# what types of algae do Neocaridina eat?



## chase127 (Jun 8, 2008)

any chance cherries or snowballs eat green thread algae, bba, or diatoms?
something pretty *and* beneficial would be sweet 

oh and its not that i have all those types of algae, just curious :icon_surp


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

Mine will pick at GDA, GSA, maybe diatoms (I haven't had them in a whlie). Never seen them make a dent on thread or BBA though.

Amanos will go after thread algae.


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

I have never seen ANY (never had Amanos) shrimp do anything to to any algea. 

Otos or ramshorn snails are the only thing I have seen do ant damage to algea.


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

bsmith782 said:


> I have never seen ANY (never had Amanos) shrimp do anything to to any algea.
> 
> Otos or ramshorn snails are the only thing I have seen do ant damage to algea.


I had an algae problem and wanted a bunch of Amano shrimp. The mom & pop store had a deal so whether I bought 20 or 30, I'd pay the same price. I got 30...well, their 30 meant close to 45. So I brought them all home. They did some damage, but it took 45 of them in a 40 gallon tank.


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## chase127 (Jun 8, 2008)

meh... if only amanos were easy to breed... 

so why are cherries called algae eating shrimp?


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

A ploy to get you to buy them.


chris127 said:


> meh... if only amanos were easy to breed... so why are cherries called algae eating shrimp?


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

chris127 said:


> meh... if only amanos were easy to breed...
> 
> so why are cherries called algae eating shrimp?





bsmith782 said:


> A ploy to get you to buy them.


+1.

A glass scraper does in two minutes what it takes them a week to do. They're nice to look at though.


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## chase127 (Jun 8, 2008)

lol dang i thought they were helpful. so what would work best in a 20 gallon for basic algae control (nothing like outbreak control, just cleanup) x number of amanos or x number of nerites?


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

Nerites + otos. Haha.


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## chase127 (Jun 8, 2008)

im tired of otos lol they arent eating any of the GSA in my tank, i thought they would clean up my anubias, BUT I GUESS NOT. and shrimp are funner  is 6-8 a good number?


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

I like shrimp. I'd get a dozen.


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## chizamp (Apr 12, 2008)

I just got some nerites and they are going to town on my algae.


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## chase127 (Jun 8, 2008)

so amanos eat thread algae, how about gsa, bba, or gda?


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## Dwarfpufferfish (May 29, 2004)

Red Cherry Shrimp are algae eating shrimp, however, they are not effective at algae control. They will not keep up with algae growth, and are picky about what types of algae they eat!


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## chase127 (Jun 8, 2008)

is theshrimpfarm.com your website?


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## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

In my experience cherries are pretty darn efficient against hair algae.

The key is not to also feed them when you want them to eat the algae:icon_lol:

Yes that is his website.

-Andrew


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## chase127 (Jun 8, 2008)

really? thats encouraging. i was about to think they were useless lol 

its choc full of info, a great site


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## CrownMan (Sep 8, 2005)

I have cherries in 6 of my heavily planted aquaria and while they may not be the best at eating algae, they keep the bottom spotless, there is no layer of mulm that would require vacuuming in any of those tanks.

As I don't have any hair algae in any tank, they may be doing a great job with it. I see them all the time munching on something in the leaves of my stem plants.

Mike


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## praxis5624 (Apr 2, 2006)

Crownman in my opinion was one of the first to have a large population of Cherries in my area. I met him online and was lucky enough to get some shrimp from him and was amazed at such an impressive fish room. Like he said , they are great scavengers and I dont have hair algae as well so I would say that if you want them to eat algae, reduce feeding to once a week and Im sure they will compensate with algae and possible detritus.


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