# Ghost shrimp and cherry shrimp



## northtexasfossilguy (Mar 6, 2009)

Quick question, will the petsmart type of ghost shrimp (NOT macrobrachium types) kill cherry shrimp or can they coexist?


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## NatalieT (Mar 20, 2007)

northtexasfossilguy said:


> Quick question, will the petsmart type of ghost shrimp (NOT macrobrachium types) kill cherry shrimp or can they coexist?


I got "ghost shrimp" (sold cheap for feeding to fish) from a pet store, and they are peacefully coexisting with my cherry shrimp--have been for quite some time. I have no way of knowing if they are the same as the "ghost shrimp" at your petsmart, so I don't know if you'll have the same experience.

You could test it for yourself: put a few cherry shrimp in a small tank or a fishbowl with some ghost shrimp, and then watch what happens. I'd use a small enough number of cherry shrimp that they're easy to count, so you can tell quickly if any are missing.

Good Luck!

Edit after reading the next two posts: I haven't seen any babies recently from my cherry shrimp, but I had assumed the guppies and platties were eating the baby shrimp. If the ghost shrimp were eating the baby cherries, I would never know, since there's so many fish to accuse as well.


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## flashbang009 (Aug 6, 2009)

To my knowledge, ghost shrimp are considered aggressive, cherry shrimp are not. This may not be an issue if they are both full grown, but with the baby cherries i just got, the ghosts chase them around, and i think have eaten some. (they got taken out the next day)


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## BriFran9 (Sep 5, 2006)

I've heard stories of ghost shrimp eating black molly fry so im sure they would go after baby RCS


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## Alexpatrascu (Feb 9, 2010)

Yeah, I heard that ghosts are aggressive....especially with the frys.....


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## tighidden (Jan 16, 2010)

Yeah they will coexist heres a link to all dwarf shrimp compatability http://www.theshrimpfarm.com/dwarf_shrimp_compatibility_chart.shtml


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## rich815 (Jun 27, 2007)

Supposedly they will co-exist (but that shrimp farm chart just means they will not interbreed), and I've had a few with my cherries and no real issues that I saw (I did not witness any decapitations and the ghosts munching a RCS). However the ghosts are MUCH more agressive at feeding time, grabbing and running away with the algae chips or food pellets. Also, I read reports that they will, given the chance, eat small RCS fry. Seeing their size and aggressiveness at feeding time, I can believe it. 

If you want a good colony of breeding RCS I'd avoid adding Ghost Shrimp.


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## jon021 (Feb 23, 2010)

Ghost shrimp and cherries are ok together, but as people have already mentioned, ghost shrimp can be fairly agressive, especially during feeding. I'd keep them seperate if you have the space


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## haulmark400 (Feb 21, 2009)

I have been keeping them together for months in a community tank. I just removed the ghost shrimp to another tank to see if the cherry shrimp population will increase more rapidly then it has been.


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