Cleaning up Ghost Shrimp

[Second Hand Pat]

Hey Guys, I live by a fresh water natural lake and am considering catching some of the ghost shrimp and adding to the tank as part of the clean up crew. But prior to doing that need to know how to clean them up. PP dip? QT? Other suggestions?

[kaceyo]

Re: Cleaning up Ghost Shrimp

First, what's the weather like in your area? Where do you live? Would the shrimp do well in 80F+ temps? Second, I wouldn't personaly want to risk exposing my discus to shrimp from the wild that I could easily buy tank raised versions of.
It might be fun to set up a shrimp tank to play with and see if you can get them to breed though.

[Second Hand Pat]

Re: Cleaning up Ghost Shrimp

First, what's the weather like in your area? Where do you live? Would the shrimp do well in 80F+ temps?

Live here in Central Florida, nice hot summers with 95+ peak heat so I would think so. Good point however.

[Jennie]

Re: Cleaning up Ghost Shrimp

I'm with Kaceyo on that one Pat

[inmisawa]

Re: Cleaning up Ghost Shrimp

Seems like an unhealthy risk to your discus. I'd just buy some, they're only like a quarter each.

[DerekFF]

Re: Cleaning up Ghost Shrimp

They breed like rabbitsx2. Fun little buggers

[DiscusOnly]

Re: Cleaning up Ghost Shrimp

They breed like rabbitsx2. Fun little buggers

That's why I prefer Amano instead. I have about 120 in my tank and they don't breed in regular tank water. It is fun watching them dart around when they are in mating mood.

[Foxfire]

Re: Cleaning up Ghost Shrimp

Very, very bad idea to get wild stuff for regular aquarium use - they will be full of parasits and bacteria that could be deadly in a tank. Also, these critters will have eaten foods filled with nasty run-off based chemicals and the list goes on. To ever put these with non-wild fish would be asking for big trouble. Captive breed has so many advantages.

That said, if you want to develop a wild based aquarium, could be fun but a balanced tank would be a nightmare for most to setup and maintain. This is not the same as keeping tank breed fish/critters and a big mistake to ever mix the two.