Three Shrimp, Three Different Jobs in the Tank
Cherry shrimp, Amano shrimp, and ghost shrimp all get bought as the same kind of tank cleanup crew, but they come from different shrimp families, eat different things, and only one breeds easily in a home tank.
Three Shrimp, Three Different Jobs in the Tank
Cherry shrimp, Amano shrimp, and ghost shrimp all end up in the same "cleanup crew" conversation online, thrown into a tank to eat whatever the fish leave behind. That's a real reputation, but it flattens three genuinely different animals into one shopping decision. They come from two unrelated shrimp families, eat different things, and only one of them will fill a tank with babies without any extra effort.
Cherry Shrimp: The One That Breeds Itself Into a Colony
Cherry shrimp are the shrimp most likely to turn a small starting group into far more shrimp than anyone planned on, they breed readily in plain freshwater with no special setup required. Wild cherry shrimp from Taiwan and eastern China are a plain, camouflaged greenish-brown, nothing like the vivid reds, blues, and yellows sold today, all of which were selectively bred from that one dull wild form. Day to day, they graze biofilm and algae off any surface they can reach and leave live plants alone, genuine cleanup work from a shrimp that tops out around 1.5 inches.
Cost · Handling · Health Issues · Tank Setup
Amano Shrimp: The Biggest Algae Eater You Can't Breed at Home
At up to 2 inches, the Amano shrimp is the largest of the three, and arguably the single best algae eater in the whole aquarium hobby, taking on hair algae, thread algae, and even the tough beard algae most fish and other shrimp leave alone. It's named for Takashi Amano, the Japanese aquascaper who began using it to keep his planted tanks free of algae back in the early 1980s, and it comes from fast-flowing streams in southwestern Japan and Taiwan. The catch is breeding, unlike cherry shrimp, Amano shrimp larvae need brackish to full-strength salt water to develop, so almost every Amano shrimp sold in stores was caught wild, not bred in someone's home tank.
Cost · Handling · Health Issues · Tank Setup
Ghost Shrimp: Cheap, Hardy, and Not Picky About Food
Ghost shrimp, also sold as glass shrimp, are small and nearly see-through, and it's common for several similar-looking species to end up mixed in the same bag at the store. They're not close relatives of the other two, either: cherry and Amano shrimp both belong to the family Atyidae, while ghost shrimp belong to the unrelated Palaemonidae, a separate lineage that made its own move from salt water into fresh water. What they lack in name recognition they make up for in toughness, tolerating rougher water quality than the other two and eating the widest range of food of the three, algae, detritus, small aquatic invertebrates, and plant matter, part of why they're sold as feeder stock for larger fish as often as they're kept as pets in their own right.
Cost · Handling · Health Issues · Tank Setup
All three of these shrimp get lumped together as "cleanup crew," but they come from two different shrimp families and don't even agree on how to reproduce. Cherry shrimp breed readily in plain freshwater and will turn a handful of shrimp into a colony on their own. Amano shrimp need their larvae to develop in brackish or full-strength salt water, which is why almost every one sold is wild-caught rather than bred. Ghost shrimp split the difference on most things, not the biggest, not the prettiest, but hardy, cheap, and willing to eat almost anything the other two leave behind.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Which of these three shrimp breeds most easily in a home aquarium?
Cherry shrimp, by far. They breed readily in plain freshwater, and a small starting group can turn into a self-sustaining colony without any special effort. Amano shrimp are the opposite case: their larvae need brackish to full-strength salt water to develop, so almost every Amano shrimp sold in stores is wild-caught rather than bred in a home tank.
Do cherry, Amano, and ghost shrimp eat the same things?
Not exactly. Cherry shrimp graze biofilm and algae and leave live plants alone. Amano shrimp are widely considered the best algae eaters in the aquarium hobby, capable of taking on tough hair, thread, and beard algae that most fish and other shrimp ignore. Ghost shrimp are the least picky of the three, an omnivorous scavenger that also eats small aquatic invertebrates and plant matter, not just algae.
Written by Mike
Mike is the founder of Beastly Facts and a lifelong reptile enthusiast. He shares his home with Dex, a bearded dragon with strong opinions about crickets and basking schedules. Mike writes in-depth care guides, animal facts, and the occasional short story about life with exotic pets.
More about Mike →Comments
No comments yet - be the first!
