Loaches Online Forum

I bought a pair of ghost shrimp from Petsmart yesterday and was wondering how long I need to quarantine them before adding them to my main tank. My fiance bought me four Histrionica loaches last week, so I'm ok with being overly cautious. I'd hate to loose my fish to a pair of 33cent shrimp because I wasn't careful enough.

Any suggestions?

Also, will they cause any problems for the loaches? The Histrionica are only about 3-4 centimeters long and are very young.

As long as they are really ghost shrimp (not whisker shrimp in disguise), they won't cause problems for the Histrionicas. I have ghost shrimp with my guppies without an issue. However your Histrioncas will probably eat the shrimp when they are big enough. I like ghost shrimp. I always try to keep a few. I absolutely love histrionica and wish I could find some more. One of my favorite loaches.

I quarantine everything for a month if they show no signs of illness. Or a month after the last sign of an illness.

Whisker Shrimp? I'm going to check that out. Is there any way to tell them apart?

The whisker shrimp grow much bigger and they have very large foreclaws. I had one in a community tank for a year, with absolutely no problems. I bought it as a contaminate in the feeder fish.

Usually the ghost shrimp at Petsmart are ghost shrimp.

Check to see whether you can see any wormy shaped white threads in the shrimp - I've seen some at the chain stores with this parasite. If they have them, you would probably want to keep them isolated until they pass he parasite, then, from the info here, you're good to go. http://www.petshrimp.com/discussions/vi ... 27&start=0

There's some good threads about them at petshrimp.com about them.

Ghost shrimp are great - enjoy!

That was a super interesting discussion. I can't believe the shrimp can pass the worms and that the worms were so huge. Unbelieveable. Now I know what to look for next time I want to buy a shrimp.