Ghost shrimp

[luxum]

I'm considering ghost shrimp for cleanup crew when i restock my tank, since i have a pure flourite substrate cories are out of the question. So, if you had to equate a ghost shrimp to a fish in terms of bioload, what would it be? Is one shrimp about like a small tetra? Or is it more like a larger fish?

 

[Teelie]

I've heard 4 shrimp per gallon though you might be able to push 6.

 

[luxum]

FOUR per GALLON??? Is that a typo lol? That would be eighty shrimp! And what i'm trying to figure out is how many fish i would need to remove from my stocking plans to accomodate a few shrimp, not the maximum amount of shrimp i could stuff in my tank.

 

[Teelie]

Sorry, should've made that clearer, that would be 4 under the "inch per gallon" rule. Since Ghosts are so small and have such a small bioload, you can have 4 of them under that rule so for every inch of fish under that rule replaced, you can have 4. Of course that rule isn't all that reliable so I just went to 4 per gallon instead.

 

[Bangin]

If you're concerned with overstocking, then treat the shrimp the same as small fish.

I have 6 ghost shrimp in my 55 gallon, along with 2 japonica shrimp and one singapore shrimp. I haven't seen the latter since I put them in the tank. They hide very well and only come out at night.

I usually count 4-5 ghost shrimp at a time. My tank is heavily planted so these guys can hide very easily.

 

[Sky042]

after they come out the back side of my oscar they tend to create quite a bioload

 

[Teelie]

That would be true I suppose.

 

[Auratus]

They add barely anything. I don't think you should count them as fish becuase they don't add as much to the bioload as a fish does.

 

[luxum]

Sorry, should've made that clearer, that would be 4 under the "inch per gallon" rule. Since Ghosts are so small and have such a small bioload, you can have 4 of them under that rule so for every inch of fish under that rule replaced, you can have 4. Of course that rule isn't all that reliable so I just went to 4 per gallon instead.

Ohhhhhh ok that makes a lot more sense!