What Are The Benefits Of Keeping Ghost Shrimps?

Ghost shrimps are a very interesting species. As they are very peaceful and easily maintainable many like to keep ghost shrimps in their aquarium. Other than these, ghost shrimps are also beneficial for the aquarium in many more ways.

Many people who do not keep ghost shrimps are unaware of the fact that ghost shrimps are beneficial for an aquarium in many ways. Besides being used as feeders, you can use ghost shrimps for many more reasons. This is why I am writing this article to highlight the benefits of keeping ghost shrimps in your aquarium.

So, if you are unaware of the benefits of ghost shrimps, this article is for you!

Benefits Of Keeping Ghost Shrimps:

1. Helps Cleaning The Tank

Ghost shrimps are natural scavengers thus they eat the uneaten food bits, algae, rotten debris from the tank. Eating these things, ghost shrimps play a great role in keeping the tank clean.

The food you feed to your ghost shrimps and other species of your tank is sometimes left uneaten. These after falling in the aquarium are later eaten by the ghost shrimps. If you observe ghost shrimps for some time you will see them eating all the time. They do this throughout the day and keep themselves busy.

Also, algae naturally grow in the tank and if there grows too much of it the tank gets very dirty. Ghost shrimps love to eat algae thus the algae level keeps low and the tank doesn’t get dirty too fast.

If you have a lot of livestock in your aquarium, keeping it clean gets difficult. Thus, fishes that help keeping the tank clean are always recommended to keep in these types of tank. These tank cleaning fishes can be a little bit expensive. So, if you have low budget ghost shrimps are a very good option in this case.

Keeping a group of 8-10 ghost shrimps in a tank with moderate level livestock is good enough besides a filter for keeping the tank clean. If you have 8-10 ghost shrimps and a good filter then a tank cleaner fish won’t be needed at all.

2. Keeps The Algae Level Down

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Algaeare adiverse group of aquatic organisms and it naturally grows in a tank. But too much of it makes the tank environment unsuitable and unhealthy. Getting rid of algae is hard work and keeping the level low also needs hard maintenance.

Algae mostly grow over the surfaces of stones, objects, near plants, and on the tank glasses. Keeping algae low is important because too much of it makes the tank water dirty. And we all know dirty water is not suitable for existing species in the tank. It also rapidly changes the water parameters and turns the whole environment unhealthy.

Ghost shrimps are very popular for eating algae and it is their primary source of food. You will see them gazing around algae most of the time. By eating algae continuously, they keep the algae level down in the tank. So, if you are keeping ghost shrimps they will benefit you with keeping the algae level low.

Also, if you want to get rid of algae or control the level, a group of ghost shrimps is great for your tank. There are many more species that eat algae but ghost shrimps are the cheapest option. So even if you have a low budget you can easily get some ghost shrimps for your tank and get help in keeping the algae level low.

3. Easy Maintenance

Ghost shrimps are very easy in case of maintenance but they are sensitive as well. They don’t need any special care or special food for their survival. All you need to do is maintain some factors properly to ensure them their proper growth and a healthy life.

If you don’t follow the factors properly they can die anytime. However, maintaining the factors is not hard at all. The maintenance is very basic and you can easily control the factors.

So, let’s take a look at the factors you need to take care of and maintain for keeping your ghost shrimps alive and giving them a healthy life :

Suitable Environment:

A suitable environment is what every species needs to survive properly and for ghost shrimps maintaining a suitable environment is very easy. All you need to do is keep the tank environment clean and healthy. For this, you need to clean 30% of the water twice a week and add the same amount of freshwater in the tank. Besides that, use a good filter for the tank as it keeps the water purified and clean.

Additionally, you need to ensure good tank mates for the ghost shrimps. Without good tank mates, they will feel insecure and uncomfortable which will give them stress. No matter how clean and healthy the environment you have without good tank mates the environment will not be suitable to the ghost shrimps. Some ideal tank mates for ghost shrimps are :

Good Tank Mates	Bad Tank Mates
Other shrimp species	Discuss
Dwarf suckers	Cichlids
Small rasboras	Discus
Small Tetras	Angelfish
Snails	Fishes with a large mouth to gulp the shrimp in a single instance

Another important thing is, keep enough live plants and make enough hiding places for the ghost shrimps. They like to hide most of the time because they feel safe and secure while hiding. Hiding places makes the tank environment more suitable for them.

Balanced Water Parameters:

The second important thing you need to maintain for ghost shrimps is the water parameters. Ghost shrimps cannot survive properly if the water parameters are not maintained. Any imbalance can lead them to many diseases and in extreme cases, it can lead them to death.

Ideal water parameter rangers for ghost shrimps are:

Parameter	Optimal Range	Limits
Temperature	70-80 degrees Fahrenheit	62-82 degrees Fahrenheit
pH	6.5- 7.5	7-8
GH	5-8 ppm	3-15 ppm
KH	5-8 ppm	3-12 ppm
TDS	150-200 ppm	100-400 ppm

Temperature:

The suitable temperature for ghost shrimps is 68-82 degrees Fahrenheit. But they are seen most active when kept in 70-80 Degrees.

