Evil Ghost Shrimp????

[Miss Marigold]

I have a five-gallon filled with my beautiful live-bearer fry. However, these fry don't always eat all the leftovers when I feed them, so I bought some Ghost Shrimp (I have four of them) and they seem to do the job pretty nicely. My problem? I've been reading some of these threads and have come across people talking about these shrimp being "evil," and attacking and eating anything smaller than they are (as are my fry). So far, they have done absolutely nothing to harm the baby fish in any way whatsoever. I have had some of them literally try to swim UNDERNEATH my biggest shrimp (about an inch long) and all he did was go !!! So are these tales about "evil shrimp" true? Do they post any possible danger to my fry? They do their job so well I don't want to have to take them out, but is it possible for them to hurt the fry?

Catfishmike...you there? You're the best expert I know of, and, well, I'm needing a few answers here...

 

[catfishmike]

who me..yea i'm here.fortuneatly thats the wonderful thing about livebearers that earns them the name millions fish.they are pepared for life before they are born.i don't think that a ghost shrimp would be much harm to anything except dead matter or things that are on the brink of death.i say leave those shrimp in.i think a lot of that bad ghost shrimp conception comes from people finding ghost shrimp doing what they do best,feed on decaying mater.say a fish dies overnight,the aquarist wakes up to see shripm eating on the dead fish and automaticly assume that the shrimp killed the fish,while in reality they are just enjoying a oppertunistic meal.ghost shrim have some very tiny pincers on their front arems but i still don't think that they would phase a big mollie fry.

 

[Miss Marigold]

THANKYOU!!!

Glad to hear the advice, especially from a reliable source!! Will definitely leave them in...some of the fry always die off naturally. That's actually another reason I put them in there in the first place, so that nothing starts to decay and pollutes the tank.

Thanks again!!!

 

[theeyrietrainer]

i must agree, but even though they wont attack fry, doesnt mean they still dont attack anything else. ive had dying guppies (yes, they were dying, you could see them on the gravel with their tails clamped, dern you old aging diseases!!!) been tortured by these devil shrimp. when they happen to come across the guppies, they will hold onto the guppy and they tear the tail to eat the soft fins. i watched as my guppy struggling to swim away but the ghost shrimp's grip is tight. had to scary off those evil bums! also, when a fish is on it's side as it breathes hardly as it prepares to pass away in the next few hours, these shrimp will start killing it by going on top of the fish and begin to rip the edges, like fins, the scales, of the poor thing, so anything that is sick or is constantly on the gravel or bottom of the tank that wont swim unless you take something and move near it, remove it, or the ghosties will hurt the poor thing!

 

[catfishmike]

hey i never said they wern't oppertunistic.if a fish is that weak then yes it's very likely that ghost shrimp would try and eat them.any healthy fish will brush off a ghost shrimp.

 

[Miss Marigold]

I believe this called "survival of the fittest." If a guppy is that sick, it's probably going to die anyway. If you want to "spare" it from the "evil ghost shrimp," put it out of it's misery yourself. I don't mean to be harsh, but that's just the way things are. You can't blame any animal when it's just doing what it was meant to do in the first place, and, like it or not, this is what these shrimp naturally do. I've never blamed my cat for eating my lost gerbil or my greyhound for killing a rabbit, even if the rabbit does end up suffering. Same thing for man-eating tigers and the jaguar who killed her zoo keeper or the tiger that turned on its owner even though it had been raised from a cub. You can never truly tame any wild animal... I guess shrimp are the same way. And the greyhound that was bred especially to kill rabbits, or the domesticated cat that what was meant to kill mice. It's in their blood; there's no getting around it. I know it can be disturbing, I'm certainly not without a sense of mercy myself, but face it, this happens. Like I said before, if you don't want your shrimp to mess with a dying fish, put it out of its misery yourself! I had to do that with a rabbit when my dog didn't finish the job right herself, and no, it wasn't a nice thing to have to do, but it had to be done; better to put it out of its misery and save it the pain than to let it just die on its own and end up simply making it suffer more. Out of our sense of mercy, we humans seem to have a tendency not to help pain, but to prolong it. Are you like that?

 

[theeyrietrainer]

i am very against euthanizing, so i treat my fish better when there about to die. me saying ghost shrimp are evil, well they are cause theyre just evil (everything is technically evil if you look at it really closely) i was just adding my two cents there. when fish are sick, they dont necessarily have to die. theres always that percentage of it healing back ok. how do you know when a fish feels pain? i know i dont like my fish feeling pain, but are you really sure of it? when someone is sick, they may not feel pain at all, or when there sick, they dont necessarily "die" well this is just my two cents, if you dont like it, then just ignore what i say.

 

[Miss Marigold]

If you were treating your fish better, you would not be so against euthanizing. I, too, try to treat my sick fish with medicines unless it is too late and I know. Then euthanization is the most merciful way to go. When fish are sick, you often know because they act like it. Dumpy, not eating, staying at the bottom all the time, etc. It doesn't mean that it isn't something that you can't fix or cure, but when your fish do this, it means that it is in some sort of PAIN. I think that almost every (if not every) creature that lives has the ability to feel pain, even things like worms or snails.
I must admit, though, that you made a very good incite when you said that "everything is technically evil if you look at it really closely," so I have to agree with you there... evil ghost shrimp!

