Hi. Following Dom's post about yamato shrimp being more efficient against algae than SAEs, I was wondering if there are other shrimp available in the market which are cheaper than yamato shrimp and also good against algae. Is Malayan Shrimp any good? What about Banana Shrimp? Other posts also mention Cherry Shrimp. How do they all compare in the war against algae?

Hi LIsa,

Shrimps are no good against BBA, however, they are very effective against hair algae, red & brown algae. Cheapest is the Malayan Shrimp, biggest the Banana/Wood/Singapore shrimp. This wood shrimp is of a different specie than cherries, tiger, blue, etc,etc. They have 2 pairs of web-like hands with very fine hairs that traps floating particulates from the water and eat those ......... really like to see them in action. I keep them to clear the water , sort of like a mobile filter. The Yamatos are very hard working but are quite sensitive to water parameters and will die without a cause, ditto, cherries and blues. Just a few minutes after introducing these shrimps into your tank and you'll immediately notice them going to work, eating algaes............. err, from the plants leaves and apparatus only, they do not touch those on the glass. Mind you that they too will eat food pallets. In terms of value for money and lenght of service, i believe those fishes are better, though i personally prefers shrimps,coz ther are sooooo cute, colourful characterful, etc, etc.

My 2 cents worth

Cheers,

KG

PS would have attached photos here but the allowed size is way too small to be of any use!!!!!

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Btw, does Malayan and Yamatos shrimp attack fishes? what i meant is does that shrimp attack other fishes when they are hungry ?

I have a friend which i couldn't recall what type of shrimp he owns but when he mixed the shrimp with his tetras where his aquarium have a lot of algae but instead of cleaning up the algea, the shrimp attack his tetra...

Yamatos, cherries, tigers, blue, wood/singapore shrimps do not attact fishes. Their claws are too tiny and is more suited to cut algaes than fish! Your friend probably got a lobster like prawn with huge claws. My friend too got some blue lobster prawn and his eat fish using its claws that slice the fish in 2.

Cheers,

KG

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I put glass shrimp in my terrapin tank... to feed the terrapin (I think it eats the shrimp, never seen it do it) whenever i throw in turtle pellets, the shrimp grab on to to the pellets and hugs it while chewing on it like an edible bolster. Sometimes i think they could do that with baby fishes too. Not sure.

Shrimps almost definitely eat hair algae. My terrapin tank is clear of algae, except some on the glass.

By the way, do Siamese Algae Eaters or cories eat baby fish?