Ghost shrimp looking strange - opaque and greenish?

[trippbudspeak]

Hello everyone,

Set up a new 18 gallon planted tank about 3 months ago. I let it cycle for a month then stocked it with a few cherry barbs, 1 mystery snail and ~12 ghost shrimp. I never bothered to count them, the owner of the LFS just handed me a bag and said “there’s at least a dozen in there”. When I first got them they were very transparent, however over the last 2-3 weeks (after 1.5 months in the tank) they have grown more and more opaque, with some having an almost green coloration. Their behavior seems unchanged, and I have not had a single death yet. They also seem to be continuing to grow, as a few have gotten massive. I have attached a few pics. I know dwarf shrimp get more colorful in a planted tank with dark substrate, could this be a similar thing?

Tank Specs:
Total Hardness = 250mg/mL
Chlorine = 0mg/mL
Copper = 0mg/mL
Nitrate = 0mg/mL
Nitrite = 0mg/mL
pH = 6.2

 

[Retired Viking]

Hello and welcome to the forum, I have a shrimp tank with ghost shrimp also. Some of it may be that they are molting. They grow out of the outer shell every couple of months.

 

[Colin_T]

They aren't normal ghost shrimp. They look like juvenile Machrobrachium shrimp but could be anything. I would say they are just colouring up as they mature. Monitor them and if they start dying, then post more pictures.