# Will Amano Shrimp eat BGA



## TexasCichlid (Jul 12, 2011)

Amanos won't touch living cyano. I am not familiar with anything that will. Cyano actually produces a mild toxin that makes it unpleasant for critters to eat it. I have seen dead cyano eaten by shrimp, though.


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## Ptyochromis (Mar 16, 2012)

My glass shrimp love BGA. My LFS sells them 10/$1 you can't beat it, best purchase ever :3.

Lost of fish stores try to pedal amanos, but I find them highly over rated and far too expensive. Glass shrimp are just about the best eaters of BGA.

If you have BGA, try and find the source of the issue. Getting an animal to fix an algae issue is like treating a brain tumor with tylenol. Your headache may be gone, but you still have a tumor.

I my tank had been over run with bga after i got back from a month long vacation. I fixed my BGA issue by discovering that one of my HOBs was clogged. I fixed it and added a larger HOB for more flow (however you decide to up flow is good), and limited my lights to less than 8H per day. My BGA was very very bad, it killed a lot of my vals, so I got this product called "Blue green algae remover", which is more or less antibiotic. It was gone in a week. Siphoned it out, replaced my plants + more plants and got glass shrimp(they cleaned up all the bits of leftover BGA in a few days).

TL;DR
Lower your photo period, up your flow and add Glass(ghost) shrimp you should be good.


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## DrewWoodside (Apr 1, 2008)

Do ghost or glass shrimp harm fish at all or have any drawbacks? Also what was the main ingredient in the bga remover? Thinking if treating the tank with maracyn


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## harley1964 (Jan 22, 2012)

someone posted a video on you tube awhile back showing several ghost shrimp
tearing the legs off a crs, kinda looked like the ghost shrimps
could get pretty aggressive.


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## TexasCichlid (Jul 12, 2011)

I am not familiar with glass/ghost shrimp eating BGA either. You likely killed off the BGA with the antibiotics and the shrimp ate the dead leftovers.


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## Complexity (Jan 30, 2008)

Some people hear the word "algae" and immediately give the same answer: Amanos. They don't even know what you're talking about when you say BGA; they certainly don't know it's not an algae. So you were smart to double check before buying.

Cyanobacteria is often a sign of high organics in the water. Remove as much as you can by hand, followed by a 50% (or larger) water change. Check your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate readings, as well. Keep cleaning and doing water changes every day or two until the tank is healthy again. Also make sure the tank has good circulation.

If this doesn't work, you can use Erythromycin medication to kill it (such as Maracyn).


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## Complexity (Jan 30, 2008)

I was reading the following article, and based on it, I would recommend trying H2O2 before Erythromycin. You still need to increase circulation, but even more important, you need to increase oxygenation of the water. Perhaps something in the tank is dying, causing excess organics in the water? That, coupled with low oxygen, may be the root cause of the BGA.

http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/controlling-cyanobacteria


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## Ptyochromis (Mar 16, 2012)

BGA remover is Erythromycin, didn't take out my bio filter or inverts. I hear maracyn can take out the bio filter, not even sure if it works against BGA. Most cyanobacteria (if not all) are gram stain negative, maracyn is used against gram stain positive bacteria. Antibiotics should be a last resort, always.

Fix the issue before you treat the problem. AKA make changes to the tank or the bga will only come back.

As far as the shrimp are concerned, they will only eat weak or otherwise comprised fish. I threw an injured julidochromis juvi in there as krib food (I broke its back/tail on accident during netting), a shrimp came up to it and garbed it's tail, but it got away only to run into a hungry krib. Honestly, I keep these shrimp in there with .75" to 1" endlers and I haven't lost a single one. The only 'aggression' I have noticed is one of my largest female shrimp about 1.5" poking a krib, but after some experimenting I have come to the conclusion that it is purely hunger based. It is quite easy to tell if they are hungry or not as they are clear, you can see the food in them if they are hungry. They spend all day foraging peaceful little buggers. Half the time they are running out of the way of the tetra.


