Best freshwater shrimp for my tank?

Question

I have a 15 gallon tank with a breeding trio of bluegrass guppies.

I want something to help with algae and extra food control, but I don't want anything that will hurt my fish's fry once they are born.

I also want something colorful, that will contrast with the neon blues of the guppies.

This is a fully planted, liquid co2 injected tank with an HoB filter and a heater set at 76-78 degrees. The PH is 8.0, nitrate between 20-30, and nitrites and ammonia at 0 constantly.

What kind of freshwater shrimp are good scavengers, colorful, and small? Also, how many should I get?  Thanks!

AlexPalmer · Answer

If you were really going for optimal color matching, orange is complementary to blue, but there aren't that many orange shrimp that are easy to find. Orange Sakura would be the best option, but Tangerine Tigers are also out there. In terms of reds or yellows, Cherry Red Shrimp (CRS), Red Crystal Shrimp (RCS), Red Rili, and Yellow would be your best options. All of these are good cleaners, small, and colorful. Tigers get larger than most of the other ones. Your options will be much higher if you're willing to order online. I would recommend looking at:

http://www.planetinverts.com/shrimp_species.html
http://www.theshrimpfarm.com/freshwateraquariumshrimp.php
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwinverts

Quantity could be anywhere from 5-10; they're small and don't have much biomass, but they can breed pretty easily too, and since your tank is planted, survival rates are higher as long as you don't have a filter that will suck them up (you probably don't if you have fry).

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Best freshwater shrimp for my tank?

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