# Do RCSs eat brown algae?



## green_valley (Sep 14, 2011)

Well, 2 of my tanks have some brown algae. I know Amano shrimps will eat them, but I am curious about RCS, if they eat them or not. Does anyone know about this?

Thanks


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## jasonpatterson (Apr 15, 2011)

They'll pick at just about anything, including diatoms, but they'll tend to feed on just about anything else first. If you didn't feed them for a week they might clean it up for you.


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## green_valley (Sep 14, 2011)

jasonpatterson said:


> They'll pick at just about anything, including diatoms, but they'll tend to feed on just about anything else first. If you didn't feed them for a week they might clean it up for you.


Thanks Jason. I might get some Amanos, but my LFS is short, so I guess RCS might help even a little.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

I don't think shrimp will eat GSA if that's what you have. Nerite snails will.

Dwarf shrimp, if they do eat algae, won't eat any at a noticeable amount (amanos devour hair algae though). At least that's from my experience.


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## MotherNature (Apr 20, 2012)

diwu13 said:


> I don't think shrimp will eat GSA if that's what you have. Nerite snails will.
> 
> Dwarf shrimp, if they do eat algae, won't eat any at a noticeable amount (amanos devour hair algae though). At least that's from my experience.


Same for me. The rcs eat algae, but enough to really make a dent. My nerites devour it though, even the brown algae.


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

I haven't witnessed any neos or caridinas eat any hair or other types of outbreak algae, especially if they are being fed regularly. Consider algae a less than appetizing meal that they might eat if nothing else were available. 

Amanos are the tank work horses and will graze on algae at unthinkable speeds, though the variety of algae may vary. I only had hair and thick green jelly like algae in which they completely ignored the later.

Haven't had much luck with snails in the algae department either as my neuritis, rams horns, mts and pond seem to work on detris more than algae in general.

Try to cut back either your lighting period or fert dosing. That would be a good starting point to cut back on new growth.


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## Kunsthure (Aug 2, 2010)

The 8 or so dime sized batiki nerites in my 37g have been scrubbing that tank clean. There was some weird brownish blackish algae that followed the pattern of the flow from the spray bar and they ate that AND the GSA under it. They've come a long way with the GSA on the back wall too. I wanted to get huge trapdoors to clean the algae but these little nerites have been making such a tremendous difference much more quickly than I could have imagined. Nerites are my go-to snail for algae removal, they'll eat everything except BBA. But nothing eats that evil stuff.

-Lisa


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## jeremyTR (Mar 21, 2012)

Amanos eat any algae, just wait. They'll get hungry.


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## green_valley (Sep 14, 2011)

Hey guys, 

I was asking about RCS and Brown algae......hahahahha....

Anyways, I tested out, and they actually do. They clean them up pretty well actually. WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO


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## anh (Jul 20, 2009)

Cherry shrimp will love to eat brown algae. just stop feeding them and wait for them to get hungry so they'll clean up your tank. Staghorn algae on the other hand...


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