The Puffer Forum

How do I keep these buggers alive? They always seem to die on me and I wanted to try some out for my f8's.

ive never done anything special, and never had a problem

thanks pufferpunk! i'll retest my water.

Expect to loose a few anyway. They are kept in terrible, overcrowded, conditions as a rule.

yeah my mom pick me up 14 and I couldn't even tell ya how many are left! Can't see them against the substrate! lol there was a dead one but I didn't even have the chance to fish him out something must have ate him.

I wonder if my raphael cat would eat them?

Definitely.

if it can fit in its mouth a catfish will most likely eat it

Other live ghost shrimp will eat the dead ones too.

I had bought 4 and placed 2 of them in the puffer tank thinking the puffer would eat them when I was not watching (when I first got the puffer and it would not eat, hiding when I was near the tank) and placed the other two in a 10 gallon that I set up to raise snails. One of the ones in the puffer tank died and I watched the other canabalize it. The survivor in the puffer tank will fight my puffer for the puffers food... some day the puffer is going to grow large enough that he will teach the shrimp who really is boss.

The other two that I put in the other tank.... also lost one and the other ate him. I am not sure why I lost one from both tanks but the survivors are now quite large. I really didn't think that ghost shrimp grew that large.

I have heard that shrimp can eat snail eggs so now that I have some snails to breed I plan to catch the surviving shrimp from the snail tank and place him in the puffer's tank. He can hang out in there until the Puffer decides he is food.

Just informational.
Some Ghost Shrimp will not get eaten. I used to put them 24 at a time in a 55 gallon where I kept 4 Axolotls. Over time I built up a population of around 60 very fast, very bold, very sneaky shrimp. They seemed to know just how close they could get before jetting away, often stealing small earthworms right in front of (and in at least 3 cases out of the mouths of) the Axolotls. Once or twice I even caught them reading "On the Origin of Species".
Those dumb feeder shrimp are what got me into shrimp keeping to begin with.

are they dying or moulting?

That depends on the catfish. I keep a number of filter feeders who will not eat a shrimp (even Red Cherry), but they do spook them badly (the cats are crepusclar to nocturnal). So I do not co-house them.

well the cat and shrimp are no together I was just thinnking he may like a snack!

The shrimp are not molting, they are surly dead because they are on there backs fuzzy white and sometimes being eatin. (I have land crabs so I think I'd know a molt when I see one I'm pretty well versed in the process). But a lot of times they just disappear.