Shrimp, Are They Useful?

[TetraFin]

Hi!

I've noticed many people on here mentioning about keeping shrimp. Is this purely for aesthetic reasons, or do they perform a function within the tank, like eating much, lowering nitrate, ect?

 

[snazy]

Hi!

I've noticed many people on here mentioning about keeping shrimp. Is this purely for aesthetic reasons, or do they perform a function within the tank, like eating much, lowering nitrate, ect?

They can't lower nitrAte, that's for sure. They add to the bioload like any other fish or invert but no so much.
Generally, they eat algae, dead plant matter, small microorganizms, scavengers in general(detrivore/omnivores) but won't eat poop for example, so they work well as a clean up crew, but of course they poop too

 

[ScholasticSpastic]

Hi!

I've noticed many people on here mentioning about keeping shrimp. Is this purely for aesthetic reasons, or do they perform a function within the tank, like eating much, lowering nitrate, ect?

I would point out that aesthetics are also a function.

Beyond that, it depends on the species of shrimp. Amano shrimp (Caridina japonica) are very good algae eaters. Most of the other Caridina or Neocaridina are primarily scavengers or detritivores as snazy said. Adding shrimp to a system will limit you in terms of which sorts of fish you can put with them (almost everyone likes to eat shrimp) and will often add extra considerations to water parameters.

They're fun animals in their own right, however, and they've gotten to the point, genetically, where they're pretty easy for the average person to try selectively breeding.

 

[Crossfire]

I find shrimp are a good addition to any aquarium.
My amanos eat pesky algae (I've seen them eat green, hair, and staghorn!) and will gladly eat any uneaten fish food be it pellets or frozen food. Cherrys are also helpful in eating uneaten food, and they will clean any green algae they find.

 

[Baccus]

Shrimp are useful in a tank, but as stated they do add to the biological waste in a tank, and some shrimp types have very exacting requirements, while also being considered food by almost all other fish.

The largest down side of shrimp (apart from cherry shrimp breeding like plague locusts) is that if you end up with a snail issue in a shrimp tank, you can not use snail kill poison to get rid of the snails. Snail kill poisons are generally based on copper and its just as lethal to shrimp. Also if you have various tanks and like shifting plants or even ornaments between tanks then you can almost be certain to take over a hitch hiker shrimp or two, cherry shrimp are the most guilty ones of this trick.

Also if you have shrimp in a mixed community tank and if for some reason you need to treat the entire tank for some disease or illness, you are very limited in what medications will not also kill the shrimp.
But even with all of that said I would not get rid of my collection of shrimp, they are to pretty and fascinating to watch