Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

Are 'amano' shrimp sometimes sold as 'ghost' shrimp?

I bought a bunch of 'ghost' shrimp. Naturally, I was unable to identify what their latin name was, but their markings seem to be strikingly simmilar to that of an Amano shrimp.

Would standard issue 'ghost' shrimp color up the same as 'amano' shrimp?

So far, they're quite happy in my tank. A few died off (I think), but... their insides were blue when I bought them, so I imagine their time was short as-is. So far, they're eating as if they were 'ghost' shrimp (in other words: anything they can eat, they do). Their biggest feast was not the algea clinging to my few silk plants, but rather the left over frozen blood worms the ADFs did not eat.

They're awful hard to count, as my tank is so nookish that I generally can't spot where anyone is at, at any given time, including my ADFs. As such, I am not entirely sure if all 7 ghost shrimp survived the cross-over to my tank. At any given time, I am able to count 4 shrimp.

I really should have thought the layout a bit more than I did.. Too many blind spots = too many places where a little body can hide....

My ghosts never have any color. and they are not a very attractive shrimp. Good thing they are nearly transparent. They are about 2 times as big as a fully grown amano. If you got colored shrimp cheap count yourself lucky.

Take a picture & post it. Someone here can probably ID it.

:/ I've tried for about half an hour to photograph them, my camera is old and takes too long to focus, they 'vanish' each time I try.

1 of my shrimps has gotten quite big, in a rather short amount of time. He seems really active and swims all over the place. My other shrimp have stayed smallish and they hide under the bogwood, constantly.

I see lots of swimmerettes on the active shrimp, and he seems to have longer claws than the others as well, but all he ever does with them (in my view), is pick at my bogwood for nemotoades. He might simply be an adult shrimp while my others are juvies, but the others hide so much it's difficult to compare.

I'll just keep snapping away. I don't care if I got amano shrimp or not, my biggest concern is that maybe I got one of those aggressive shrimps and didn't realize it.

In a tank stuffed full of bogwood and a moderate selection of plants, whose population are 'ghost shrimp' and african dwarf frogs... it's almost like having an empty tank. I'm debating removing some bogwood just so I can see my occupants, just a little more.


*edit: Whoa, all seven of my shrimp are still alive, and they've grown! They must have molted fairly shortly after I added them into the tank...

Hi Soritan, there's some things you mentioned that's making me think it's possible you have neither ghost shrimp nor Amanos.

While you work on trying to get pics, some things you said stuck out for me - as to ghost shrimp, the fact that yours are not colorless makes it sound like you do not have ghost shrimp. As to Amanos, you mentioned "longer claws," and also, that "he swims all over the place." Now if I understand Amanos right, don't they have the brush-like pincers and not really what we would call "longer claws?" I don't have Amanos, so can't check... also, Amanos would tend to hang out on the ground, plants, etc., not swim around alot. It also sounded like your shrimp have a more voracious eating habit, and you also mentioned obvious swimmerettes. In general, it sounded like some sort of Macrobrachium.

Check here, particularly the 2nd and 3rd pic: http://www.petshrimp.com/redclawshrimp.html

Any chance your shrimp look like those?

'Ghost' shrimp... er... 'amano' shrimp?!... er still a mystery shrimp???

-GB

Yes, I noticed that just yesterday. I kept on looking at the shrimps and comparing them to what I have.. and 'ghost' shrimp on this site, is not 'ghost' shrimp in my tank. I noticed the simmilarity to the red claw, as well.

At least 1 of the shrimps is showing a single band of red on their claws, now.

At the moment, the 'claws' look very small and ineffective.

As I have 7, and I just noticed that all 7 survived their first week in my tank... I'm starting to get a little worried.

I wanted peaceful little ghost shrimp, you know?

My LPS is going to begin construction of a vodoo doll in my likeness, soon. I'm going to pester them for their shrimps' latin name, while I snap pictures of them repeatedly.

The tank currently holds 3 African Dwarf Frogs, who were probably going to live there for another month before being rehomed to a 5gal tank, and 1 otto. After I removed the 3 ADFs, I was going to add 3 Dwarf Puffers.

