# General > AquaTalk >  Algae problem: Amano shrimp or many cherry shrimp

## bennyc

My Tank is currently plague with BGA and Black hair algae. I plan to use amano to remove them, maybe 5. However, I would rather have cherry shrimp as they are smaller and more asethetically pleasing. I would get maybe 20 cherry shrimps.

Which is better? Any advice would be most welcome. 

It would be good if anyone could point me to where I could buy them (amano or cherry) cheap & the price.

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## Shadow

none, they wont eat BGA nor BBA

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## bennyc

> none, they wont eat BGA nor BBA


even amano shrimp?

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## Shadow

yes even amano shrimp. The only fauna know to eat BBA is SAE as for BGA none.

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## Urban Aquaria

You can try killing the BBA with Excel spot treatment, then maybe the shrimps will eat the dead BBA bits.  :Smile: 

BGA is a sort of bacteria, you have to kill it with aquarium antibiotics, or do a full tank black-out treatment.

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## bennyc

> You can try killing the BBA with Excel spot treatment, then maybe the shrimps will eat the dead BBA bits. 
> 
> BGA is a sort of bacteria, you have to kill it with aquarium antibiotics, or do a full tank black-out treatment.


Thanks, i shall stubbornly try increase the shrimp population first to see is it helps, afterwhich i will try spot dosing with excel. By the way after spot dosing do i need to do water change?

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## Urban Aquaria

> By the way after spot dosing do i need to do water change?


I guess it depends on how much Excel you use to spot treat... what i did in one of my earlier tanks was just put the normal initial dosage for my tank volume in a pipette, then inject it directly onto the BBA affected area. 

Since the Excel dosage i used is what i would have put into the tank anyways, its not overdose so i didn't need to do any special water change after that.

Btw, remember to switch off the filter flow for a few minutes when doing Excel spot treatment, or else the solution will end up quickly dissipating into the water column and become less effective.  :Smile:

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## milk_vanilla

Finding out the caused might be tougher than fixing, your tank and my tank parameters might not be the same. 

Should find out what's the root caused why bga and bba appear on your tank and prevent them to keep coming. They are both usually the main guest during the new tank setup.

Adding alga lover faunas would not fixing your algae issue, but gentle prevent does. 

Above them all you should find the root cause, and make the tank balance.

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## wongce

I will choose cherry shrimps due to aesthetic, Size & budget reason

treatment= Off filter, spot dose diluted excel, wait for 1 hour before switch on filter again...repeat treatment next day unitl you will see BBA turn to white/ pink gradually.

cherry shrimps will settle the rest for you.

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## bennyc

> Finding out the caused might be tougher than fixing, your tank and my tank parameters might not be the same. 
> 
> Should find out what's the root caused why bga and bba appear on your tank and prevent them to keep coming. They are both usually the main guest during the new tank setup.
> 
> Adding alga lover faunas would not fixing your algae issue, but gentle prevent does. 
> 
> Above them all you should find the root cause, and make the tank balance.


Thanks for stressing on the root cause. After reading, Thanks to AQ and contributors. I believe it is either due to too much light or CO2 too low or both. However, solving the root cause i still need to have some form/way to remove the BBA. I believe shrimps will help.

@urban and wongce, thanks for sharing as well.  :Smile:

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## Navanod

Aside from too much light and too little CO2, may I also add that you'll need to have some fast growing stem plants in the tank too to compete with the algae.
As for BGA, it may be due to poor water flow in that corner of the tank coupled with nutrient rich water that is somewhat "warm" (above 27 degrees?). The bacteria grow faster at higher temperature while plants and mosses suffers in warmer waters, creating an ideal condition for BGA

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## bennyc

> Aside from too much light and too little CO2, may I also add that you'll need to have some fast growing stem plants in the tank too to compete with the algae.
> As for BGA, it may be due to poor water flow in that corner of the tank coupled with nutrient rich water that is somewhat "warm" (above 27 degrees?). The bacteria grow faster at higher temperature while plants and mosses suffers in warmer waters, creating an ideal condition for BGA


Currently, I have rotala, Staurogyne and Bacopa. (stem plants). I have also notice my temperature is on the high side at 30 degrees. Therefore I have already added a fan ,bring down the temperature to around 28 degrees. I do not see myself adding a chiller due to budget and higher monthly maintence cost. Thanks for the heads up though. 

