What shrimps eat moss?

[FrothHelmet]

Hiya everyone, I have a 60L tank, 30w fluorescent, no CO2 with a Taiwan Moss Wall that has been set up for about a month now and I am beginning to get a bit of a hair/brown algae problem. It currently houses no fish and only some Daphnia Magna. I was thinking about adding some Cherry Red Shrimp to help with the algae problem, but reading from aquamoss.net some Neocardinia sp. like Amano's eat Moss.

Has anyone experienced CRS eating mosses? Are there any shrimps which eat algae and not moss?

Many thanks for everyone's input. Cheers,
Gerard D.

[timebomb]

Welcome to the forum, Gerard.

It's not often we get questions from hobbyists living in London. It seems like the aquatic plant hobby is non-existent there.

There have been many shrimps introduced into the hobby lately so I can't say for sure but the Amano shrimp aka Yamato numa ebi is known to eat mosses. But they eat only the new growth. In other words, if your tank is already filled with mosses, it would appear that the shrimp is not doing any damage. But if you're trying to grow a moss wall, the mosses won't grow because the Amano shrimp keeps pruning off the new growth. Adults SAE's are known to do the same thing too.

Brown algae is easy to eradicate. Get some Oto's. They will clean up the brown algae in no time. Many snails will do the job just as well too. As for hair algae, Black Mollies are my favourite fish to tackle this problem. They will not only eat up all the hair algae but also keep the surface of your water free from scum.

Cherry shrimp, like most other aquarium shrimp are not really algae-eaters. They are scavengers but in the absence of suitable food like carcasses of other fish, I'll suppose they will eat some of the algae.

If you have time, Gerard, I'll appreciate it very much if you tell us a bit about the aquaria scene in England. Thanks.

Loh K L

[FrothHelmet]

Thanks for your excellent reply Loh. This is a really cool site/group of people. About the aquarium scene in the UK, to be honest I don't know anything. I am just a student living here since September and am originally from Hawaii. I live in central London and have only seen an aquarium shop from a bus once. Needless to say, I don't really get around that much. Maybe after exams I will have a chance to tell everyone about the aquarium scene here. Still I doubt it compares to Asia, you guys are way ahead of the game.

Gerard D.

[Robert]

Hi Gerard,
shrimps are the wrong choice if you want to get rid of the brown algae. Snails do a good job but you will still see a nice brown pattern on the walls and other surfaces of your tank. With their radula (tongue) they don't clean the glass 100%. To get really clean walls, buy some cheap razor blades for shaving. Get these old, flat and large ones and use them carefully to avoid scratches.

BTW, the main reason for your algaes are a lack of CO2.

The only moss-eating shrimps so far are yamato and red nose shrimps. They eat moss only if they starve. Feed them well and they prefer soft algae or any other source of food e.g. flakes, dead fishes etc. .

CRS stands normally for "Crystal Red Shrimp". RCS means "Red Cherry Shrimp". But normally we simply talk about cherry shrimps in English. If you want to know more about shrimps, snails and other invertebrates, come to my web site: http://www.shrimpnow.com/.

Best regards
Robert