Having Alge Problems? Try these.

[GSRACER]

As ive seen in Takashi Amano's book Nature Aquarium World the alge eating shrimp is the best for alge control but i had to make sure. I currently work at a LFS and well we got some of these interesting little guys in. To test Mr. Amano we had some hair alge in a tank that has some little guppies in it so i took it out and placed it in the tank. Within 20 mins half of the alge was gone and they were still chowing down. I later put these guys in with our plant tank and it was magnificent! The tank looks great without the worry of snail over population and the worry of the snails destroying the plants and plecos are ugly and get too big for my standards. Just wanted to let you folks know about my experiment and how well these shrimp passed the test!

 

[aspen]

your shrimp worked better than the ones i tried. what species exactly are you talking about? do you have a pic?

i have tried the 'ghost shrimp' a couple of times and found them hard to keep alive and not all too great for algae. i know others swear by them, maybe i'm getting the wrong kind.

rick

 

[Cichlids1]

The ones Amano uses are Caridinia japonica. They are, by far, the best of the so called algae eating shrimp. I've tried some of the Crystal Red shrimp and other bumble bee types. They will pick at algae, whereas the Amano will totally devour it.

 

[farm41]

The amano shrimp will eat some algea, best not to let it get very far out of control though, if you plan on using just the shrimp for control.

Proper nutrient and lighting parameters are what it takes though.