I will be learning through this "wrong turn". 

Right now, I am more sway towards getting amano shrimp. I hate their looks but i have no choice since cherry are not as effective as amano. I know c328 is selling at 5 for $8. I would be happy if someone could PM me the price nanyang seaview is selling.

After more research, I am quite sorry that i have wasted everyone's precious time. I have now correctly identify the algae type. They are Green hair algae, black hair algae and staghorn algae. Will update before & after shrimp photos after i buy them.

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## Shadow

good news is yamato and cherry will eat green hair and staghorn algae provided you starve them.

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## bennyc

> good news is yamato and cherry will eat green hair and staghorn algae provided you starve them.


Yes I am relieve that is the case. Well, Robert, if it was up to you to choose, 5 yamatos or 20 cherry, which will you go for?

Of Course, any bros are more than welcome to comment too!  :Smile:

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## Shadow

How bad is the algae? if very bad then I will get yamato otherwise will get cherry

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## Urban Aquaria

I've tried putting yamato shrimps in one of my tanks before... but watching them lumber around amongst small fishes and cherry shrimps, they look really out-of-scale like giant transparent aliens and made the tank look like a betta cube.  :Laughing: 

I guess one of the reasons why yamato shrimps are praised for their algae eating skills is because they are simply much larger than cherry shrimps, if you observe them eating, yamato shrimps can really consume alot of food, way more than a much smaller cherry shrimp. With greater size comes greater appetites.

I would probably gauge their algae eating capacity as 1 yamato shrimp = 5 cherry shrimp, so either you put in a squad of 10 yamato shrimps... or put in an army of 50 cherry shrimps.  :Grin:

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## wongce

Yamato shrimp price is similar across lfs

Cherry shrimps are a lot cheaper if you buy in bulk(50/100) pcs
Malayan shrimps are good alternatives too(maybe cheaper than cherry)...they change colour to dark brown/blue tint/red/transparent randomly..weird but great shrimp to keep in your tank as algae crew.

Cherry 50 pieces around 8-10 dollars
Malayan 50 pieces 8-10 dollars

I got hundreds of them in my tank lol... They will graze almost everything except green spot &bba... I rather have malayan or cherry in my tank as they are less destructive. Yamato are big and loves to pull out foreground plant...they loves to pull out HC (especially your hc is not well rootted yet)

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## bennyc

> Yamato shrimp price is similar across lfs
> 
> Cherry shrimps are a lot cheaper if you buy in bulk(50/100) pcs
> Malayan shrimps are good alternatives too(maybe cheaper than cherry)...they change colour to dark brown/blue tint/red/transparent randomly..weird but great shrimp to keep in your tank as algae crew.
> 
> 
> 
> Cherry 50 pieces around 8-10 dollars
> Malayan 50 pieces 8-10 dollars
> ...


Haha, wongce bro thanks for your recommendation. I have bought 100 malayan shrimps from NA. I read they are alkaline shrimps, hope they survive in my (i believe acidic) tank.

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## wongce

I manage to poison a lot of people to buy 100 malayans lol... They are very hardy...haha you will notice they change colour..weirdo shrimp hahaha

If not mistaken they call malayan shrimp as rainbow shrimps...

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## felix_fx2

> I manage to poison a lot of people to buy 100 malayans lol... They are very hardy...haha you will notice they change colour..weirdo shrimp hahaha
> 
> If not mistaken they call malayan shrimp as rainbow shrimps...


rainbow shrimp is Bangalore/India common name for malayan. wait NA run out of malayan i will know who.....

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## bennyc

Haha. Reach home late last night. by the time i am done acclimatise the shrimps it is like 2 am so i did not manage to take any photos. By the time, i woke up most of the green hair algae are gone. The power of the 100 shrimps. However, i noticed they do not quite like staghorn algae. 

They have not color up, when they do, time to take photos and spread poison! HAHA!

