Ghost shrimp almost killed my betta

[amandag3001]

So the other morning, my husband says, "Ya might wanna get your fish net. There's something wrong with your fish."
My response was, "which fish?" -- I have several tanks.
"Your betta - he's got something in his mouth..."

OMG - What?!

I run into the bedroom and sure enough Zen is laying on his side at the bottom of the his tank. And there's something kinda see through sticking out of his mouth. After some shuffling and running around we locate the small fish net and manage to get him scooped out into a plastic cup. After a little light massage he spits out the body of one of his tanks mates. A smallish ghost shrimp. I guess the shrimp had died in the night, it's shell was still in the tank. And Zen thought - well hey, that looks yummy. And he managed to get 90% of the shrimp body into his mouth. Where it promptly got stuck. I'm sure he would have died if Nathan hadn't noticed him laying on the bottom of his tank.

I did a 50% water change and left the lights off for 2 days to give him a chance to rest. And now he seems fine. But a little lonely. I think he's going to be a 1 fish per tank kinda guy.

So - just a word of warning to everyone out there who keeps shrimp with their betta's. Keep and eye on them, it could go badly.

[ShadowXene]

Huh. I was thinking of getting a ghost shrimp tankmate for one of my bettas... I still might; I guess I'll just have to keep a closer eye on them once I do get one.

[shinybetta]

Hmm, my bettas can never fit a ghost shrimp in their mouth. But I will be more on guard for dead shrimp.

[dramaqueen]

It sounds like your husband had to do the Heimlich maneuver on your betta. lol I'm glad he's ok.

[ShadowXene]

I ended up getting four ghost shrimp. I can only reliably find two. I thought I maybe saw a third, but I couldn't be sure if I was counting one of them twice. >_>

I can't even find dead bodies... I think they maybe got eaten... 0.0

[amandag3001]

My husband has had pretty good luck with ghost shrimp in his planted 20 gallon. He says there are about 10 in there, but I can only ever find 5-6. They hide pretty well, and some of them can be small. But if they die, you usually don't find a body. Shrimp don't like to waste a perfectly good meal ;)

[demonr6]

We got my sis in law a small ghost shrimp for her tank.. she has a relatively small female CT. She ate the ghost shrimp. Found the fish the next morning with little feelers sticking out of her mouth and she was floating on the top of the tank breathing kinda hard but a day later the shrimp had 'passed'.. icky but the fish survived. The stupid shrimp was damn near as big as her fish.

[ShadowXene]

Eww.. xD Thankfully, I haven't noticed any antennae sticking out of Riemman's mouth. So hopefully, they're just hiding.

Actually, it's probably a lost cause. I think I'll just have to write off two of the shrimp as casualties of war and leave it at that. The first day when I introduced them, Riemman was definitely interested in harassing the poor shrimp. Now he just kind of leaves them alone. Maybe the weak just got picked off???

I'll just continue to hope for the continued survival of my remaining two shrimp.