Ghost shrimp are cheap, useful, and — in UK aquatic shops at least — usually mis-sold. What you’re actually buying, when you buy a “ghost shrimp” for a community tank, is Palaemonetes paludosus or a closely related species — a small transparent freshwater shrimp from the American southeast. Not to be confused with the marine burrowing “ghost shrimp” (Callianassa species) which is a different animal entirely and cannot survive in fresh water.

They’re worth having. Priced around 50p to £1 each, they clean up uneaten food, tolerate a wide range of water conditions, and give a community tank movement at the bottom that fish alone don’t provide. This guide covers their actual care, what they’ll and won’t eat, and the realistic story on breeding.

The species — quick facts

• Scientific name: Palaemonetes paludosus (the American “grass shrimp”), sometimes sold as Palaemonetes vulgaris
• Adult size: 3 to 4 cm
• Lifespan: 12 to 18 months in a well-run tank; often much shorter due to shop stress
• Water temperature: 20 to 28 °C — thrives at the low end of tropical
• pH: 6.5 to 8.0
• Hardness: Moderate to hard. Tolerates typical UK tap water well.
• Minimum tank size: 40 litres for a small group
• Social: Group of 6 or more. They shoal loosely and single individuals hide constantly.

Setting up the tank

Ghost shrimp are not fussy but they are fragile in the first 48 hours after being moved. Set the tank up properly, acclimatise slowly, and most will survive.

Substrate. Fine gravel or sand. Ghost shrimp graze constantly on the substrate for biofilm, and rough gravel makes that harder for them.

Plants. Any low-light plant works — Java moss is ideal because moulting shrimp hide in it, Anubias and Cryptocorynes are fine. Live plants also seed micro-organisms the shrimp eat.

Filtration. Sponge filter, or a canister/internal filter with a sponge over the intake. Adult ghost shrimp are usually safe from being sucked in but babies and moulting adults are not.

Water chemistry. Standard cycled community-tank parameters — 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, under 30 ppm nitrate. Ghost shrimp are more sensitive to ammonia than fish and will die of it silently overnight while your fish look fine.

Copper. Never dose copper-based medications in a shrimp tank. It kills them within hours. Watch labels on any product you add.

Acclimatising new shrimp

This is where most losses happen. Shrimp arrive from the shop in water that’s often colder, harder, and with different pH from your tank. Drip acclimation gets them there safely:

1. Float the bag in your tank for 15 minutes to match temperature.
2. Open the bag, pour it into a clean bucket with airline running as a siphon back to the tank.
3. Set the drip rate to about one drop per second.
4. After 45–60 minutes, the bucket water should be about 70% tank water. Net the shrimp into the tank, do NOT tip the shop water in.

Add them to the tank with lights off. They’ll hide for 24 hours; that’s normal.

Feeding

Ghost shrimp will eat almost anything. In practice:

• Sinking pellets for bottom feeders (Hikari Shrimp Cuisine, Bacter AE, plain algae wafers)
• Blanched vegetables: courgette, spinach, kale — leave overnight, remove any not eaten
• Bloodworms, brine shrimp (frozen or live) — occasional treats
• Leftover flake food that reaches the bottom
• Biofilm on plants, wood, glass — the main diet in a well-planted tank

Feed the tank as a whole, not the shrimp specifically. They’ll find what they need. Overfeeding pollutes the tank.

Moulting

Ghost shrimp moult every 3–6 weeks as they grow. You’ll find translucent, perfectly shrimp-shaped shells in the tank — don’t remove them. The shrimp eats the shell over the next day for the calcium.

A shrimp that just moulted looks a slightly different colour (whiter, softer-looking) for a day or two. It’s vulnerable during that window; other tank inhabitants will pick on it. This is one reason plants and hiding spaces matter.

Repeated failed moults — where a shrimp is stuck partway out of its shell — usually mean iodine deficiency (natural in aged tap water in many UK areas) or calcium deficiency. A pinch of shrimp mineral powder once a week fixes both.

Tank mates

Ghost shrimp are prey animals. Tank mates matter.

Safe with:

• Small tetras (neon, cardinal, ember, black neon)
• Corydoras catfish
• Otocinclus
• Bristlenose plecos (peaceful, though may squash shrimp accidentally)
• Guppies, endlers, small mollies (though these may eat baby shrimp)
• Kuhli loaches
• Rasboras

Unsafe with:

• Any cichlid — even “peaceful” ones will pick shrimp off eventually
• Angels, discus
• Gouramis larger than dwarf types (dwarfs are borderline OK)
• Bettas — hit or miss, depends on individual temperament
• Larger tetras, especially Buenos Aires or serpae
• Loaches larger than kuhli (yoyo, clown, weather)
• Anything with a mouth wider than the shrimp

One-way trade: even in a “safe” community, expect to lose the occasional adult and to lose almost all baby shrimp. Ghost shrimp are the bottom of the food chain. If you want them to breed successfully, they need a dedicated shrimp-only tank.

Breeding

The short version: ghost shrimp will breed in a community tank; almost no babies will survive to adulthood. If that’s fine with you, do nothing.

If you want a colony, this is the setup:

• Species-only tank, 40+ litres. No fish at all.
• Group of 10+ shrimp to start. You cannot reliably sex them at purchase (females are slightly larger with a visible saddle of eggs on the back).
• Dense plants — Java moss especially. Fry hide there.
• Sponge filter only. No intake that can suck up babies.

A gravid female carries green or brown eggs under her tail (the “berry” stage) for about three weeks. Eggs hatch as tiny free-swimming zoeae — not baby shrimp yet, but planktonic larvae. This is where ghost shrimp are unusually tricky: unlike cherry shrimp or amano shrimp, ghost shrimp have a planktonic larval stage that in the wild requires brackish or salt water. In pure freshwater, most larvae die within a week.

Success rates in freshwater are typically single-digit percentages of clutches. If you want reliable shrimp breeding for a UK community tank, buy neocaridina (cherry shrimp) or caridina (crystal shrimp) instead — they skip the planktonic stage and produce fully-formed miniature shrimp.

Why they die suddenly

The five most common causes of “my ghost shrimp were fine this morning and now they’re all dead”:

1. Ammonia or nitrite spike — usually after a big water change with cold tap water or after adding new fish.
2. Copper-containing medication — someone treated the tank for something and killed the shrimp as a side effect.
3. Temperature shock — cold water change, or heater failure.
4. Untreated tap water — chloramine kills shrimp within an hour. Always dechlorinate.
5. Pesticide contamination — plants from an outdoor pond or unwashed hands after gardening bring residues in.

None of these are visible until the shrimp are dead. Prevention is the whole game.

Should you buy them?

For most beginner community tanks in the UK: yes. Cheap, low-fuss, mildly useful cleanup crew. Buy 8–10; you’ll probably have 5 six months later, and that’s normal.

For anyone hoping for a self-sustaining colony that produces new shrimp regularly: no. Buy cherry shrimp instead. They do everything ghost shrimp do, plus they actually breed successfully.

Products mentioned in this article

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If you’re new to shrimp keeping, cycle your tank properly first — ammonia kills invertebrates faster than fish. Also see our stocking guide for UK beginner tanks for shrimp-safe fish choices.

— Jaqline Smalling, FishForever