If these are the red clawed shrimp, I wonder if they'd pose a danger to any of my future tank occupants?

And suddenly, the question of overstocking comes into play. *lol* 7 in a 10gal tank, that's way too much if it really is a red claw...

They do have lots of obvious swimmerettes, and they often swim all over the place. The largest one swims all over the tank, even if the light is on.

The writeup of the red claws definately explains why my pond snails suddenly vanished, and why I even caught them carrying a pond snail around on two seperate occasions.


I can't say enough times how much I seriously hate common names.

I suck.



I can't photograph the shrimps if my life depended on it, but I made this really horrible diagram to show the main points of the shrimp itself.

It sounds like your shrimp are Palaemonetes paludosus, the American
Glass Shrimp/Ghost Shrimp. Those red bands were the give away. Don't worry if the shrimp does not look exactly the shrimp I have on my shrimp varieties page. P. paludosus can also be quite variable in coloration and some are can get pretty dark and not all that "glassy." As for your pet store, they would not know the scientific name of any shrimp even if you hung them down a tree by their feet. If they have any scientific name, which I doubt, it's always the wrong one that they tell you.

That's great news for me, thank you Mustafa.

The thing that worried me wasn't so much the coloring as the 'claws', since you make no mention of 'claws' in your profile, and I can't actually see claws in the pictures itself. Going by body shape and pictures, my shrimp seemed to me to more resemble those marcos than ghosts.

I'm really surprised I've had zero die off. The last time I bought ghost shrimp from that shop, it died in just a few hours. Not only are they not dying, they're extremely active. I'd say they're the most active things in my tank at the moment. They don't even hide under the bogwood during 'daylight hours', now, although my Oto and my ADFs still do.

Congratulations! I hope they continue to do great! They are really interesting little shrimp, one of my favorites.

I admit, I can suddenly see why people are drawn to breeding the little buggers. I'm quite taken with them myself. Every 3 days I strategically plunk in some frozen blood worms for my ADFs, and the shrimps happily consume the excess. So everyone is "fat and happy", so to speak. Before the ADFs, I would on occasion plunk in a few "betta bites", which my remaining betta has deemed unacceptable. I never intentionally feed them, but they sure seem fed.

I like how they run up and down the glass. Are they eating algae when they do that? Or is that just one of their curious little habits?

soritan wrote:I like how they run up and down the glass. Are they eating algae when they do that? Or is that just one of their curious little habits?

This behavior can have several reasons. One reason could be that a female has molted and is ready to mate, so the males excitedly race around the tank to find her. Another, not so positive, reason why shrimp show this kind of behavior is when they are stressed by water conditions. For example, if you do a water change and do not use dechlorinator or the new water has a much lower temperature than the tank water.

Hope this helps.

I think I favor the positive reason. Not really because I'm an optimist.

My water parameters are rock solid, and they race around the tank even if it's been a few days since my last water change. I am fairly sure everyone in the tank molted shortly after adding -- since they all 'vanished' for a time, under my mess of bogwood, before emerging anew... and slightly larger.

Great info in this thread!

I learned from my LFS that the best way to tell the difference between a ghost shrimp and an Amano shrimp is to net them out of the water.

Ghost shrimp will "hop" back into the water.

Amanos will "walk" back towards the water. Amanos will clean your fingers if you hold them still long enough. It tickles when they try to clean under your nails!

I've had amanos before I had a pH crash in my tank . A few swam around alot, with the bubble flow, and the others hid in the dark underneath the bogwood.

Hah, pleasure to be of service.

Sorry about my low-tech diagram.

One of my female ghost is hatching her brood. Just like they say the eggs go from green to yellow and you can see lot of little black eyes looking out from the eggs.

If you have loads of places for them to hide, and no predetors, you may get a few. Damsel fly larva do not sound good.

My first batch is about to molt their last time and become real shrimp. They need mirco food. I've used monia, but next time I'll have rotifers at the ready. Monia babies may be too big. Maybe infusoria would work better.