Getting Ghost Shrimp!

[josh63762]

hey all hope all is well
to my amasement i found a local breeder wh breeds ghost shrimp for extreamly cheap (any kind of freash water shrimps are very rear in sa) and i would just like to know the following: how hardy are they?, tankmates?, are they easy to breed?,how to breed?, food?, and how many would fit in a 100L and what is there tempermeant towards each other and other tankmates such as guppies and platties thanks a bunch

 

[Baccus]

Unfortunately many shrimp get called ghost shrimp, but provided the shrimp your getting are true ghost shrimp then here is some general info for keeping them.
They can be aggressive to each other in large over crowded conditions with larger ones bullying smaller ones. So ensure that they have plenty of hiding places scattered throughout the tank. Numbers wise approx. 20 ghost shrimp would be fine in a 100L tank.
Platties and Guppies shouldn't bother adult or sub adult shrimp, but these same shrimp MAY prey on any small guppy or platy fry.
They are a relatively hardy shrimp provided medications with cooper are avoided in the tank, and feeding wise they will eat just about all that is on offer as they are scavangers and omnivores. Tank temp should be around 18-28 degrees Cel or 65-82 F, ideally I personally would aim around the 22 degree Cel mark. Too hot or too cold is not good for shrimp in general,
Breeding wise they are easy to breed in that the females will often be berried with eggs, the difficulty arises with raising the offspring. For effectively raising the young you are better off having an established outdoors pond which will have many more naturally occurring foods for the tiny shrimplets.
Best of luck and welcome to the wonderful world of shrimp keeping

 

[josh63762]

thanks a lot for that post baccus very useful recently I have had 2 of my apple snails die after my first one died a week prior to that I read they are also sensitive to copper so is the normal copper levels in a tank fine for ghost shrimp provided I do not add any extra if they should have no copper how do I remove it I think the water in my area has heavy metals in it

 

[Baccus]

No worries, with cooper in the water there is products to test for it and remove it. Most cooper at high levels is going to be lethal to inverts.
To reduce the chances of heavy metals being added to your tank water via community water services you can run your taps prior to collecting the water you plan to use in the tank. This will flush through any water that has been sitting in the pipe lines and thus potentially had the longest contact with pipes which may be leaching heavy metals into the water. You can also collect rain water, just not from roof down pipes as rooves will have pollution stuck on them from traffic and in cropping areas pesticides. If collecting rain water always place some empty containers outside in an open area after the rain has been falling for a little bit. Its important to remember that rain as it passes through the atmosphere on its way to earth will attract certain ions and contaminates on its way down. So by waiting past the first few drops of rain you are hopefully reducing the airborne contaminates as they have been "collected" knocked out of the air by the initial rain drops.
There are certain things such as foams and other chemicals such as Seachem Purigen that can be added to the filter to remove heavy metals in conjunction with activated carbon.
 
And just because I found this article really interesting http/news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/110311-water-pollution-lead-heavy-metal-banana-peel-innovation/   
Hope this helps you out a bit.
Oh and get a test kit if you can for the various heavy metals that may be in your tank, just in case its not heavy metals and it is some other issue that killed the apple snails.