Diatoms and shrimp

joeinaz · Post by **joeinaz** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 1:01 pm

I have a continuing occurance of diatoms in my 47gal tank. It appears that the "Ghost" shrimp are actively eating this. Any experiences positive or negative as I am thinking of putting 3 Ottos in to eradicate the diatoms, but if the shrimp will/should eat them, I won't.

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 2:35 pm

First of all, welcome to the forum and hope you like the great information and pics you can find here. Could you please describe the organisms you are concerned about?

Thanks.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 3:40 pm

These infestations normally run their course and go away on their own. Ottos are great in shrimp tanks, one of the few safe fish, so go ahead and get them. They are nice fish.

fishgeek · Post by **fishgeek** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 12:42 am

not exactly certain what you are calling diatoms
to me they are unicellular algae, so absolutely fine for botht the shrimp and oto's to eat, infact i am sure some of the members here are activey trying t grow green water for planktonic shrimp raising

if you are meaning small inveterbrates then i believe you will see those in your shrimp tanks because there is not the normal predation by fish , these are not harmful in my experience

andrew

Dusko · Post by **Dusko** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 1:36 am

This is the best macro photo of Brown Diatom algae I made, you can see they have rectangular shape

Here is another one where you can compare the size of the diatoms with a 1mm big Green Spot algae

My Amanos do spend some time eating them of the gravel but the Otos of mine do the glass and plant leaves. Extra Info

Regards, Dusko.