And then there are Caridina multidentata aka amano shrimp. These are a caridina but are nowhere near a sensitive as the other caridinas.
They are omnivorous and voracious alage eaters, However they need more than algae. They will also eat meat. This includes smaller fry if they can catch them, dead fish, fish food for meat eaters.
They are not colorful, they will not reproduce in our tanks as they need brackish water for that. They live a pretty long time, however.
Amano shrimp (Caridina multidentata) typically live 2 to 3 years on average in a home aquarium, though many hobbyists report that healthy specimens can easily reach 4 to 6 years, and occasionally up to 8 to 10+ years with exceptional care.
Mine have always lived a long time and I do nothing exceptional for them.
At one time I had what I called my AMano Wash tank. It was a 50 gallon (189L) held a lot of plants and started with 100 amanos in it. I have a lot of anubias plants which are slow growers. The closer they get to the surface, the more algae they tend to get growing them. I used to pull the plants and bleach dip them.
But with the Amano Wash tank I would swap out an algae covered anubias for a clean one. Then I bothered to see how long it tokk for the shrimp to clean a plant after I put it into their tank. It tuened out they swarmed it and I was able to take out a completed cleaned plant in 3 or 4 hours. So I stopped doing the swap and just did a few hour turnaround.
Ultimately, I had to move the 50 out of where I had it. So, I repurosed it as a normal tank and spread the shrimp into several of my other planted tanks. I still have amanos in several of my tanks some of which I have had for over 5 years now. I used to get a box of 100 as imports and then the main shrimp famrs in Asia suffered big floods and were wiped out.
Amanos are great but not for breeding tanks where there will be tiny fry, espcecially ifd they are bottom dwellinf fish. Also, amanos are seen as food for many bigger fish. Loaches, for one, love them for dinner or lunch or breakfast for that matter. One thing I was taught about amanos was when you see them madly dashing around the tank it means they are hungry and need to be fed. So I throw in some shrimp food for them.
Here is info fronm the Shrimp Farm on the parameters for them:
| General Water Parameters | The Shrimp Farm’s Water Parameters: |
| Range: 6.5-8.0 | PH Range: 7.0-7.4 |
| Temperature Range: 70-80 °F | Temperature Range: 69-73 °F |
| GH Range: 5-15 | GH Range: 7-8 |
| KH Range: 1-10 | KH Range: |
| TDS Range: 80-450 | TDS Range: 175-200 |
My water basically a neutral pH (about 7.0)
My tank temps where I have amanos are usually in the 78 - 82F range
My water is soft- GH 5 or less and KH is 3 or less. TDS are about 83 but can range from 53 to 115 depending on rainfall levels over the past weeks/months.
I also have cherry red and blue dream Neocaridina davidi. Both of these multiply for me and for the past 1.5 years have been brinning 20-30 blue dreams to my monthly fish club meeting for the auction. I recently sold 50 blue dream and 25 red cherry to one buyer. I stll have a ton left.
(eidited to fix all the typos in the first line, UGH!)
www.horizonaquatics.co.uk
. I've bought from them a number of times with no complaints. One of the best stores in the NE that I have dealt with so far.
That's where I bought my yellow neos.
