# Amano Shrimp And Diatom Algae



## Homer_Simpson (Apr 2, 2007)

Until I witnessed this, I never thought that anything could clean stubborn diatom algae better than an otocat. My 3 gallon gallon low tech nano, had a stubborn case of diatom algae. The snails that had hitched with the plants were not consuming the diatom algae or were not consuming it fast enough to make a difference. On Friday, I threw in one Amano Shrimp, and when I returned to work on Monday, it looked like someone had thoroughly scrubbed the tank free of any diatom algae. The anubias leaves that were the most effected had were as clean as a whistle, all the diatom algae from the inside walls of the tank was all gone. The water is crystal clear with no sign of diatom algae anywhere. 

Cause and effect relationships may be difficult to prove, but nothing else in the tank or its maintenance were changed. With all things being equal, only the Amano Shrimp was added, so I don't believe that this was only a coincidence.

For anyone who does not want to get otocats for whatever reason to clean diatom algae, you may want to consider getting some Amano Shrimp. Amano shrimp may prove just as effective and perhaps even cheaper. One Amano Shrimp is 1/2 the price of one Otocat, where I live.


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## DBTS (May 10, 2007)

I'm having hard time imagining a shrimp taking care of diatoms.  
Then again the goal was to get rid of the algae so i'd say that's good.


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## SimplyOrange (Oct 5, 2007)

who would want an oto? but amano's would be less distractive in a shrimp tank.
i will have to try that out next time. i have two tanks with amanos and i've never seen diatoms.

over here oto's and amano's are same price give or take some change.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

My experience with Amano Shrimp was when I put a half dozen in a 120 gallon tank. For a few weeks I had no way to say the shrimp were still there, except that all of the odd algae on the bottom disappeared. Until that happened (3-4 days) I figured the fish had snacked on the shrimp. After several months I began to see one or two of the shrimp on rare occasions, usually at night. Two years later I tore down the tank, and found a couple of the Amanos were still there.


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