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## Complexity (Jan 30, 2008)

Ptyochromis said:


> BGA remover is Erythromycin, didn't take out my bio filter or inverts. I hear maracyn can take out the bio filter, not even sure if it works against BGA. Most cyanobacteria (if not all) are gram stain negative, maracyn is used against gram stain positive bacteria. Antibiotics should be a last resort, always.


Maracyn is Erythromycin. http://www.sergeants.com/sentry/products/ProductCatalog.asp?one=35&two=188&three=766&pr=12893

http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?id=14240


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## HD Blazingwolf (May 12, 2011)

The number one cause is low oxygen which inhibits good beneficial bacteria health. Good beneficial bacteria growth and healty will prevent and even destroy bga. Flow is a major contributing factor for oxygen levels and good distribution through the tank.

Ammonia not a major cause as bga can fixate its own nitrogen. 
Bga is a reaction to a problem. Not a cause. Fix the problem and it will go away. Change water frequently while adding more flow/oxygen.


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## Ptyochromis (Mar 16, 2012)

Yup, u cannot go wrong with more flow. Well i guess you can if you have WAY too much flow in a beta tank.

And i was totally thinking about maracyn 2 derp.


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## DrewWoodside (Apr 1, 2008)

Complexity said:


> I was reading the following article, and based on it, I would recommend trying H2O2 before Erythromycin. You still need to increase circulation, but even more important, you need to increase oxygenation of the water. Perhaps something in the tank is dying, causing excess organics in the water? That, coupled with low oxygen, may be the root cause of the BGA.
> 
> http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/controlling-cyanobacteria


Funny you should say something in the tank dying. So I had a nice piece of manzanita as a center piece, and it was covered in moss. Although it was doing great, it created a great deal of decaying plant matter and made it difficult to siphon behind, underneath and around it. 

I've since removed this wood, even though it was cool looking. I've also amped up the water changes. Angled the spray bar from my Eheim down so it really sweeps through the tank and added an air stone. Had my tank been set up this way with the extra flow, oxygen and no mossy manzanita, I imagine I never would have grown the BGA to begin with. However, it's in pretty deep now, so improved conditions don't seem to be enough to remedy the situation.

My plan currently is to use hydrogen peroxide with a syringe on the affected areas, being careful not to directly spray any fish. If this didn't work I would use the maracyn route, but I believe if I do this properly. It should take care of the BGA.  Btw here is a cleaned up shot of my tank with my post manzanita scape. I went with a rock anubias sort of scape. Also you won't see BGA in this b/c I had just removed it all.(but it's still there now)


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## Complexity (Jan 30, 2008)

Looks very good. You've done a great job cleaning up what you could and correcting the underlying cause. Once you get the existing BGA killed, I doubt you'll have problems with it coming back.


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## jeremyTR (Mar 21, 2012)

Wow, very pretty tank you have there.

Sent from my HTC Evo 4G


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## DrewWoodside (Apr 1, 2008)

Complexity said:


> Looks very good. You've done a great job cleaning up what you could and correcting the underlying cause. Once you get the existing BGA killed, I doubt you'll have problems with it coming back.


Glad to hear you confirm my course of action is correct regarding underlying cause and H202ing what's currently there. One more question. So now I've sprayed the BGA with H202 and per what everyone said it's beginning to form air bubbles. What do I do now? Should i try to physically remove the BGA now that it has bubbles? Or do I let it die then remove it or how does that work after I've sprayed it with the peroxide..

Thanks for all the info everyone!


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## Complexity (Jan 30, 2008)

Once you've sprayed it, what you do is watch with glee as it dies a slow, painful death. :biggrin:

Seriously, you should remove it as best you can. While I haven't used H2O2 to kill BGA, I'd expect it to change physical characteristics in some way (color, texture). If you don't remove it, it will decompose which will cause it to release ammonia into your tank. If you have a lot of dead BGA decomposing all at once, it can overwhelm your bacteria to the point it can't convert it all fast enough which causes a mini-cycle.

So remove what you can, keep your filter clean (but don't disturb your bacteria), and perform water changes to keep your water clean. It shouldn't take long for it to be cleaned out.


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