Amano Shrimp

[Chri$]

I am considering getting 1 or 2 amano shrimp for my planted 20g.

Can you just keep one of these guys on there own or are better kept in pairs or groups?

Thanks

 

[Bloo]

I had 10 in my 20 gallon. Why do you want just one ? They won't mind not being in pairs, but what is the reason that you want one ?

 

[timmystood]

I have 6!! They are fantastic little creatures (when you can see them!) They fascinate me every morning!

 

[Chri$]

Thanks Bloo

I don't know how they affect stocking levels etc. My tank at the minute is around fully stocked, so i am unsure how many to add if any.

I have 6!! They are fantastic little creatures (when you can see them!) They fascinate me every morning!

Do you find they eat some of the algae?

Assuming your tank has algae of course

 

[three-fingers]

They barely affect stocking levels at all, so knock yourself out with shrimp!

 

[Chri$]

They barely affect stocking levels at all, so knock yourself out with shrimp!

Excellent

Do you find they eat algae?

Just got to find somewhere that sells them now!

 

[timmystood]

Do you find they eat some of the algae?

Assuming your tank has algae of course

The are good for eating algae on the plants.. not too great at algae on the glass but that maybe because I only have 6! I think they are fantastic and like three-fingers says they hardly affect the bio-load at all! You should definatley get some... maybe 3 or 4 and see how you get on!

 

[three-fingers]

I had 2 in a 3.5 gal and they ate all of the hair algae on the plants, and some of the regular stuff off the rocks so yeah they are pretty efficient .

 

[Bloo]

Have a look on the profile I did on them - they are indeed an awesome addition to a suitable tank. And though they are waste producers, they really don't count as much - and the do an awesome job on substrate cleaning and general algae combat

 

[Chri$]

Thanks for your replys

Knowing that they will help with substrate cleaning and algae combat should make these guys a excellent addition to the tank.

Just got to go and find a lfs that sells them now!

 

[Liam]

Its only based on observation but I think they are social creatures. I have a five-gallon I put one from the main tank in just for algae control, she wasn’t very happy much less active with occasional bouts of frantic swimming, when I put in four more she was back to normal. They actually groom each other and sometimes hang out together for hours on a piece of wood so I am guessing they are much happier in groups, they push each other around sometimes so they probably have a pecking order too. I don’t know about the bio load question, they do lots of poo when they are eating heavily, they seem to go in spurts of eating furiously for a few days then just hanging out doing very little. Most of what they eat is veg but they will eat anything, live bloodworms or water ‘wood lice’ flakes mussels. I don’t think they are anything like as heavy on bio load as fish of a similar size though.

 

[Chri$]

Thanks Liam.

I'm going to get a group of 4 to start with an see how they get on. Then i can always add more later.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I have a group of 11 in my main 125gal tank, i would say the more the better as they can be very shy shrimp and spend much of their time in dense planting, particually if you have a large and veyr decorated tank, you won't see them around that much.

 

[PookPook]

Only down side to getting Amano shrimp is that you will not get baby shirmp as in, when their short life is over you have no more shrimp. Unless you are up for a hard challenge to raise the zoes in brackish water...

Nonetheless the clean up well. Neocaridina sp. clean up algae and crumbs well, also and their young can survive in freshwater.

Enjoy your shrimpmates!

 

[Chri$]

Thanks!

Only problem is my LFS doesn't carry shrimp, so i'm probably going to have to look at getting some via mail order.