Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

This is my first post on this site! Anyway, I am posting to inquire about shrimp for a new tank. we have an existing 16 gallon tank in which we just added 3 Caridina Japonica. One died the next day. The other 2 have been doing well for a couple of weeks. The prime goal was to have them eat the algae and some extra food scraps. So far they seem to be doing a good job of that.

We have a new 48 gallon tank that is in the process of being cycled. It's had 2 Platties and 5 African Lampeyes for about 1 month now in total. I would like to get some algae-eating shrimp for this new tank.

Do you have any recommendations? The Caridina Japonica might be okay in this tank too, however, I seem to really like the color of those Cherry Shrimp. The gray Japonicas are very difficult to see / find! I was hoping to get some more colorful ones for our new larger tank.

Any suggestions? It will be a community tank with mainly tetras, hopefully some cories, and possibly a Pleco.

Thanks...

I think you'd just be providing a tasty shrimp dinner for these guys, and any fry would likely be slurped up too.

I originally got into shrimp as part of a clean up crew. They didn't work out for that, but I got hooked on them. I find that the true Siamese Algae Eater SAE) and the Nerite Snails do a far better job and don't hurt your plants.

Yes, nerite snails are great at eating all kinds of algae. Very efficient, too. Shrimp should never be bought as the solution to an algae problem. Yes, they will eat algae, but you would need several hundred of them to make a dent into a real algae problem. But then, to get that many you would have to feed them additionally, which will effect your water parameters.

Shrimp should just be enjoyed for their own sake. They are interesting enough.