 

[theeyrietrainer]

yes, i must agree with you there, that every single creature feels pain. in some animals, it is more obvious in seeing that something is in pain than others. but since fish are very one faced (they cant change there faces!!) its quite hard to say HOW much pain they could be feeling. yes, i must agree that you might not be able to fix everything. i do treat my fish good (or well, im not very fond of grammar, maybe i should try and euthanize grammar...) but i am still against euthanizing. i make sure to feed my fish top quality food with the appropriate amounts so they do not eat too much at once. i even give them special treats when they seem best deserving! each person has their own way of doing things. i find that euthanizing is still unappropriate and everybody sees things differently. it is like a vegetarian and a omnivorious person. the omnivorious person doesnt understand why the vegetarian does not like meat since they have their own reasons. i have my own, and i dont expect people forcing me to change my views just so they like it. besides, all the euthanizing ways are horrible! it still causes pain in the end...

 

[catfishmike]

i don't know man.some fish don't need to wait for the end.once a had a small bout of wasting sickness and i couldn't bear to see my beloved catfish bob around upside down for a few days hoping for a change in her condtion.as much as it hurt i froze her instead of finding her dead and picked at.

 

[theeyrietrainer]

yes, i know what you mean. when i really see that my fish is in suffering pain, only then would i take the most "euthanasic" thing i would ever do. that would be putting in clove oil. after all, clove oil is used for an anestetic for fish, too much of it and they wont return to there senses...that would be the ONLY euthanasic thing i would EVER do although i have NEVER done it before, i dont plan to unless i cant bear to see it suffer anymore

 

[Miss Marigold]

Not all methods are really painful in any way... I have a greyhound rescued from certain death down in Florida. Once a dog gets too old to race (and that's only 2 to 3 years, if it's lucky) it gets put down. Euthanized. I'm not quite certain how, but from what I heard, it's pretty painless. Killing anything for such a bad reason is something I am fully, entirely against!!!!!!! I believe that it is morally wrong to keep an animal locked inside one tiny crate all of its life except when it races, and then when they aren't fast enough, they get killed for it!!! How fair is that?!! That, in my eyes, is an absolutely detestable thing to do, especially for just some dumb "sport." Sure, it's fun to watch, but is it fair to the dog? NO!!!! Not to mention that these are such sweet-tempered dogs... I have met many greyhounds, and I have yet to meet one that with any sort of bad personality. My greyhound, Hudson Lover (that's her track name, we didn't name her that), was one of the lucky few that got adopted. For me, the thing that counts is simply the reason for which euthanization is used.

 

[Miss Marigold]

By the way, I was forced to remove the ghost shrimp from my fry aquarium today... all of my newborn fry have a tendency to just sink to the bottom and stay there for a while before they start swimming around much... possibly a defense mechanism that helps them to hide in the rocks and substrate from any larger fish that might eat them, but anyway, my balloon-bellied molly (those guys are so cute!!) had her babies today, so I put them in my fry aquarium, where there's no big fish and they always get the best food, etc. Well, naturally, they kind of sank to the bottom, and I guess my shrimp thought that they were sick/weak/dead or something, and tried to attack some of the fry! Out they went, back into the big aquarium.

Any ideas for a scavenger to put in there to clean up after my fry that WON'T be any sort of a risk?

 

[theeyrietrainer]

the way they put down dogs is injecting a certain kind of mixture via a needle into the dog. the concoction slows down the heart rate, thus, slowly killing the dog. yes, it is painless, just like getting drowzy and the sleeping a never waking sleep.

well, all newborn fry sink to the bottom of the tank. the reason for this is because when they are born, they havent been able to work their muscles yet even though they are born "developped" this is the case with many animals as well, when horses are born, they do not yet know how to work their legs properly and is not used to the weight of their body, thus, laying down until they can. this applies to the fry, they do not yet know how to work their muscles so they lie on the bottom until they are ready to swim.

id suggest pygmy corydoras. they are SOOO cute and they wont attack the fry. i had pygmies in my fry tank, they do basically what ghost shrimps do, the only thing ghost shrimps have the advantage is (if you have gravel on the bottom that is) ghost shrimps can reach the stuff that falls through the gravel and cories cant. cories are schoolers soo you should get a small school depending on how big the tank is

 

[PlacoMan]

what are ghost shrimp good for other than food? are they freshwater or brackish? *celebrate*

 

[theeyrietrainer]

they are good for eating the scraps that are left at the bottom of the tank. they clean up the bottom by grabbing anything that is edible to them. this includes left over food, or just poop (well at least mine does). they are freshwater shrimp as are most.

 

[Miss Marigold]

Ghost shrimp make wonderful scavengers!!! They are for freshwater aquariums, although I don't think a touch of salt will hurt them... I kept them with my mollies (which love plenty of salt!) and they did just fine.

And theeyrietrainer--the corydoras sound like a good idea! However, all I have is a five gallon to keep my fry in, so I'm not sure how many I could I put in there.

 

[theeyrietrainer]

hrmm well, i put like 8 in there (heh i know! but they were less an 1 cm at that time!) for my fry since it too was my fry tank! now its just my endler tank...

since most cories can get over 2" i chose the pygmies on purpose since they get about 3/4 - 1" not too big, very tiny, VERY wonderful! so id still put 8 in there, since the fry are like mid-top swimmers and the pygmies are bottoms. it would look great!

 

[Miss Marigold]

Definitely! Thankyou!!! I'll have to find some... I'm not sure whether or not my lfs carries them, but they might. I'll certainly look, though!!! About how much do they usually go for?

 

[Angelfish]

Good luck with finding pygmies, they are so rare around here.

Ghosties liek others said I think they are fine with in healthy fish/aquatic creature. Becareful if you get any sick ones. This morning my sick betta was leaning againsed the divider that ghost shrimp are next to and they were PULLING OFF HIS SCALES THROUGH THE HOLES IN THE DIVIDER! I was so shocked! So just be careful, these guys go to extreme lengths.