Amano Shrimp
Caridina multidentata
The hobby's hardest-working algae crewBeginner
- Lifespan
- 2-3 years, sometimes longer
- Size
- 4-5cm
- Social needs
- Social; keep 5+ together
- Time
- Minimal beyond normal tank care
- Cost
- Low
- Diet
- Algae, biofilm, sinking wafers, blanched veg
Overview
What is this animal?
- Amano shrimp are translucent, dash-marked shrimp popularised by aquascaper Takashi Amano for one reason: no other widely available animal eats soft and hair algae so relentlessly.
- They are the standard clean-up crew of planted tanks.
- Larger and more robust than cherry shrimp, they live happily alongside most community fish and work every surface of the tank around the clock.
Temperament
- Completely peaceful and comically bold, Amanos shove past fish many times their size to claim food.
- Expect them at the front of every feeding.
- They are safe with plants, snails, other shrimp, and any fish too small to eat them; large cichlids and goldfish view them as expensive snacks.
- Group living keeps them visible and confident.
A good fit for
- Planted and aquascaped tanks battling algae
- Beginners wanting easy, useful invertebrates
- Community tanks with small, peaceful fish
- Keepers who do not want shrimp overpopulation
Common mistakes to avoid
- Copper in fish medications — lethal to shrimp
- Fast or careless acclimation on day one
- Housing with fish large enough to eat them
- Expecting them to fix algae caused by excess light
Enclosure
Minimum 38 litres (10 US gallons) — for a group of 5
Cannot be kept alone. The minimum is 5, and the space above is for that group.
- A cycled tank of 38 litres (10 gallons) upward suits a working group of five or more; they are sociable foragers that fan out across wood, plants, and glass.
- Provide moss or cover for moulting shrimp to hide in.
- They tolerate 18-27C and a wide range of hardness, but like all invertebrates they need stable, mature water and absolutely no copper-based medications.
- Tight lids help — they climb when water quality dips.
Supplies
Setup
- Tank and stand
- Filter
- Heater and thermometer
- Substrate, plants and decor
- Liquid test kit
- Dechlorinator and starter supplies
Ongoing
- Specialised shrimp pellets or sticks
- Powdered spirulina or fine particle food (for filter-feeders)
- Golden pearls or a comparable fine powdered food
- Courgette and spinach for blanching
- Mineral or GH supplement for shell health
- Pipette or turkey baster for target-feeding into the current
- Small feeding dish to keep food off the substrate
- Fine net or tweezers for removing leftovers
Safe substrate: Inert aquarium gravel · Fine, smooth sand · Aquasoil for planted tanks
Care routine
Daily
- Check temperature and equipment
- Head-count and look everyone over
Weekly
- Feed sparinglyevery 3 days
- Top up evaporationevery 3 days
- Clean glass and clear algae
- Small, matched water change
- Test hardness as well as nitrogen
Monthly
- Trim and thin the plantsevery 2 weeks
- Check labels for copper
- Check supplies and reagent dates
- Rinse the filter media
Less often
- Replace chemical filter media (Carbon/Purigen)every 2 months
Vet: Quarterly colony and mineral review — every 3 months
Top resources for more info
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Diet
- In an established tank, algae and biofilm do most of the feeding; the classic posture is an Amano marching along a leaf, shovelling green fuzz into its mouth with both claws.
- Supplement with sinking wafers, blanched courgette, or spinach in cleaner tanks.
- Do not over-supplement: a slightly hungry Amano is a working Amano.
- They will also steal pellets from fish with shameless confidence.
Health
- Amanos are tough once acclimated, but acclimate them slowly — drip acclimation over an hour prevents osmotic shock losses.
- Moulting problems usually trace to unstable parameters or mineral-poor water.
- They cannot breed in freshwater: larvae need brackish water to develop, so the population never explodes, and every adult in the shop was likely wild-caught or specialist-raised.
- Check medications for copper before dosing a tank containing them.
Is your enclosure big enough?
Is this urgent?
In a fish tank the patient is usually the water. Test before you treat — dosing a healthy tank for a disease it does not have makes things worse.
Go now
Today
Soon
Never add a new fish to a tank that is not fully cycled, and never treat blind. A test kit is cheaper than the fish.
This is general guidance for a healthy adult, not a diagnosis. An exotics vet who knows your animal always overrides it — and the time to find one is before you need one.
What it really costs
Setup, monthly, first year and across a whole life, itemised and with the electricity worked out from the actual wattage. Published figures for the same animal disagree by a factor of four, so the calculator shows ranges rather than picking one.
Bedding and substrate
Substrate in an aquarium is a filter as much as a floor. Most of the biology lives in and on it.
Safe
With a caveat
Never
This is our general list for freshwater fish. We have not built one specific to Shrimp yet.
My kit says 0.25 ppm. Is that dangerous?
A liquid kit measures total ammonia, but only the un-ionised fraction is really toxic, and that fraction is governed by pH and temperature — each whole pH unit multiplies it roughly tenfold. So the same reading can be nearly harmless in one tank and lethal in another; this works out which one you are in.
Compare with other animals
The same axes for every animal, side by side — the way the guides are written makes that a fair comparison rather than two articles.
Shrimp, side by side
Same axes, same care guides — the honest way to choose between types.
See all Shrimp side by side →
