shrimp for algae

[Condor]

Was wondering if anybody used shrimp for algae control. Any success? I have heard that they do very well in this area, as well as eating extra food. Any particular species that would work with discus?

[sn8k]

I've got about 24 amanos in my 90 gallon tank - and they do a great job eating algae on the driftwood & plants - but they don't seem to do much for some the other types of algae you generally encounter in a planted tank (hair/thread/ fuzz & beard aglae). Cherry shimp are better as they eat a wider viarity of algae - but they tend to be on the smallish side (adults are usually only 1" long) so more then likely they would wind up being a very expensive treat for the larger fish in the tank :o . Although shrimp are cool - you can't beat the old tried and true otos & plecos for doing a great job on most all algae. So although shrimp do some good in a planted tank, they can't/don't it all. At least IME - YMMV.
Mark K... :fish:

[jared]

I tried them and they were eaten by the discus. I think my problem was a matter of cover. Not enough drift wood for them to hid in and around.

[Chinaman]

are the shrimp ok at 30c temp?? I remembered adding couple of shrimps back 3-4 years ago and they die after couple of days.

do you need to quarrantine the shrimps???

Jim

[fish_maniac]

HI,
I never try shrimp but I am thinking to get some bamboo shrimp to givr it a try. I think the bamboo shrimp can get to 3 inches but I don't know if they can standard the High temp.

Kam

[sn8k]

are the shrimp ok at 30c temp?? I remembered adding couple of shrimps back 3-4 years ago and they die after couple of days.

do you need to quarrantine the shrimps???

Jim


My tank is setup for adult discus, so it's set at 82/83 degrees F (~27.8 C) which is above the limit on the amanos which ideally should be kept 60 to 80 degrees F. At 30 C, you are well above the norm - so I'd say it's gonna be a tuff one with amanos... cherry shrimp are the same. However, it looks like Singapore flower shrimp might work at the higher temps http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=1842&TopCatId=1075 .

I really don't know if there is a "need", but as with anything... it's always best to play it safe and quarrantine. HTH
Mark K... :fish:

[Mojo Trool]

I have some Cherry, Rudolf, Ghost Shrimp and one Bamboo Shrimp in my heavily planted Discus aquarium. I introduced the shrimp to the tank after I built it up and let run for a couple of months before introducing the Discus. I did this to allow the shrimp to get larger and allow the tank to stablize before introducing the fish.

However, I do have a lot of driftwood and plants for cover which helps the shrimp from becoming dinner. I also have a 5g tank with ghost shrimp. When they breed, I often toss the fry into the show tank. All the small fry are eaten.

I've also noticed that when I have to leave home for 3 to 5 days. I have the house setter feed only once per day to try and keep the water quality decent, since I'm not there for WC's, proper feeding etc.... I seam to have a few shrimp casualities while I'm gone, due to the under feeding. Nature of the beast. Under normal feeding, none of my fish seam to care about the shrimp.

In all honesty. The next Discus tank I'm building won't have an arsenal of various shrimp for algae control. Three to five bucks per shrimp is simply to expensive of a snack. IMO Oto's, Plecos, Cories etc... are far more cost effective for algae/clean up control over small shrimp in a tank with large fish. Most of the time you don't even see the shrimp, due to them taking cover. They do however do a nice job of keeping most algae at bay.

Bamboo Shrimp are the only thing I'll put in a Discus tank in the future, due to thier larger size. Bamboo Shrimp filter the water for micro organisms. They also like clean stable water, just like Discus, which makes them a perfect match. When I got my Bamboo Shrimp. I QT it for a couple of weeks. Every couple of days I would bump the heater up one degree while in QT till it reached the 84 degrees of the Discus tank.
The Bamboo has been in the show tank for about eight months now and molts every three or four weeks. It's fun to watch the Bamboo surf the currents filtering for food. HTH