Will Shrimps Be Good Algae Eaters For My Community Tank?

[Snow]

I have a 50 gallon tank filled with just guppies, platies, mollies, and swordtails.

If I drop like 5 shrimps in tank, will they be consumed? Or will they be great of a help, also do they eat any plants or harm any at all?
Another question is that can a male or female betta be in a community tank without damaging other fish?
Is there any food that shrimps eat or do they just depend on algae?

Thanks.

 

[Super Dude]

get some otocinclus catfish. they are pure herbivores, and really put a hurt on algae. i just got 2 little guys (less than 1") and they've polished off some rocks about 80% of all it's algae, IN 5 HOURS! in less than a week, my tank should be oober clean.

as for the bettas, not a good idea. my male betta always used to chase all his tankmates. fortunately, they were all super fast, and never were actually harmed. after a few weeks, my betta got tired of chasing to no avail, and gave up. the tankmates you have may not be able to evade attack like my diamond tetras did.


Here's what a white rock in my aquarium looked like from above before ottos. They already did some damage to it before the picture:

Here's what it looked like 18 hours later: