Just added ghost shrimp as tank mates

[notsabrina]

Hey y'all!

After much deliberation, today I went out to Petsmart and got some tank mates for my Finley Caviar - (3) ghost shrimp! I made sure I got decent sized shrimps so it ensured they'd live a little longer, and also so the chances of them being eaten are reduced...hopefully lol.

I'm pretty sure I have the "paleo" ghost shrimp and not the imposter, viciously aggressive "macro" shrimp that eats fish. These ghost shrimps are actually very terrified of Caviar - they run away from him when he's coming, and when his tail is towards them they hurrily rush by unnoticed. I'm guessing this is a good sign.

So far, so good I think. For the last 2 or 3 hours Caviar has been chasing them and trying to eat them. I'm getting a little nervous because I don't want him to be stressed all night. If I see any frayed/torn/ripped fins or missing shrimp in the morning, I'm taking them out!

[teeneythebetta]

I don't think they will stress him out. He's probably having fun with it! :D
Like, if little candy bars were running around your house, you'd chase them, right? LOL

They're nummy :3

[notsabrina]

Update:

I just removed all 3 ghost shrimp from my 5 gallon tank. The reason being is that I noticed my betta's dorsal fin had some new frays and one scale on his face is sticking out. I don't know which of the shrimp nipped at him so I just removed all of them. My betta seems to be happier without tank mates.*

Right now the ghost shrimp are in a 1 gallon fish bowl with nothing but sunken betta food and dechlorinated water. There's a couple things I noticed about one of the shrimp that got me thinking it might be a "macro" shrimp and not the "palaeo" ghost shrimp I initially thought.

- The largest of the three is particularly aggressive. It grabs onto the tails of the other shrimp and tries to put them in his mouth. The shrimp will scurry away but the bigger one will follow and attempt to eat it again.
- This shrimp is nearly twice the size of the other ones and has longer arms as well.
- When I shine a light into the bowl, the big shrimp goes crazy! It circles the bowl around and around, and then tries to swim up as if to attack me.

If anyone needs pictures I can post some. I just want to see if the ghost shrimp I bought are in fact real. I don't plan on putting them back in the 5 gallon nor do I really want them anymore lol. Any suggestions as to what I should do with them?

[TheCheese909]

If you don't want them any more I'm pretty sure you can return them to PetSmart so long as you have the receipt.

[teeneythebetta]

Ghost shrimp adults will kill ones significantly smaller.