my ghost shrimp is glowing...

[wuvmybetta]

Ok, I have about 15+ ghost shrimp in the tank and tonight a little while after I turned off the light 1 (only 1) of them was glowing a bright green color, so I went to look closer and it was certainly lit up like a glow stick, I turned off all the lights and made it pitch black in the room and it was easily found no matter where it went in the tank, it was extremely bright.....what on earth is that all about?

 

[wuvmybetta]

I've tried and tried to get a pic but my digital cam stinks and it only comes out black, I took a few with the normal camera and they might turn out, but I think they'll just have a huge flash on the glass
Anybody have a clue what it could be, I know that I had thought one of them was carrying eggs, do the eggs glow in the dark?

 

[Pufferpack]

...Radioactive Shrimp? ....I would think that glowing in the dark wouldn't be a very helpful survival trait.

 

[wuvmybetta]

exactly, no where to hide for him....or her
But since no one has any ideas yet I'm going to go ask my fish man
that was the wildest thing ever , I'm curious to see if it does it again tonight, maybe I just never noticed before

 

[Pufferpack]

...maybe she ate a Firefly when she was younger and it stuck with her.

 

[Thomas A. Anderson]

Is it definately a ghost shrimp?

Some kinds of shrimp such as the Saron do have the ability to glow

 

[wuvmybetta]

@ the firefly, ya never know....
and yes I'm quite sure it's a ghost shrimp, that's what the man at my lfs sells them as and he seems pretty knowlegable as far as fish go, I didn't get the chance to run in there today and ask him about it
But this glowing one is exactly the same as all the others and they weren't doing it. I was looking closely at them today with the lights on ,I'd of flipped them on last night but I didn't want to freak out my plec, he's finally secure in knowing he rules the tank at night ,alongside Officer Fishy (my betta) who makes sure no one "acts up" or tries to eat the plecs food , they're too funny together. But anyway, one of the ghost shrimp had a belly full of eggs that she seemed to be ready to lay since they were falling out of her here and there but also it had a blueish hue to it's tail in the light so I'm assuming that it's just some crazy thing that happens while they're carrying eggs but I don't know so I'm going to do some searches and see what I can find, I only mentioned it because it was crazy and I was (and still am) curious if it was a common thing

 

[mjcole12]

this is just a sugestion

it may be some sort of algae

many corals live simbiotically with alae that can make them flores

just an idea as no 1 else has realy come up with an answer

 

[Tanked]

also could be phosphorus, it glows green in water. I used to watch the pacific ocean glow green at night off of main beach in Laguna beach while growing up.

 

[reg2k2]

Are they itty-bitty-bitty shrimp??? (krill)

Not sure, are ghost shrimp decapods?
Could be a mating thing...??

 

[wuvmybetta]

They're not that tiny, they are about an inch long and have long antennas and eyes and little bitty hands and stuff
I'm pretty sure it was the egg carrying one, there's only one in there with eggs and she's somehow managed to stay out of my murderous bettas path , he's getting out of control, my fish man sold me an algae shrimp which was fairly large and my betta killed it the other day, then my loaches gutted it within seconds,
But anyway, I'm positive that these are ghost shrimp, and I've grown pretty fond of them, they're so cute and a great addition to my tank but I just don't seem to be able to keep them so I'm not buying anymore, it's not like my fish don't eat like kings either, I have a WIDE variety of frozen & all kinds of food for them