# Do Amano shrimps eat hair algae?



## ciao (Oct 21, 2010)

The reason I am asking this question is few weeks back I bought about 8 of them and put them with my Fire Reds. First they molted and kept hiding. My wife loves Fire reds but not a fan for Amano, soooo...I put them in the other tank which was housing just my extra plants and was suffering badly from Hair Algae.

After 4 days apporx 75% of my Hair Algae is gone....can Amano be the reason of this Hair Algae removal or its just a coincident?

Please enlighten me.


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

the reason for keeping Amano shrimps is they eat algae.


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## ciao (Oct 21, 2010)

Hair Algae as well???
Because Amano doesn't eat all kinds of Algae.


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## ninjaturtle (Apr 12, 2011)

ciao said:


> Hair Algae as well???
> Because Amano doesn't eat all kinds of Algae.


was it fuzz or beard algae? im trying to gr rid of some but not sure which shrimp will do the best job... how big a tank did u put ur amanos in to achueve this?


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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

Amanos aren't very picky about what kind of algae they eat, they are just more effective and quick at certain types than others.


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

The best algae eating shrimp is the Gammarus sp., which may not actually be a true shrimp. Regardless, they devour algae.


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## iBetta (Jun 19, 2011)

for me, amanos (sometimes called yamato as well) eat both hair algae and beard algae (those brown/black fuzzy spots?) but they don't prefer it. some say you'd have to starve them a bit for their hunger to kick in and clear up all the algae.


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## AquaNekoMobile (Feb 26, 2010)

When I had BBA I did not see a quick reduction of the BBA without external chemical help. In my case I used Excel and hydrogen peroxide. I did the double dose of Excel for 1 week then went to the single dosing. I've read people mentioning to do a triple dose of Excel which at the time I did not have the amount of product to do so or the funds to acquire more thus the double dose. Also because I wanted to be on the safe side and use less then the triple dose comments for an error safety margin with my livestock (zebra danios, ramhorn snails, red cherry shrimp).

I did notice the ramhorn snails did eat some BBA but they must have been starving to do that as I did not see any noticeable difference witht he live stock naturally eating it then before the chemical additives. 

What I did notice was BBA had a quick reaction to hydrogen peroxide if you inject it onto the BBA via a syringe to control the flow (turn off sponge filter and/or power filters first). I forgot the website I read that on but the max dosing was IIRC 3mL per 10gal of water. You may want to do 1mL to try it out. Slowly release the hydrogen peroxide over top of the BBA and you will notice a quick reaction where the BBA will start producing lots of bubbles and in about 2-5hrs time the BBA will turn pinkish-white to white meaning it is dying/dead. My understanding upon reading the site is that hydrogen peroxide is safe for in tank use in low doses and best used during the tanks lights on period as the lighting and extra aeration helps rapidly break down the hydrogen peroxide in the tank. I went a bit heavy on my hydrogen peroxide dosing using 3mL (used a 1mL syeringe time) because I had BBA on nearly everything except the glass at about 60% coverage on my heaters, sponge filter, live plants, and driftwood. Combined with my single dose of Excel the BBA war was won however there was some casualties from ym heavy use of the hydrogen peroxide. I think some plants got dosed too much and did not recover from it like my giant hydros, ludwiga repens, and hydrophilla poly. sp. (only one got saved buta tiny one that I'm trying to grow back from the tiny 1/2 in plant). 

I would say do 1 - 1.5mL and give it a few days or a week then dose the hydrogen peroxide again. Once the BBA turned pink/white that's when I noticed my RCS finally eating on it along with my zebra danios doing a little plucking from time to time. Before neither would touch the BBA (at least when I was watching the tank) at all. Granted back then all my plants were small and not really established yet so some inbalance happened. Now I've got the java moss growing large along with spaced out java ferns, crypts, and some riccia and flame moss which helps clean the water and take in nutrients quickly. I also picked up 5 x amano shrimp for my 10gal which is likely the reason the tank is near algae free on everything but the glass (glass has like 1-3% alggae but that is just spot green algae which the shrimps can't eat off).

I'm at the point now where I can keep my lights on for 12hrs, just do water changes or top ups, and hardly put any dosing of Excel or fertilizer and the cleanup crew of shrimps keep the algae at bay. Just need a glass wipe like every 3-4 weeks is all I the algae removal I do now.


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## ciao (Oct 21, 2010)

ninjaturtle said:


> was it fuzz or beard algae? im trying to gr rid of some but not sure which shrimp will do the best job... how big a tank did u put ur amanos in to achueve this?


My tank ws 25ish Gallon and I put 6 of them. and yeah I didn;t feed them because there was a lot of decaying plants in the tank and now after almost a week my tank is clean, but some of the FUZZ + HAIR algae strands are still attached to the walls


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## ciao (Oct 21, 2010)

I have fire red shrimps in other tank can I put my Amano with my Fire Reds?


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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

Although much larger than most, Amanos are quite peaceful in my opinion. I've not had any troubles mixing them.


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## ciao (Oct 21, 2010)

some sites are stating that they will eat the Shirmp babies....is that correct?


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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

I've never witnessed it, nor had a problem with not having 'enough' shrimp 'fry' survive.
Secondly, they would probably have to be super starved to even consider 'hunting' live prey.


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## ciao (Oct 21, 2010)

so if they are getting enough debris and algae they should be fine...means they won't eat shrimp babies...? right


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## cold (Jul 18, 2011)

Would cherry shrimps do the same job, or Amano's are special?


