Built to pick, not to hunt
Everything a ghost shrimp eats is gathered with two pairs of small claws, item by item, as it walks gravel, plant leaves, and wood. Its natural menu is the aquarium's own debris field: soft algae and biofilm grazed from surfaces, detritus settled into the substrate, the shed skins of its own kind, which it recycles for minerals, dead plant tissue softening on the bottom, and the crumbs and fragments that escape the fish above.
The supplemental menu that completes the diet
Where the tank's leavings run short, add foods matched to a small scavenger's handling. Sinking shrimp pellets or granules softened in tank water, fragments of algae wafer, and tiny pieces of fish food dropped deliberately into shrimp territory form the practical core. Blanched vegetables earn a regular place: a pea-sized piece of zucchini, spinach, or green bean, softened so the shrimp can tear at it, and removed within a day before it fouls. An occasional protein-rich item, such as a crumb of frozen daphnia or a fragment of thawed shrimp food, supports females carrying eggs and juveniles growing through frequent molts. Rotate these offerings rather than serving one daily, because a scavenger's varied natural diet is the thing you are imitating, and a single repeated supplement rarely covers it as well.
Minerals, molting, and the food nobody sees
A ghost shrimp grows by shedding its shell, and the days around a molt are when diet shows. Shrimp need calcium and other minerals from food and water to build each new shell, and they commonly eat the cast skin afterwards, recovering some of what the molt cost, so leave shed skins in the tank rather than fishing them out as rubbish. A shrimp that hides for a day after molting is behaving normally while the new shell hardens; one that repeatedly fails to shed cleanly, or dies mid-molt across several individuals, points to water mineral content worth testing rather than to any single food. In very soft water, mineral-bearing shrimp foods and attention to the water itself, guided by tests, support the whole colony's molting success.
Feeding around fish that see shrimp as food
Tankmate choice decides whether a ghost shrimp eats in peace or lives as prey. Small peaceful fish largely ignore adults, but larger fish, many cichlids, and some loaches will hunt them, and even harmless tankmates outcompete them at every open feeding. Dense plants, moss, and wood piles are therefore part of the feeding equipment, giving shrimp covered routes to food and safe refuge when soft after molting. Place supplements inside that cover or in a dish beside it, feed after the fish have had their own meal, and favour the evening if the shrimp are being harassed.
Knowing the colony is eating enough
A well-fed ghost shrimp is easy to read once you know the signs: the digestive tract shows as a dark line through the transparent body after feeding, females carry clusters of greenish eggs under the tail when in condition, and the group grazes calmly through the day rather than swarming frantically at any sinking crumb. The opposite error looks different: untouched wafer fragments fuzzing with mould and water that clouds after feeding mean the debris field was already sufficient, and supplements should shrink or pause until grazing clears the tank again.
Recording supplements for an invisible workforce
Because ghost shrimp mostly eat what the tank provides, the human contribution is small, occasional, and therefore easy to duplicate or forget across a week of shared care. Noting each wafer fragment or vegetable piece, and whether it was eaten, keeps the balance point visible instead of guessed. KinsLe Care Teams makes that noting effortless, letting whoever added a supplement mark it complete with a timestamp so the colony's quiet diet stays on track.