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Re: Ghost shrimps vs Amano's



Well I noticed that only the male Amano's went after the ghost shrimp. They
have been removed and the females(which are easily 2-3 times larger than
their male counterparts) have not shown any interest in the other species.

Amano did mention why the heck we were not using our own local shrimps here
in the USA instead of spending $ for the shrimps.

For the test, using 6 tanks, each divided in 3 sections by a fine screen and
equal number of critters in bins 1 and 2 and bin 3 will be the control. By
taking algae covered tiles of a known area we can remove these tiles after a
set amount of time has elapsed and remove the chlorophyll from the remaining
algae(this is done with ETOH). Those with the lowest Chl A readings will has
a better herbivory rating per unit area/critter for _ that _ particular type
of algae. This is a fairly straightforward test.

It is important to note this is only for this one type of algae. Ghost
shrimps might be better at longer hair algae and Amano's better at shorter
attached algae due to the cheliped(?) differences. Amano shrimps have a
blunter flatter surface like a rasp were as the Ghost shrimp's are more like
scissors.
Algae age is also a factor(young and tasty algae that short and yummy or
long stranded old tough algae that's chewy).
Hair(Cladophora), thread, staghorn(Entromorpha), fur(Oedogonium) algae are
the main issues for most folks. A few, like diatoms, can be controlled with
Otto cats easily, BBA with SAE's, Green water with Daphnia, green slimes
with Ancistrus cats etc.

May as well do a snail test while I'm at it. Pond, ramshorn and MTS's.
10 snails all the same ~ mass etc. I'd just like to have some comparison
rating for each critter.

Regards, 
Tom Barr