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## ciao (Oct 21, 2010)

I don't think so


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## iBetta (Jun 19, 2011)

in the caridina genus, i would say amanos are the most efficient and least picky.

from my experience, cherry (sakura, firereds, painted), rilis and yellows (all in the same genus) don't really eat hair algae. and for sure they don't even touch the beard algae. 

as for amanos, they would happily take any type of algae they can get their hands on, but u'll need to starve them for a bit in order for them to start cleaning up the beard algae. seems like no one really likes that type lol


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Amanos are more efficient simply because they're bigger and eat more. The downside is that they can't reproduce in freshwater, so eventually, a large colony of RCS will outperform your initial numbers of Amanos. Of course, that's assuming your RCS colony grows well, which requires lots of cover, and will still be slow if you have fish as well.


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## ciao (Oct 21, 2010)

So it means Cherries do eat Hair / Fuzz Algae???
I am confused


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

ciao said:


> So it means Cherries do eat Hair / Fuzz Algae???
> I am confused


In my experience, cherries eat all kinds of *GREEN* algae. However, if you have too much algae or too few shrimps, you might not see any difference.

I used to keep a 16 gallon tank near the window, hoping to grow plants with only sunlight. Unfortunately, the light wasn't enough for plants, and algae took over. This was an RCS tank, and there were over 100 shrimps in there, but they didn't make any difference to the amount of algae on the glass.

On the other hand, I am currently cycling a 2 gallon tank, and it was growing long strands of green hair algae. I put in 2 cherry shrimps, and they mowed the algae down in 2 days.


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## iBetta (Jun 19, 2011)

For me, Cherries never touched them. Only my amanos were the really efficient cleaners. But that could also be because they just are SO MUCH more effiecient than cherries. I never had cherries alone to see if they did the trick. I always add a least 5-10 amanos (in a 5-10gallon) to prevent the tank from an algal bloom . My cherries/caridina genus (except for amanos of course) just kept reproducing and reproducing


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

iBetta said:


> For me, Cherries never touched them. Only my amanos were the really efficient cleaners. But that could also be because they just are SO MUCH more effiecient than cherries. I never had cherries alone to see if they did the trick. I always add a least 5-10 amanos (in a 5-10gallon) to prevent the tank from an algal bloom . My cherries/caridina genus (except for amanos of course) just kept reproducing and reproducing


I'm sure they do eat algae, they just don't eat enough of them.

I'm currently keeping a 3-gallon bowl with 6-8 cherries, and *I have never fed them for the 2 months it's been set up!* The only source of food they have is the algae which grows from the abundant sunlight the bowl receives. The females are almost constantly berried!


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## iBetta (Jun 19, 2011)

aww u;re so lucky ! did you get shrimp fry in your bowl then?


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

iBetta said:


> aww u;re so lucky ! did you get shrimp fry in your bowl then?


I find this set up to be the simplest and most efficient way to breed cherry shrimps. Just get a bowl or tank, place it where it will get plenty of sun light, and let the algae grow. Once the tank has been cycled and matured, just drop a dozen RCS in there and watch them breed.

I use a powerhead for water movement, with the intake covered by a mesh. There's a 1/2" layer of gravel, and several pieces of porous lace rock that serve well for biological filtration, in addition to providing shelter for the shrimps.

For plants, I use some java moss, duckweed, and a few stalks of lucky bamboo.

I had a case of green water earlier, so I got some daphnia from a fellow forumite. They turned the water crystal clear in a couple of days. I was hoping to breed some daphnia as well, but once the water turned clear, the daphnia simply vanished. 

I do get a lot of green hair algae, and I just scrub them off enough to give me a good view of the shrimps.


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## iBetta (Jun 19, 2011)

wow that's close to what i use too . i use some flame moss and i have a small sump that was included for my 5g tank. i wish i could have daphnia too, they look so cool 8.8


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## jbishop021 (Jul 24, 2011)

*Amano Shrimp Don't Eat Hair Algae*

In my experience anyways ...

Normally I would just cut out all the infected leaves, and start doing 50% water changes twice a week, using water conditioner of course. I would also ensure that you are changing the filter media regularly (perhaps a little more often than usual for now). The hair algae will come back but less and less. Eventually it will be gone. Continue to remove the infected leaves. It's tedious but the only reason you would get hair algae is that you aren't maintaining your tank. Regular maintenance will avoid this problem in the future.

I never use chemicals in my tanks as it will destroy the natural ecosystem you've created. That leaves you suceptible to more algae problems in the future.


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## ciao (Oct 21, 2010)

solarz said:


> I'm sure they do eat algae, they just don't eat enough of them.
> 
> I'm currently keeping a 3-gallon bowl with 6-8 cherries, and *I have never fed them for the 2 months it's been set up!* The only source of food they have is the algae which grows from the abundant sunlight the bowl receives. The females are almost constantly berried!


That's an amazing setup.
Question, Just for my knowledge.
Do you have some kind of heater, gravel, plant or air stone in the bowl. If yes then please specify.
Thanks,


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

ciao said:


> That's an amazing setup.
> Question, Just for my knowledge.
> Do you have some kind of heater, gravel, plant or air stone in the bowl. If yes then please specify.
> Thanks,


No heater. A thin gravel substrate, just enough to cover the bottom entirely. Plants are java moss, duckweed, and lucky bamboo.

I used to use an air stone, but it was too noisy so I switched to a power head.


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## ciao (Oct 21, 2010)

what kinda gravel is it. ADA or something else?


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

ciao said:


> what kinda gravel is it. ADA or something else?


Just ordinary inert gravel. Cherries don't need any special substrate, they're perfectly at home in Toronto tap water.


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## ciao (Oct 21, 2010)

Thanks for your kind reply.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

ciao said:


> Thanks for your kind reply.


No problem. Cherry shrimps are great. They might not be as pretty as the CRS, but they're cheap and plentiful enough that you can put them into your community tank.


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