Effects of Algae Eaters - Tropica Article

[Urban Aquaria]

I was browsing the Tropica website reading their various articles, and found this interesting article. They did some tests on various popular algae eaters to measure their efficiency in eating algae in a tank and posted the results.

Here is a re-post of the article (Link: http://www.tropica.com/en/tropica-ab...ae-eaters.aspx) :

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This is how efficient the various algae eaters are according to our test:

The upper part of the illustration (A) shows the relative efficiency of the 5 tested species:



The Amano shrimp, Cherry shrimp, zebra snail (Neritina), Odessa barb and the Siamese algae eater. The illustration shows that the Amano shrimp is approx. twice as efficient as the zebra snail and 6 times as efficient as the cherry shrimp.

Part of the difference is however due to the fact that an Amano shrimp is much bigger than a cherry shrimp, which is why we have also illustrated how efficient they are as per gram of the animal (the lowest part of the illustration, B). And here it is really clear to see how efficient the Amano shrimp is! It is still almost twice as efficient as the cherry shrimp and more than 5 times as efficient as the Siamese algae eater.


This is how it was tested:

A biofilm consisting of green algae and diatoms were initially cultivated on small ceramic tiles. A tile with algae was subsequently put into an aquarium with a certain number of Amano shrimps, which were then allowed to eat for a certain number of hours. Whatever the shrimps did not manage to eat within the measured time was subsequently measured/weighed, based on how much algae there was on the tile to begin with, and how much was left after the shrimps had been allowed to eat. We were then able to determine how much they had managed to eat.



Source Link: http://www.tropica.com/en/tropica-ab...ae-eaters.aspx

[Shadow]

Good info, thanks for sharing!!

[guppies_79]

Thank you UA. Very interesting article. I always have this question which is the most efficient algae eater and never really have any statistical back up. A lot of hear say. Until now.

[guppies_79]

So does it mean Ammano shrimp will now be in high demand... and prices shoot up...

[Urban Aquaria]

Yeah, although their tests only measure the algae eating ability based on green film algae and diatoms (not on specific types of algae that different algae eaters are better at consuming, ie. Nerite snails vs GSA or SAE vs BBA etc), its still interesting to see the results of a quantitative test done this way.

From the test results, it would seem that in terms of green algae/diatoms eating efficiency, 1 amano shrimp = 6 cherry shrimps.

So for those who want algae eaters in their tanks but find that the large amano shrimps look too out of scale in their tanks and prefer the smaller size of cherry shrimps, it'll just be a matter of stocking more of them based on the ratio.

For a 2ft tank that is usually recommended to have around 8-10 amano shrimps... i guess that would equate to around 50-60 cherry shrimps (aka shrimp army).

[wongce]

UA,thanks for sharing...very informative

[Kiang]

I was browsing the Tropica website reading their various articles, and found this interesting article. They did some tests on various popular algae eaters to measure their efficiency in eating algae in a tank and posted the results.

Here is a re-post of the article (Link: http://www.tropica.com/en/tropica-ab...ae-eaters.aspx) :

--

This is how efficient the various algae eaters are according to our test:

The upper part of the illustration (A) shows the relative efficiency of the 5 tested species:



The Amano shrimp, Cherry shrimp, zebra snail (Neritina), Odessa barb and the Siamese algae eater. The illustration shows that the Amano shrimp is approx. twice as efficient as the zebra snail and 6 times as efficient as the cherry shrimp.

Part of the difference is however due to the fact that an Amano shrimp is much bigger than a cherry shrimp, which is why we have also illustrated how efficient they are as per gram of the animal (the lowest part of the illustration, B). And here it is really clear to see how efficient the Amano shrimp is! It is still almost twice as efficient as the cherry shrimp and more than 5 times as efficient as the Siamese algae eater.


This is how it was tested:

A biofilm consisting of green algae and diatoms were initially cultivated on small ceramic tiles. A tile with algae was subsequently put into an aquarium with a certain number of Amano shrimps, which were then allowed to eat for a certain number of hours. Whatever the shrimps did not manage to eat within the measured time was subsequently measured/weighed, based on how much algae there was on the tile to begin with, and how much was left after the shrimps had been allowed to eat. We were then able to determine how much they had managed to eat.



Source Link: http://www.tropica.com/en/tropica-ab...ae-eaters.aspx

Nice.

Thanks for sharing this piece of research.


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[milk_vanilla]

Cherries are breeding like madness though. Even though my tetra hunt them daily, story never get end. My amano's will disappear less than a year. Didn't know where they go ;(


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[nicholasliao]

Thanks for sharing ua

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[aquanick]

very informative article.. thanks ua

[thebaldingaquarist]

interesting.
if only they did the same on specific kinds of algae in a controlled environment..

[Atham]

Interesting. Amano is more efficient than Neritina Snail. Thanks for sharing.

[joyshorty]

Awesome article!!! Thanks UA for sharing.

[Shadow]

Thank to you, no more Yamato shrimps at C328 today

[popimac]

Takashi Amano will be proud! Haha. Thanks for the info.

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[milk_vanilla]

UA will be next ADA marketing and campaign manager


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[mylica]

Just bought yamato few days back. In 24 hours, my driftwood is super clean. They are really amazing.

[AQMS]

That's it, i cant find 2lt excel anywhere now the yamatoS will be gone too...
Good find UA..

[apek19]

Thanks for sharing!

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[limz_777]

Interesting. Amano is more efficient than Neritina Snail. Thanks for sharing.

think depends on what type of algae , nerite more efficient on GSA