Possessed Ghost Shrimp?!

[blaxicanlatino]

My female ghost srimp just attacked and killed a smaller ghost shrimp than waas maybe half her size. She ate the entire body by herself. Is that normal?

 

[TylerFerretLord]

Did you actually witness an attack or did you just see her consuming the body?

Ghost shrimp will gladly eat something that's already dead, but aren't particularly aggressive, so I'd have a hard time believing that she killed the other one.

 

[Syphoniera]

My female ghost srimp just attacked and killed a smaller ghost shrimp than waas maybe half her size. She ate the entire body by herself. Is that normal?

Just thought I'd mention that I had a similar thing happen: apparently prawns, which are aggressive and typically grow larger than ghost shrimp, are often mistaken for and sold as ghosties.
You might want to keep an eye on that shrimp, in case she ever grows large and hungry enough to go after any small fish which may be in your tank.

http/naturalaquariums.com/bb/index.php?topic=593.0

... Prawns have a very distinctive serrated bard between the eye, which protrudes from the forhead. Also it has longer front claws than a ghost shrimp. But overall the barb is the give away. These prawns can become over a foot long not counting the 8 inch claws. I have seen one eat a 4 inch goldfish in just a few seconds. Even when small they are quite the night hunters. Seizing prey half their size and twice their weight.

Be careful where you buy your ghost shrimp. Some sell Freshwater Prawns, when small they look just like ghost shrimp. These little devils turn into very large fish killers. Even when small they can catch and hold a fish twice their size.
Jim ...

Warning, the next site (cached) shows a shrimp eating a fish; posters think it's a 'cool' shot

http/72.30.186.56/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&...=1&.intl=us

But it'll give you fair warning, if anything of that description is in your tank, as they do look pretty cool - and you don't want these near your fish.

 

[blaxicanlatino]

Shes pretty big compared to the others. She looks exactly like everyone else. Same patterns, same colors, same everything. Shes like the boss of the tank, when I an algae wafer in, shes always first to it and fights everyone else off until shes finished. I didnt see the attack but it happened right after I finished doing the weekly tank cleaning. The one that was eaten had a distinctive white milky color and he was doing great then once i put the siphon up, I came back to the tank and saw her holding him, at first I thought they were mating because he had his claws around her and he was moving around, at first I was excited that it was happening then I realized that his rear legs that he uses to swim were gone and she was now chewing on his face and hes still trying to paddle away! It was beyond too late for me to save him by the time I relized that there wasnt any love in the tank.

 

[Smokescreen]

Now I'm paranoid. I bought some supposed ghost shrimp as well as young guppies as feeders for my young ACF who refuses to eat ReptoMin. Well, so far, these ghost shrimp have probably killed all but two of the guppies, and have yet to kill the six guppy fry in the tank. Granted, I did not see the actual killing, but I found carcasses that had been partially devoured, and I know that's not from the frog, because she'd just eat them whole.

So. Now I'm tempted to simply try to catch theses shrimp, which my frog has completely ignored, and return them in case they are actually prawns. What a long, hard job I've got ahead of me, catching those silly things.

 

[blaxicanlatino]

I have heard that ghost shrimps will eat guppy fry so that could be possible that they are normal ghost shrimp. Mine is getting bigger and bigger...

 

[Smokescreen]

Oh, but these weren't fry. They've left the fry alone. They've been eating 3/4" guppies. They ate the biggest one first (she must have been 1" at least) and left the smallest one for last.

 

[raptorrex]

humm sounds like the return of the deadly long arm shrimp. if it is one, it may be bigger than the ghosts now, but it will get very big and aggressive all too soon. either put it in another tank or take it out and "deal "with it!

 

[Amunet]

Hmm.... well this has me paranoid now. I don't think I have any prawns since we haven't had any unexplained fish deaths (a few dead ghost shrimp but dunno what killed them).... anyone have a side by side comparison of ghost shrimp vs prawn so we'll know what to look for?

 

[Syphoniera]

http/www.aquahobby.com/e2004/viewtopic.php?t=19575
(From an old posting on another site)
... If anyone possesses Macrobrachium shrimp of any species, or otherwise owns anomalously large, strangely patterned, or unusually aggressive “ghost shrimp” ... Species of this genus may be sold under the various headings of “freshwater/river prawn”, “long-arm shrimp”, “whisker shrimp”, “blue prawn”, “red-claw shrimp”, and “chameleon shrimp”; however, young specimens frequently - and mistakenly – arrive in shipments of freshwater feeder ghost shrimp. ...



Yours potentially may be any one of multiple types.


Don't know if the following is one of the Macrobrachium referred to previously, but these do have pics beside, if you follow the link.



http/www.wetwebmedia.com/PlantedTksSubWe...ex/fwshrimp.htm

Macrobrachium rosenbergii, the Giant Blue "Lobster" or Prawn. An opportunistic eater of most all living things it can get its claws on.

Palaemonetes sp. Ghost Shrimp. Maximum size, about one inch.


Hope this helps - scary stuff, worrying about predators possibly growing in your tank.

 

[raptorrex]

we had these conversations on this shrimp, group of shrimp, about a year ago. though technically they are Prawns, quite what the difference is i dont know though.
[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/15...ve-Evil-Shrimp/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/15...ve-Evil-Shrimp/[/URL]
[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/content-page/161...ination/page/0/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content-page/161...ination/page/0/[/URL]

 

[TylerFerretLord]

The difference between prawns and shrimp is gill structure; Prawns have branching gills while shrimp have lamellar gills(which are similar to most fish gills). Thus they are in different sub-orders under Decapoda; Dendrobranchiata and Pleocyemata. As far as I know, Dendrobranchiata is composed entirely of prawns and all other decapods are in Pleocyemata.

...Why do I know this?

 

[raptorrex]

The difference between prawns and shrimp is gill structure; Prawns have branching gills while shrimp have lamellar gills(which are similar to most fish gills). Thus they are in different sub-orders under Decapoda; Dendrobranchiata and Pleocyemata. As far as I know, Dendrobranchiata is composed entirely of prawns and all other decapods are in Pleocyemata.

...Why do I know this?

isn't it a sign of a well spent youth? lol

 

[~T~]

Milky white tends to mean the shrimp is on its way out. Although I have had ghost shrimp catch and kill small fish so I could see it happening with other shrimp.

 

[blaxicanlatino]

well she hasnt killed anyone yet since that last post but she still fights off the other guys when food is in the tank. Im putting triops in soon soooo....yeah