Recently when I changed the water of my tank the ghost shrimps looked more active than before which scared me. I was worried and started researching to know what actually happened to the shrimps. I tried to figure out when ghost shrimps are most active and here’s what I’ve found:
Ghost shrimps are more active in the night time in darkness than the day time.
Now, let’s find out why ghost shrimps are mostly active at night and what are the factors that help ghost shrimps to stay active!
Reasons Why Ghost Shrimps Are Most Active At Night
Normally Ghost Shrimps like to hide, mostly in the daylight hours. You can hardly see any shrimps if there are enough hidden spots in the tank. If you have other species in the tank ghost shrimps feel unsafe. This is why they hide most of the time which makes them feel safe.
In the night time as there is less light and other species are less active, shrimps feel safe to roam around. This is the reason why Ghost shrimps are most active at night in the dark.
But if you have only ghost shrimps and no other species in your tank you may see them active all day long.
Other Factors That Help Ghost Shrimps To Be Active
There are many factors including water change, water temperature, PH, and other species in the tank that can change the behavior of the ghost shrimps. And a good balance of all of these elements can make the Ghost Shrimps most active.
Water Change
Ghost Shrimps cannot survive if the water gets too dirty. They might also try to escape by jumping from the tank. If they seem less active this can be because of the dirty water.
So, try to change 30% of the water at least once a week. You can use a tube or vacuum siphon to take the water out.
Add the same amount of clean water to the tank.
Also, make sure the water you are adding is of the same temperature as the tank water.
When you change the water, it changes stir up sediment which includes particles that consist of bacteria and Algae. These are food to the shrimp thus they become more active.
Other species in the tank
Ghost shrimps are a very peaceful species and like to hide most of the time. They feel very unsafe if there are other species with them in the same tank.
Try sitting in front of your tank and you will hardly see any shrimp roaming around in the tank. It is because they fear of getting attacked or getting eaten by big species.
If you only have ghost shrimps in your tank you will see that they are very active. They will be roaming around more as they don’t have fear of getting attacked.
Water temperature and PH
Shrimps can survive in different levels of Temperature but in 70-80 degrees they are most active and it keeps them healthy. If the temperature is not ideal, they feel uncomfortable and hide themselves.
Also, the pH of the water should be between 7-8. The other parameters should also be in your consideration. Ghost shrimps are very sensitive any imbalance of these parameters can drive them to death. So check every two weeks so make sure the balance is in its limit. And if the temperature, pH, and other parameters are fine ghost shrimps will be most active!
If you don’t have any test kit yet, get API Master Test Kit right now! It will be the most valuable thing in your arsenal for keeping shrimps. With this test kit, you can measure nitrite, nitrate, ammonia, pH, and many other water parameters.
Here are the ideal water parameter ranges for ghost shrimps
| Parameter | Optimal number | limits |
|---|---|---|
| pH | 7-8 | 7-8 |
| GH (general hardness) | 7-8 ppm | 7-8 ppm |
| KH (carbonate hardness) | 5-8 ppm | 3-15 ppm |
| TDS (total dissolved solids) | 150-200 ppm | 100- 400 ppm |
Some Other Tips To Keep Ghost Shrimps Active
- Keep ghost shrimps in a tank with enough hiding places
- Never give too much food at one time
- Feed twice to thrice a week and let them find food from the tank
- Don’t keep a lot of ghost shrimps together.
- Check water pH and other parameters once a month
- If you want to add other species make sure those are not aggressive and too big compared to Ghost shrimps
Final Words
From all the researches all I came to know is if the tank environment feels secure to Ghost shrimps, they become the most active. So, if your Ghost shrimps are less active something is wrong.
And if your shrimps are too active do not get worried like me. Hope this article gave you proper ideas on when ghost shrimps are most active and also the factors that help them keep active.