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## wongce

> Haha. Reach home late last night. by the time i am done acclimatise the shrimps it is like 2 am so i did not manage to take any photos. By the time, i woke up most of the green hair algae are gone. The power of the 100 shrimps. However, i noticed they do not quite like staghorn algae. 
> 
> They have not color up, when they do, time to take photos and spread poison! HAHA!


The power of 100 malayans is not to be under estimated...haha so when are you treating me coffee for recommending you good stuff?? Lol

Enjoy your colour changing shrimps!!!

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## bennyc

> The power of 100 malayans is not to be under estimated...haha so when are you treating me coffee for recommending you good stuff?? Lol
> 
> Enjoy your colour changing shrimps!!!


 
Haha. Can, We can organise coffee session with other AQ members as well if others are interested!

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## cosmico

Is it safe to mix malaysn shrimp with cherry and crystal shrimps? Will they attack or bully? I also have shrimplets in my tank. Need malayan to control some green hair algae growth in my tank.

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## josephogk

I usually buy amano and malayan shrimps from seaview. I believe the prices are more reasonable when purchased in bulk.

Add some frogbits to your tank and slowly reduce lighting period. Frogbits will consume the excessive nutrients, leaving the algae to turn brown and consumed by shrimps. No dosing of excel at all. Personally tried that and find it very effective, now my tank has achieved its balance and seldom see any hair algae anymore. Thats unless you dont mind have roots of frogbits floating around your tank.

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## erwinx

After the 100 Malayan shrimp clean up the algae, will there be a shortage of food for them? Do we need to supplement with algae wafer or other food? Can you let me know what sort of food to give them? Thanks!

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## wongce

normal fish food or sinking pellets should be alright for malayan shrimp.. they are not picky eaters... :Smile:

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## josephogk

I added 100 malayan and 50 yamatos into my 3ft tank. During normal time only the yamatos were seen out in the open area glazing for food. All malayans disappeared in the woods. Everyday when I feed fish food flakes, the yamatos will finish the leftovers. Once they are done with the fish food, they went back to the plants and rocks which I assume they are returning to the cleaning regime.
Algae wafers, yes, once in a while just for fun to see all yamatos/cherry coming out from the bush.  :Roll Eyes:

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## bennyc

For planted tank, algae seems to be difficult to avoid. So there is one food source for them. My fishes are a picky bunch. Those fish pellets that have fallen to the substrate, they will not touch and become another source for the malayans. 

Malayan tend to be more high ph water, most planted tanks are low ph water. So i do not see the rainbow colors of malayan. They do survive in my tank thou.

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## wongwong

Hi 
I have recently bought 5 amano for $5 at Tampines LFS (Blk824)

Brother was say 50 cherry for $8-$10? SO CHEAP!!! is it the market rate or most LFS is this price?
C328 have?

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## Urban Aquaria

I've seen large bags of malayan or cherry shrimps available at those prices from places like C328, Y618, Seaview, NA etc. You'll have to check with those LFS periodically to find such deals though, each time those bulk quantity bags of shrimps are available they usually get snapped up very fast.  :Grin:

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## wongce

Hi wongwong, the trick is to buy in bulk.... hehe... you will be surprised

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## mpohlc

> I've seen large bags of malayan or cherry shrimps available at those prices from places like C328, Y618, Seaview, NA etc. You'll have to check with those LFS periodically to find such deals though, each time those bulk quantity bags of shrimps are available they usually get snapped up very fast.


Sorry but where is NA? what's its full name?

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## Urban Aquaria

> Sorry but where is NA? what's its full name?


NA = Nature Aquarium (at Thomson Road)

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## Dscheng

Malayan shrimp always out of stock !! I brought from Y618, 50 Cherry for $10.. mainly all shrimplet no colour. Now start to develop nice colour, i think quite good deal for this. Just need a bit patience haha.

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## Urban Aquaria

> Malayan shrimp always out of stock !! I brought from Y618, 50 Cherry for $10.. mainly all shrimplet no colour. Now start to develop nice colour, i think quite good deal for this. Just need a bit patience haha.


Yeah, thats one of the bonuses of getting the bulk bags of cherry shrimps, a certain percentage of the younger shrimps might not have developed their actual colors yet (they may have been culled abit too early from breeders tanks), so you can sometimes get a few which will eventually grow to sakura-grade shrimps.  :Very Happy:

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