Evil Shrimp!!

[becks]

About a month ago I got a ghost shrimp for my 10 gallon tank. Shes really cool and is obviosuly doing well as she has grown loads and moulted quite a few times. The only problem is that my fish keep losing their tails! She is turning into a bit of a bully, chasing my corys around and everyone had bits of fins missing (I have 3 corys and 6 x-ray tetras). I used to have some neons too, which all died, my fish shop guy said it might have been a bit overstocked, but now I think shrimpy might be to blame!

I'd be really loathed to give her up, as I've wanted a shrimp for ages, she does a good job of cleaning up and shes fascinating to watch... but it cant be much fun for my poor fishes! Any ideas what I can do? Should I just feed her more? The fish can usually escape during the day, most of the damage happens at night when theyre asleep. I tried a bit of a desperate measure by putting her in a bowl inside the tank (was just going to be for overnight), but she started freaking out so I took her out again. I've run out of ideas! Any help much appreciated.

Becks

 

[Pointy_kitty]

are you sure that it is a ghost shrimp?
is it possible your lfs made a mistake?
ghost shrimp stay small (like 1"-1.5" at VERY most)
and they are quite community
but if it is a ghost shrimp, i would get a 2 gallon bowl, put some java fern in it,
and some garvel (and maybe a cave)
then find something to use as a lid (while not sealing the bowl)
she will be upset at first but it will make a fine perminant home and you won't have to get rid of her
but make sure you are POSITIVE that ti is a ghost shrimp that you have

 

[Pointy_kitty]

check this out

http/fish.orbust.net/ghostshrimp.html

if it is a ghost and it is the odd case where it is attacking your fish, then a bowl with cooler water would be a much better home

*this site exadurates the full size of them *

 

[Koda]

Might be coincidental but I had a betta chewed to bits in a 5g tank with two ghost shrimp.It was obvious they'd been at him as they were both quite full of color.There may have been factors that made him vulnerable to attack,but they wasted no time going at him.Now I am reluctant to put a betta with them

Koda

 

[Pointy_kitty]

Might be coincidental but I had a betta chewed to bits in a 5g tank with two ghost shrimp.It was obvious they'd been at him as they were both quite full of color.There may have been factors that made him vulnerable to attack,but they wasted no time going at him.Now I am reluctant to put a betta with them

Koda

like i said there is the odd case,
they do best in cooler waters
something about warmer water apparently makes the odd ones go crazy
i myself have never seen any aggression in any of mine
they are in room temperature water

 

[Dwarfs]

Is it just me or does everyone blame the ghost shrimp when their fish die/ get killed/ or get eaten? Ghost shrimp won't harm fish so it was probably something else in the tank. Now with Koda it's definate that the shrimp did it but I've heard of people killing shrimp because it was cleaning up dead fish. I think the tetras did it.

 

[tallykg]

Hi,

Im new here. But I have been scanning the web for the last month... off and on, looking for a similar topic. This is the first that I've seen.

About mid-April, I purchased what was sold at one of the major pet stores as a "Bamboo Shrimp", which seems to be a mysterious species, from what I've seen. Sometimes, they seem to be group with Wood Shrimp (fan feeders), but this guy is not a fan feeder, he has claws, like ghost shrimp do and is a reddish-brown semi-transluscent color and has the general appearance of ghost shrimp from what I can see from ghost shrimp pictures. He really looks like the Florida Ghost Shrimp here: http/www.shrimpcrabsandcrayfish.co.uk/Sh...p.htm~mainFrame, though this isn't a great picture. He's moulted about 2 or 3 times now and ate the exoskeleton, too. Right now, he's about 2-2 1/2" long and antennae the same length. Only has one claw, looks like he's a 2 claw shrimp, best as I can tell, but only had the left one, when I got him. Anyone familiar with what he could really be?

Anyway, here's his story. I added him to my general population in my 29 gallon. Within a day or 2, fish began to just "disappear". After another day or so, a total of approx 6 fish had completely or nearly disappeared. I say nearly, because I found one mollie half eaten. I then found my shrimp, within the next day, with a half eaten red eye tetra in his grasp. At this point, though I suspected it, I wasn't sure if he was the culprit or just happened to be cleaning up a carcus that he found.

Immediately, he was removed, before he could completely wipe out the 29 gallon and moved to the 20 gallon. In the next couple of days all was cool, then I began to noticed half eaten tails and such, then the disappeances began, but it was less accelerated than before. Over the next few weeks, only a couple of small tetras and one small albino Cory disappeared. As I observed him now, I would find him, when he was out of his cave, scavenging the bottom, like he's supposed to.

So, I figured the horror was over. Until yesterday! I brought home 2 new Albino Corys (large enough that I didn't think he'd be able to kill them). Within a few hours I caught him once again, with the poor Cory minus it's entire tail in his grasp. I got him to let it go and it tried to swim, but it was useless, there was too much of the tail gone for him to swim or survive, let alone for it to grow back. The entire tail, plus some was gone. So, I gently netted the Cory and eased him over to the cave and he settled in there. Later, I came back and the shrimp had returned to the cave, as I assumed he would was finishing his dinner.

Afterward, he was removed to a bowl, where he is currently living, until I figure out what to do.

Thanks,
Ken

 

[kevin007]

even tho every1 says they are peaceful, i have had them and it my 5 ghost shrimps killed 10 neons and some other fish i cannot rmb and then i posted a topic and got flammed ah well

 

[NinjaSmurf]

My little brother begged me to buy him some ghost shrimp for his tank, which housed one lone, angry gourami. I bought him two. Within three days one was missing and it soon became a game of find the shrimp just to see the other one. Apparently his fish though they made fine treats. I never saw them going after the fish, but then again the fish wasn't exactly a mess with me kind, he'd killed a couple of other gourami's. So I guess it's like everything else, sometimes you get good ones, and other times you just get the plain nutter ones.