Overall Top 10 Algae Eating Shrimp
Moderator: Mustafa
Overall Top 10 Algae Eating Shrimp
It would be nice to have an overall top 10 of the best(in terms of how effcient they are at erradicating algae, how many types of algae they eat) algae eating shrimp. I'm sure most people would find it useful when choosing shrimp species for their tanks.
There won't ever be an objective "top 10" list on this issue. The reason is that most algae eating shrimp are so similar in their feeding habits that you cannot really discern all that much of a difference. All the "this shrimp is the best algae eater" reports are subjective at best.
In my opinion *all* algae eating shrimp are good at what they are doing and eat algae equally well. All the reports about Caridina japonica being the "best" algae eating shrimp are not considering the fact that this shrimp gets twice to three times as big as some algae eating shrimp out there and thus naturally eats more algae. However, if you have enough numbers of the smaller algae eating shrimp, then you will see that they are doing just as good of a job as C. japonica.
Then there is the "different types of algae" issue. For some people, who have hair/string algae problems, Palaemonid shrimp such as Palaemonetes and Macrobrachium species may be considered the "best algae eating shrimp" for their purposes.
I hope you can see now why I won't ever put up a "top 10" list cocerning this issue.
Mustafa
In my opinion *all* algae eating shrimp are good at what they are doing and eat algae equally well. All the reports about Caridina japonica being the "best" algae eating shrimp are not considering the fact that this shrimp gets twice to three times as big as some algae eating shrimp out there and thus naturally eats more algae. However, if you have enough numbers of the smaller algae eating shrimp, then you will see that they are doing just as good of a job as C. japonica.
Then there is the "different types of algae" issue. For some people, who have hair/string algae problems, Palaemonid shrimp such as Palaemonetes and Macrobrachium species may be considered the "best algae eating shrimp" for their purposes.
I hope you can see now why I won't ever put up a "top 10" list cocerning this issue.
Mustafa