200 Litre Tank - Stocking And Shrimp

[wigdean]

Currently I have a Roma 200 tank that's been running for over 6 months now if memory serves. Currently home to...

2 x Bolivian Rams (1 male, 1 female)
5 x Harlequin Rasbora
5 x Espes Rabora
2 x Galaxy Rasbora (1 male, 1 female)
2 x Cherry Spot Rasbora
2 x Sparkling Gourami (1 male, 1 female)
5 x Black Phantom Tetra (1 male, 4 female)
1 x Platy (Male)
2 x Pygmy Cory
3 x Bronze Cory
2 x Otos
3 x Amano Shrimp

When you list them like that it looks quite a full tank but when you actually look at it, it seems a little empty. Is there room for much else? I'm thinking something like the pygmy hatchet fish? Or any other suggestions?

Secondly, I've read that Takashi Amano sometimes suggested keeping as many as 1 amano shrimp per gallon to control algae. Now obviously I'm not going to go that extreme but I definitely want to introduce more shrimp. I have a slight algae problem and I'm considering adding 10 more amano shrimp to the tank as they add very little to the bioload. At the moment my shrimps tend to feed from the algae wafers my cories feed on and ignore the algae. Can you see any problems with this?

Thanks.

 

[Davo86]

I think adding 10-12 shrimp would be ok and i may be even tempted to add another 2 pygmy corys and at least 1 more male platy or even 2 females for him. How many algae wafers are you feeding? if there is too much food an algae eater won't have the need to search for algae.
Also do you know the reason for you having the algae problem, lights on for too long, high nitrates, overfeeding etc,

 

[wigdean]

I'd love to have more pygmy cories but the only place I can find them, despite being surrounded by quite a few well known lfs is Tri-Mar. And I can't justify spending £10 delivery on just the cory.

To be honest I haven't got a clue what could be causing the algae. It's not a massive problem. Just clumps of green fur on the heater, few on the gravel, bit on some rocks. Nothing major but I don't like the sight of it. Overfeeding is definitely not a cause though. They are only fed 5-6 times a week, once a day. And not much goes in.

I feed 2 small algae wafers. Purely because my rams will not take food from the surface due to the feeding habits of the rasboras and tetras, so they make light work of a wafer. Which leaves one for the cories (unless the rams get sight of it!).

 

[wigdean]

Anyone?