Algae + shrimp + budget = dilemma

[bazil323]

Okay, I've been considering adding some shrimp to my community tank for a while now. I have a couple cherry shrimp in there that came along when I moved some plants from one tank into another. They like to hang out in my floating fake baby hideouts and duckweed.

But, I am also getting some salvinia minima for a little more cover (hopefully arriving tomorrow or Saturday). I have it fairly well planted with bacopa, najas grass, anubias, dwarf sag, pennywort, etc.

I had been thinking of either bamboo shrimp or wood shrimp, which is why I have not yet gotten any shrimp, other than what hitchhiked. I've had the tank up and running and stocked for about 3 months. It's a 75g tank with 2 L387 plecos (mainly keep to their caves and ignore everything else), 6 kribs (4 are going this Saturday to the lfs), 1 male molly (might sell him too), some guppy/Endler mixes, 2 honey gouramis, and 19 diamond tetras. Oh, and 2 baby bristlenoses which have disappeared.

Anyway, on my bacopa I'm noticing what I think is red algae (aka brush algae?) as I've got black to dark green algae covering the leaves. It's fairly flat and is hard to scrape off. I've been removing leaves as I come across them, but some of my bacops is nearly nude!

That's why I'm thinking about getting something else. Maybe amanos? I want a nice looking shrimp that will hopefully eat some of this algae. I also have a bit of hair algae, but I'm not too worried about that.

Suggestions?

Oh, and I'm getting some Excel this weekend, which might help kill the algae off. I don't dose with any copper or anything. Already have MTS (as in snails, though the syndrome applies as well:devil:), ramshorns, and pond snails in addition to the cherries.


Sorry for the long-winded post!

[bettabrat]

I would recommend amanos to anyone, they are great algae control but tend to be a bit shy. I've read it's best to keep them in larger groups but I only have 2, needless to say I don't see much of them but I don't have any algae :D ;)

Bamboo shrimp are filter feeders so you'd need a really good current and lots of particles in the water column he could filter to be happy and healthy. My snowball shrimp like to thoroughly clean any new plants I put in their tank, my RCS & yellows could careless...go figure.

[bazil323]

Forgot to mention. I've got pretty good flow with a Tetra Whisper HOB and a Marineland C-360 canister. Even had to make a little surface divider thing to cordon off a section for floaters to survive. Plus I've got a couple nice pieces of driftwood with plants right by the filter outputs (both on same half).

And my other question was: If I get say, 5-10 amanos, will they readily breed and quickly to boost the population or does that take a while. I know cherries breed like rabbits, but I don't know a lot about amanos.

[bazil323]

I guess I answered my question about the breeding thing. Looks like it's hard to do (possibly need brackish water for them to hatch?).

Are nerite snails better/about the same/worse at eating algaes than amano shrimp?

I'm thinking maybe getting nerites now and later getting the bamboo shrimp if they are as good at eating algae as amanos.

[mellowvision]

bamboo shrimp are filter feeders.
no shrimp really beat amanos for algae eating, but chances are you will never breed them. Cherries do their thing but unless you have a lot, they're not going to dent your algae. they do breed quickly, but if you have hungry fish, you won't have many offspring.

[msjinkzd]

Amanos are better than nerites on some algaes. Nerites are the most proficient of snails, second most proficient algae eating invert second only to amanos. The amanos will eat any biofilm type algaes before starting on filamentious algaes as they are easier to eat and rumored to be more palatable because the cellulose in filament algaes is tougher for them to pull apart and digest.

[bazil323]

Ok, then I guess amanos are my first choice. I'll start pricing them out. Thanks!

[mellowvision]

yeah, I'd mix nerites and amanos.