the deaths. But everything looked fine and I thought I had dodged a bullet.
Before I left for the day I noticed one dead ghost shrimp and 1 dead cherry. I immediately sucked out the ghost shrimp but the cherry was being busily munched on by one of the 2 remaining ghost shrimp. I did not try to separate the ghost shrimp from the dead cherry (he was already half-eaten). I left for the holiday and hoped when I came in today there would be no new casualties.
But when I walked in this morning and looked in the tank (tank lights are on a timer for 10 hours a day) I couldn't find a single cherry. I have looked 3 separate times now and there is NO TRACE that a cherry ever was even in the tank. The 2 ghosts are cruising around the tank doing great. It's like someone at work is playing a dirty trick on me and fished all the cherries out of the tank!?!?!
Now I've read on here and other places that glass/ghost shrimp are not aggressive to dwarf shrimp, but my own experience with these guys is that they are hyper-aggressive to each other when feeding. I had stopped feeding flake food to them 2 weeks ago and switched to the crushed up algae wafer for fear of something being wrong with the flake food (because every time I fed I would count one or two less the next day). But now I'm wondering if this particular strain of ghost shrimp (and I have confirmed they are in fact American ghost shrimp) is a much more violent and territorial beast similar to the macro's?
They tend to stay away from each other and when crossing paths will seem to attack each other slightly before they separate. Feeding time is the worst because they frantically try to get all the food for themselves and there is definite violence with their appendages. I don't know if the living conditions in the tanks (Petsmart is where I purchased these) is causing this or what, but I'm starting to believe my original instinct that it's not just my tank conditions causing the issue.
Now I know the first thing you will say is I'm overfeeding/etc. But here's the deal. I'm feeding a TINY amount of flake/crushed algae wafers only once or twice a week. No food is left to rot in the tank and I've got a large (meant for 20-50 gallon tank) HOB filter with a sponge on the intake to prevent sucking up shrimp and to supply them a place to graze, and this is a 10 gallon tank. My water quality is pristine to the point where my anubias is clearly showing signs of nutrient deficiency (yellowing), but I don't dose fertilizers for fear of harming the shrimp.
I'm in the process of contacting the supplier of the cherry shrimp to hopefully get another batch. If so I'm seriously considering testing out my hypothesis with one of the cherry shrimp to see if the ghosts actively attack the cherry, or whether they are just eating them once they are dead (again the odds of ~10 cherry shrimp dying while the 2 ghost shrimp are fine seem very unlikely to me). I know it sounds cruel/sick, but for my own sanity (and furthering the understanding of the ghost shrimp's behavior) I am giving serious consideration to testing this out. My hope would be for immediate attacking (similar to the way they go after flake food) which would directly confirm my suspicion rather than having to sit and watch them for a couple hours/days as that is not practical at my work.
Thoughts?
justin