Re: Shrimp for algae control...

Peter Hughes (peterh at pican.pi.csiro.au)
Thu, 26 Sep 1996 16:09:57 +1000 (EST)

On Thu, 26 Sep 1996, Andrew Boyd wrote:

> Hey gang! Something I'm curious about, but not quite 100% on-topic, so I
> ask you to bear with me...

Anything for the almighty moderaptor

>
> I saw a posting to the Aquatic Plants Digest about the use of some exotic
> freshwater shrimp for algae control... I was wondering how our Aussie shrimp
> compared in algeaphageability, and whether they seem to bother fish at all
> (and indeed, whether fishes in the Mel. praecox/pygmaea class leave them
> alone). I refer to the smaller shrimp, species unknown, that seem to be
> very similiar if not the same as those that stretch right up the eastern
> coast of Australia, only growing to 3cm or so.

I think that most of the yabbies that are around are really scanvengers,
they generally eat anything that they can get a hold of including fish.
However in a recent discussion I seem to remeber hearing that Dave Wilson
had found some shrimp that were doing a great job of cleaning his tanks
up. Don't qoute me on that, I just seem to remember hearing it that is
all. The common little white shrimp is a scavenger because fishermen
catch the things for bait in meat laden traps.\

Cheers

Peter Hughes