Ghost Shrimp & Cichlids

FroggyFox

FroggyFox

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#1
May 16, 2003
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Hey all :) I just wanted to share my fun from last weekend. I decided to pick up some ghost shrimp from the store and bring them home and see what would happen if I put them in my cichlid tank.

The gal that I bought them from cautioned me from feeding them ghost shrimp too often...something about impactions blah blah, so I hadn't done it yet...but I finally decided that they deserved a treat.

I put them in and the fish didn't know what to think at first...the comp was SO CUTE, he'd slink in real slow towards one of the shrimp and then stop about an inch away and stare for a couple seconds...then dart off. I watched them all afternoon! They finally started getting a little more bold and the big julie and the dominant comp decided that they were going to hunt all of them down. I walked away for awhile and they got rid of 5 of them...and when I turned the lights off for the night I saw 2...then the next day I found one hiding in a corner...but when I got home from work I couldn't find that one.

Anyway...for some cheap thrills I think I'll make that a 3 dollar monthly event because that was pretty darn entertaining. Somehow I thought the shrimp would be better at hiding?? Cuz they sure do swim fast. about 4 seperate times I had to swish water over a shrimp that had flown out of the water and stuck to the side of the tank (remind froggy to refill her evaporation gap).
 

Orion

Orion

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#2
Feb 10, 2003
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I would say it was interesting to see how they act when hunting live food. I bet it was fun to watch. ;)

I belive the problems with impactions is due to the exo-skeletons of the shrimp. I dont think it would be a problem with only once a month.
 

D

Desi

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#3
Nov 12, 2004
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i accidentally let lose a large amano shrimp in the 65gal cidhlid tank. Saw him a few timse; but haven't seen him in weeks; I figure he WAS lunch for one of my malawis.

I also currently accidentally housed a single AD frog in the 65gal. And I see him at least once a week now for the last couple of weeks. I haven't removed him because the tank is so full of stuff that it would be too much work (seing as I did my last full overhaul only 3 weeks ago).

I'm wondering how long the AD will survive. Any thoughts?
 

FroggyFox

FroggyFox

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May 16, 2003
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No idea...probably depends a lot on how many places there are for the ADF to hide, how fast he can swim, and how big the ADF is compared to your fish.
 

FroggyFox

FroggyFox

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#8
May 16, 2003
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Exactly...I wasn't enjoying watching the shrimp suffer...I was enjoying my fish hunt. I find it wierd that people will waste their time making comments like that when its perfectly obvious that I wasnt torturing anything.
 

Aaron

Aaron

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#9
Sep 15, 2004
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#9
Cruelty is a human concept and a fuzzy one at best. I feed shrimp to my fish all the time and the shrimp wouldn't hesitate to feed on a sick or a dead fish. That is how the system works. In a way it is far more humane to feed live shrimp to the fish at least that way the shrimp have a better chance if you think flake food is made of sunshine and smiles you are mistaken.
 

lordroad

lordroad

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#15
Sep 2, 2004
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#15
Well, getting back to the topic at hand, yeah froggy, i know exactly what you're talking about. It's something else to watch my black ghost knife go after a piece of earthworm or a ghost shrimp. The BGK's electrical sensor or sense of smell or something picks right up on it, even if it's on the opposite side of the tank, and the BGK goes into seek and devour mode.

When the clown loaches nab a bit of the worm, they look like dogs running around with a stick in their mouth. They have the same expression too.

I didn't know that about ghost shrimp and the impactions. 'Preash for the heads-up. I'll start limiting the ghost shrimp to once a month instead of once every two weeks.
 

FroggyFox

FroggyFox

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#16
May 16, 2003
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#16
Glad I could help :) I know I'd hate to lose a fish if it was something I could have prevented. I love the gal that I got my cichlids from, she has some of the coolest show tanks in her store...I could just spend hours in there.

My little comps will do that "dog with a stick" thing...they try to fit too much into their mouths, like when I put dried krill in the tank...they'll chomp down on one sideways and then swim away with the other hot on his tail. They're so much fun to watch.

The bgk sounds interesting...I'd love to get one of those "electrical" fish sometime. The Elephant nose fish are so neat too. I bet watching them is completely different than watching cichlids...and I know cichlids are completely different than observing your 'normal' community tank.

This is a great hobby :)
 

E

Exevious

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#18
Nov 20, 2003
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#18
Anyway... my contribuition to the original thread...

I had some shrimp for a long time that had grown pretty large.... and they were always so fast, when they shot across the tank...

I added two small baby cichlids, and they were gone in a day.... I think they love shrimp.

It was sad to see my shrimp go, they were my clean up crew, but thats nature, I accept it, I live with it, I love the interest and learning it creates for me.
 

NoDeltaH2O

NoDeltaH2O

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#19
Feb 17, 2005
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#19
Live food is the best for our pets, isn't it. While raising gourami fry I harvested some white worms from a local pond and seeded the fry tank with it. In a few weeks the glass was covered with little worms and the fry happily gobbled them up. I wonder if a refugium like device would work to keep a worm culture going in a tank so the fish could have a continual, if random, supply of live worms.
I'm gonna run out real quick and have a burger, rare.
 

ilovebillwillia

ilovebillwillia

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#20
Feb 27, 2005
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#20
cichlids hunting?

like the first poster, i thought it might be interesting to get a couple gs for my jack dempsey. i figured he might take some time figuring things out, might be interesting. jacks a pig. like everything else i put in the tank, they never even made it to the bottom. sucked them up and kept on swimmin'...nothing surprises big ole jack. he either eats it or ignores it....lol *twirlysmi
 

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