Shrimp Vs. Snails

[JellOh]

Are shrimp or snails better at cleaning up algea? I have a 10 gallon that is in need of some serious Aldea eating citizens. I was thinking ~15 Amano shrimp or ~3 Horned Nerite snails. Also, how are Nerites in the waste department? At one time I had some Apple snails and they were terrible about pooing everywhere. I'd rather not have that level of waste production again.

 

[Ninjouzata]

I havn't had shrimp but have heard really great things about amanos.
 
We have a zebra nerite in one tank and it was covered, within a few days he got it cleaned up. Now it's a totally different algae and not doing so well But it's just 1 nerite.
I am not sure on how much waste they produce, I havn't noticed any poo in that tank, which is a 5g.
 
So..not a really helpful post I guess. Sorry :c

 

[Essjay]

I have amano shrimps in one tank, cherry shrimps in another and nerite snails in both. The nerites are the bigger red and tiger ones rather than the smaller horned ones. I also have a small black and yellow striped snail (similar to horned nerites) in my betta's tank.
 
The larger snails do make quite a bit of mess, but they also seem to like rasping at the wood in their tanks and the mess looks like wood that's been through a snail's digestive system - the mess is usually underneath the wood. My betta's tank doesn't have any wood, and the small snail in there doesn't make nearly so much mess.
Cherry shrimps can also make a mess. Mine were in a tank on their own to grow out some juveniles before they went in a tank with fish and there was a lot of mess in that tank, but sort of finer than snail poo. I can't say exactly how much the amanos contribute to their tank, but it is quite common to see one with a string of poo hanging from it.
 
I should add that I have sand in all my tanks so the snail, shrimp and fish poo is very visible. But I'd still rather have nerite snails than not.

 

[frothhelmet]

Depends on the algae you got...For all round algae control best team is amanos and ramshorns - though it you have greenspot algae nothing beats a nerite, cherries can be a nice back-up too. At 10 gallons I would only get one nerite - unless it's clithon corona - then you can get 2.

 

[PrincessKiara]

If your tank were bigger...plecos all the way. I was unexpectedly given one, back when I had my 28 gallon bowfront, that was also quite full of algae. He had it off within a day, not a trace left of that green stuff!
Of course, I rehomed him ASAP due to his size and the tank's (he'd previously been living in a 10 gallon only about twice as long as he was, yikes!