Tropical Cleaners Like Shrimp Vs Marine Cleaners

[chrismr]

When looking into marine tanks and whether or not I was going to set one up (answer is not now) they do not include all the cleaners in their stocking level... this is creatures like crabs, shrimp, and all the other little critters that you get in a marine tank.

Now, when it comes to stocking freshwater, where cleaners are concerned (shrimp in this instance), people include them in their stock count.

Now the reason why they are not really counted in marine is because they clean and produce little waste. Would this not be the same in freshwater?

So, if I was fully stocked fish-wise in a freshwater tank, would adding 10 shrimp really make any difference?

I am not looking to do this, just questioning the standard practices again.

 

[soritan]

When I asked this question, I was simply told that if I added buckets of shrimp to my tank, then yes it would make a huge difference, but a few would do almost nothing to my balance. In fact, in a post of mine a while back, I was told that even otocincluses added very little to a bioload, and to not bother counting their inches.

(Off topic, sort of: I admit, I took the advice. But I only have two otos, which is basically 3" of fish, which means i'm 3" overstocked in a highly planted, highly filtered tank... I'm not worried at the moment).

 

[dgwebster]

This is an interesting topic to me, as im looking at picking up 2 or 3 shrimp for my tank to work as cleaners, but also looking at something like Zebra or Khuli loaches or the otos.

with the fish, i was working myself out to being 1.5" over the stock limit, not something I was worried about. However, I also wished to add another 2 zebra danios to their group, which would have made me a bit further over, something I was considering quite a bit but again its not too much over, the tank is over filtered and im stringent on the weekly water changes. This is pretty much sealing the deal for me, if there is any others willing for FOR/AGAINST this idea of "tank cleaners dont count as much"

EDIT: most tank cleaners that is - a plec cleans away algae but very very messy lol