Algae stuck to shrimp

[hydride]

Hi, one of my shrimp has a piece of algae stuck to its foot. It’s been over 24hr and, while at first I thought it was intentional, the shrimp seems to be trying to get it off and even flinging itself through the water during attempts. Should I be worried? Can I assist somehow?

[hydride]

It looks to be stuck to one or two of the legs on its right side. It’s currently in an ecosphere, I won’t be home for a few weeks and can’t move them until then. There are incredibly small (indescribably so, about the width of one of their legs and only slightly longer) organisms that move fairly rapidly along the walls of the sphere that I’ve just noticed, no idea what they are. The algae is given a light cycle and the shrimp have been there for several months without incident. These are the only things I can see happening in there, if any of it helps. I’m very worried.

[dherrington1]

Ecospheres are terrible for the shrimp. They need plenty of space to run around and dark places to hide. I started with an ecosphere and after reading up a bit I felt horrible and upgraded to a 1.5 gallon tank with substrate, calcium rocks, shells, and a piece from PetSmart for hiding. Started with the 4 from the sphere, bought 10 more plus 10 snails from here and they are doing very well. I would highly recommend this path for yours.

Regarding the algae, I have seen mine "clean" each other. I don't know if they are actually eating or just curious, but I would bet that it'll either fall off on its own, or get helped off by one of the others. I have also seen this behavior on the shells of the snails, the shrimp appear to be cleaning them. Good relationship I guess.