Ghost shrimp-benefits?

[ryans63]

I am curious if there are any benefits to keeping ghost shrimp in a 55 gallon community tank, other fish are non-aggressive nature, and i have plants and other places that the small shrimp could find safety in very easily. They wouldn't be food for anything and was wondering if they did any benefits to a tank and would be something to possibly look into having some for that purpose, other then just saying hey look at the ghost shrimp also. I have not found much on them besides the basic things.

 

[nitrous]

they are bottom feaders and clean the bottom of the tank

 

[RoK]

I think I remember reading that they eat algae off of plants without harming the plants, something like that.

 

[Simpte]

They aren't very effective algae eaters though they will eat the stuff. IME they are more for viewing pleasure than any effective algae cleanup.

 

[Meredith]

They do a bit of clean up, but unless you have a TON of them, I don't think they would be as beneficial as you are wanting. But they are cute and fun to watch.

 

[unknown_7]

As I have posted in another post, I am all about fish with great personality and there have only been 3 or 4 fish IMHO that I believe to have a bit or some sort of personality and the ghost shrimp I got are definetly fun. Yours may be different, but so far, I love them all, especially since I have like 5 or 6 in a planted tank.

 

[Simpte]

Cherry shrimp make a much better cleanup crew. While they are a bit more expensive (up to $4.00 apiece), they will eat more algae, are more colorful, and will breed like crazy in your tank.