Feeder shrimp

Feeder shrimp, ghost shrimp or glass shrimp are generic names applied to inexpensive small, semi-transparent shrimps commonly sold and fed as live prey to larger more aggressive fishes.

Types

They can belong to these families and genera:

• Family Palaemonidae

• Genus Palaemonetes
• Genus Macrobrachium: Macrobrachium lamarrei (Indian whisker shrimp)

• Family Atyidae

• Genus Caridina: Caridina flavilineata

Advantages of using feeder shrimp

They almost always available for sale at local pet stores as well as at the larger chain stores. At the pet shop, they are frequently kept in a small tank with other shrimp of their kind. They are also relatively easy freshwater aquarium shrimp to keep.

They are a scavenger type freshwater shrimp and a good aquarium cleaner for being constantly on the prowl searching for something to eat. They will subsist on a diet very tiny bits of uneaten food, dead, decaying plant matter or other soft edible matter accumulating on the bottom of the tank.

Ghost shrimp are safe with most fish and inverts and will not eat live aquatic plants. They look good when kept in a tank with black aquarium gravel or substrate and also good to keep them in a tank with a black background.

They help enhance the coloration of aquarium fish by containing high levels of carotenoid pigments, like astaxanthin and canthaxanthin.

See also

• Bait fish
• Fishing bait
• Bait (luring substance)