If you want to get the correct temperature reading of your shrimp tank, I’ll highly suggest this digital aquarium thermometer. It is cheap yet very reliable! It will show you the temperature in digital reading so that you know exactly what is going on in the tank

pH: 

pH is the measure of acidic/basic water. pH less than 7 indicates acidity and Greater than 7 indicates a base. The suitable pH range for ghost shrimps is 7-8. If you need a test kit for measuring the pH, I’ll recommend the API Master Test Kit. With this master test kit, you can measure ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, and many other water parameters. It is certainly a worthwhile investment for any shrimp keeper!

GH:

GH stands for general hardness and it indicates the level of calcium and magnesium in the water. The GH range should be 5-8 ppm to make the water suitable for ghost shrimps. 

KH:

KH is the abbreviation of Carbonate Hardness. This indicates how quickly the pH can drop or change. 5 ppm to 8 ppm range of KH is suitable for ghost shrimps. With this GH & KH Test Kit, you can measure both the GH & KH of your shrimp tank water.

TDS:

TDS stands for total dissolved solids. The range of TDS suitable for ghost shrimps is 150-200 ppm. 

Try to maintain the optimal ranges, and if not the optimal ranges try to maintain the limit ranges strictly. If you are able to balance the parameters properly your ghost shrimps will have the proper growth and a healthy life. They will be very active and live happily in the tank. Soon they will reproduce and your tank will start to get full with new ghost shrimp babies.

For keeping the parameters in balance keep the tank water clean and routinely change the tank water with fresh water. Don’t ever keep the water dirty for too long because dirty water changes the water parameters rapidly and it affects the ghost shrimp’s health.

Proper Food Diet:

Ghost shrimps can feed on algae and biofilm as these are their primary source of food. But for their proper growth and healthy life they will need other foods besides algae and biofilm. You can feed them uneaten food bits, vegetables, shrimp pellets.  

Shrimp foods that are rich in nutrients and vitamins are recommended to feed for the proper growth of ghost shrimps and keeping them away from diseases. During their breeding and molting process, they need a little bit more care and good food.

I love Bacter AE for my shrimps. The good thing about this food is, it comes in a powdered form. So, even the baby shrimps get the chance to enjoy the food. My shrimps get crazy over it too!

Making a combination of the foods feed the shrimps twice a week if there is a good amount of algae in the tank.

4. Easily Mixes With The Community

There have been many cases where after adding new species in the tank the new ones got attacked by the old species. This happens because the old ones get territorial and they can’t take new species in the tank.

After adding new species, you have to look after them for a time and make sure they are fine and not getting attacked. Normally some species take time to adjust with the new species. However, ghost shrimps are not territorial at all and easily mix with the community.

You can add any kind of peaceful and small species with ghost shrimps in the tank. You don’t have to look after the other species at all thinking they can get attacked. Ghost shrimps will easily mix with them and happily live with them.

Though there have been few cases where ghost shrimps attacked other species but it is a very rare case. Ghost shrimps are very peaceful by nature so the benefit of keeping ghost shrimps in your tank is you don’t have to worry while adding new species in your tank.

5. Does Not Harm Or Attack Other Species

Ghost shrimps are very peaceful by nature. Most of the time they hide and mind their own businesses. They feel very unsafe near other species so they don’t get close to any species and roam around in the tank at night times when other species are not active.

Ghost shrimps are generally not aggressive by nature so they don’t usually attack or harm any species for any reason. On the contrary, they feel unsafe when other species come close to them. So, you can say ghost shrimps can get attacked by other species.

Though ghost shrimps can attack other species while you feed them to get all the food for themselves. However, this case is also very rare. If you maintain them properly and they feel safe in the tank, they won’t attack any other species at all.

So, you don’t have to worry about any species of getting attacked if you have ghost shrimps in your tank. They will happily live with the other existing species.

6. Ghost Shrimps As Feeders

Ghost shrimps are widely used as feeders and big fishes love to eat ghost shrimps. As ghost shrimps are very cheap and nutritious many fish keepers use ghost shrimps as feeders on a daily basis.

If you are keeping a lot of ghost shrimps you can feed them to other fishes if you have any shortage of food. They would love to eat ghost shrimps. Generally, those who keep ghost shrimps keep them as pets. But you can use those as feeders too in an emergency if you keep bigger fishes, especially monster fishes like Arowana or Stingray.

Conclusion

I hope going through my article you got a clear idea that keeping ghost shrimps in the aquarium can be very beneficial for you. Many do keep ghost shrimps but don’t know that ghost shrimps can benefit them in many ways. This is why I wrote this article to let people know that even though they are small, they are very beneficial for a tank.

So, if you have an aquarium but you don’t have any ghost shrimps, buy some for your tank today and trust me you will love to keep them in your tank. The tank environment will get more suitable and healthier than before.