Do Shrimps Eat Algae?

[Alexeir7]

I'm currently having brown algae growing on my substrate, driftwood and glass in my 10 gallon tank. It is barely noticeable but I still want to get rid of it in a natural way

 

[Ch4rlie]

This brown algae sounds as if it is diatoms, this is fairly common in new tank set ups. Once the tank and filter has settled and the water column parameters have established a bit, the diatoms should naturally disperse on its own, this can take anything from a few weeks to a few months.
 
To answer your question regarding shrimps, yes, shrimps do eat algae but in such minutiae amounts, so shrimps as well as snails should not be relied upon to get rid of algae. 
 
Generally speaking, the maintenance of your tank and algae control is really down to the fishkeeper responsible.  

 

[Alexeir7]

This brown algae sounds as if it is diatoms, this is fairly common in new tank set ups. Once the tank and filter has settled and the water column parameters have established a bit, the diatoms should naturally disperse on its own, this can take anything from a few weeks to a few months.
 
To answer your question regarding shrimps, yes, shrimps do eat algae but in such minutiae amounts, so shrimps as well as snails should not be relied upon to get rid of algae. 
 
Generally speaking, the maintenance of your tank and algae control is really down to the fishkeeper responsible.  

Thanks a lot. My tank just ended cycling and I'm planning on buying 6 neon tetra and a couple of shrimps.
I'll keep an eye on my water parameters to see if the diatoms get any better

 

[SantaMonica]

I've often wondered how many shrimp it would take to completely clean the glass.

 

[StevenF]

I've often wondered how many shrimp it would take to completely clean the glass.

The answer is that they can't. In order for the shrimp to eat algae it needs to walk across the glass. I have never observed my shrimp ding this. The glass is too smooth. Their feet don't stick to glass.

Furthermore some algae is very hard and sticky. Hard green spot algae can only be removed from glass with scrapper I know of no animal that is effective at eating it. hard green spot algae is covered by a thin layer of carbonate rock. A shell made by the algae.

Snails are effective at cleaning glass as long as it is not hard green spot algae. They cannot scrape that off the glass.