Care
Ghost Shrimp Care: The Complete Guide
9 min read · Updated June 2026
Ghost shrimp — American glass shrimp, Palaemonetes paludosus — are one of the most forgiving freshwater invertebrates you can keep, which is exactly why so many of them die in their first week. Forgiving is not the same as indestructible, and almost every loss traces back to one of four things: an uncycled tank, a bad acclimation, copper exposure, or a failed molt.
Get those four right and a ghost shrimp will live twelve to eighteen months, clean uneaten food out of your substrate, graze biofilm off your plants, and give you one of the few chances in the hobby to watch an animal's digestive tract work in real time through a transparent body.
Tank size and setup
Five gallons is the practical minimum, and it needs to be fully cycled before shrimp arrive. Ghost shrimp produce almost no waste, but they are extremely sensitive to the ammonia and nitrite spikes that a new tank produces. A tank that has held stable zero ammonia and zero nitrite for two weeks is ready; a tank set up last Sunday is not.
Stock at roughly one to two shrimp per gallon in a planted tank with a sponge or hang-on-back filter. Intake protection matters more than people expect — a bare powerhead or canister intake will pull in juveniles. A sponge pre-filter solves it permanently and doubles as a grazing surface.
- Cycled tank, 5 gallons or larger
- Sponge filter or pre-filtered intake
- Plants, moss or driftwood for cover during molts
- Stable temperature — a heater in rooms that swing more than a few degrees
- A lid: ghost shrimp climb airline tubing and will leave an open tank
Water parameters
Stability beats perfection. A tank sitting steadily at 76 °F and pH 7.6 will outperform a tank someone is constantly correcting toward an ideal number.
- Temperature
- 65–80 °F (18–27 °C)
- pH
- 7.0–8.0
- GH
- 6–15 dGH
- KH
- 4–10 dKH
- Ammonia / nitrite
- 0 ppm
- Nitrate
- Below 20 ppm
Feeding
Ghost shrimp are opportunistic omnivores. In an established tank they will find most of what they need in biofilm, algae and leftover food, but a supplemental feed two or three times a week keeps them visibly more active and reduces cannibalism pressure in dense groups.
Feed small and remove leftovers after a few hours. Overfeeding is a bigger practical risk than underfeeding, because uneaten protein drives the ammonia spike that actually kills shrimp.
- Blanched zucchini, spinach or green beans
- Sinking shrimp pellets or algae wafers, broken small
- Indian almond (catappa) leaves for continuous biofilm
- Occasional frozen bloodworms or daphnia as a protein boost
- Calcium-rich foods to support clean molts
The copper problem
Copper is lethal to invertebrates at concentrations that fish shrug off. Most people who lose an entire shrimp colony overnight dosed a fish medication — many ich and parasite treatments are copper-based — or used a plant fertilizer with a high copper trace. Read every label before it touches a shrimp tank, and treat sick fish in a separate hospital tank.
What actually kills ghost shrimp
- Uncycled or recently disturbed tanks with detectable ammonia
- Dumping shipping water into the tank instead of drip acclimating
- Copper from medications, fertilizers or old plumbing
- Failed molts from low GH and insufficient calcium
- Predatory tank mates — anything with a mouth big enough will try
- Temperature crashes from an unheated tank in a cold room
Frequently asked questions
Twelve to eighteen months is typical in a stable, cycled tank. Shrimp bought as adults may only have a few months left, which is why arrival-week losses are often mistaken for shipping problems.