I have 3 observations:
1. A tank that houses both Amano shrimp and any of the dwarf shrimp keeps very little mulm. The dwarf shrimp process the waste of the Amanos. Snails could do that too but it seems that the dwarf shrimp are faster.
For that reason I believe that a planted tank that strives to be as complete of an ecosystem as possible should have fish, Amano shrimp, dwarf shrimp, and snails. We can expand that to different species but the basic idea is clear.
2. Amano shrimp produce very little if any waste. As we speak I have 1600 Amanos in a 55 gallon tank. Since shrimp are sensitive to Ammonia I have to conclude that they do not pollute the water at all. They do stir the mulm when food is dropped in the tank and the water becomes murky. But the Amanos do not poison themselves with their own waste.
I do believe that it's possible to keep a planted tank healthy without any (or minor) fertilization if the animals in it are carefully chosen. Because the Amano shrimp (and I guess the dwarf shrimp too) pollute the water very little you should pay more attention to the choice/number of fish rather than the shrimp. Some fish - Cardinals, Dwarf Rainbows, Boraras - pollute very, very little. In bare bottom tanks housing these fish I notice very little waste compared to other fish species.
3. Amanos are powerful algae eating animals but their number must match the amount of algae in the tank. The good news is that they can withstand hunger very well so the danger of loosing them because of starvation is very small.
Here's an interesting example; 200 Amanos in a 25 gallon tank completely erradicated the 2" tall Cladophora colony covering the entire bottom of the tank. It took about 5 days. There was not a single piece of the algae left!
So to fight visible algae you need a good count of Amano shrimp. But what they really should be used for is to eat the algae that has not become visible yet. The tank conditions should help algae grow slow enough so the shrimp takes care of them before they become visible.
--Nikolay
1. A tank that houses both Amano shrimp and any of the dwarf shrimp keeps very little mulm. The dwarf shrimp process the waste of the Amanos. Snails could do that too but it seems that the dwarf shrimp are faster.
For that reason I believe that a planted tank that strives to be as complete of an ecosystem as possible should have fish, Amano shrimp, dwarf shrimp, and snails. We can expand that to different species but the basic idea is clear.
2. Amano shrimp produce very little if any waste. As we speak I have 1600 Amanos in a 55 gallon tank. Since shrimp are sensitive to Ammonia I have to conclude that they do not pollute the water at all. They do stir the mulm when food is dropped in the tank and the water becomes murky. But the Amanos do not poison themselves with their own waste.
I do believe that it's possible to keep a planted tank healthy without any (or minor) fertilization if the animals in it are carefully chosen. Because the Amano shrimp (and I guess the dwarf shrimp too) pollute the water very little you should pay more attention to the choice/number of fish rather than the shrimp. Some fish - Cardinals, Dwarf Rainbows, Boraras - pollute very, very little. In bare bottom tanks housing these fish I notice very little waste compared to other fish species.
3. Amanos are powerful algae eating animals but their number must match the amount of algae in the tank. The good news is that they can withstand hunger very well so the danger of loosing them because of starvation is very small.
Here's an interesting example; 200 Amanos in a 25 gallon tank completely erradicated the 2" tall Cladophora colony covering the entire bottom of the tank. It took about 5 days. There was not a single piece of the algae left!
So to fight visible algae you need a good count of Amano shrimp. But what they really should be used for is to eat the algae that has not become visible yet. The tank conditions should help algae grow slow enough so the shrimp takes care of them before they become visible.
--Nikolay
