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I was wondering if there was a common freshwater shrimp or something like it thats a good tank cleaner? And doesn't have to be in a big group or put off much waste. I've got a 20gal hex with a penguin 150. with
1- female blue ram (soon to have a boyfriend lol)
1- male blue ram: coming soon!!!!
4- neon tetra
4- glo tetra
1 med. killi

Ghost Shrimp are cheap and scavengers so they will eat left over food. Might as well get a big group though just a few are fine. There is also ammano shrimp which are algae eating shrimp. If they can't find algae, they will scavenge, but you should avoid that situation. There is also cherry shrimp which are very similar to eating habits as ammano shrimp. There is also asian fan shrimp and african fan shrimp. They have feather type hands and wave them through the water collecting microscopic particles and brings it to its mouth to eat them. They also eat food on the gravel if they find them. There are other shrimp than these, but these are the only ones I have had experience with.

I am curious and I think I already know the answer to this question but I will ask anyway. I had been considering some sort of algae eater for my 20g Tiger Barb speices tank. Would those Ghost Shrimp be alright with the Tigers, or would the TB's eat and ravage them?

I would suggest a BN Pleco for the TB tank mate

Thanks for your input as always, Shane
http://thetanklog.blogspot.com/ - [ Thanks to ScottF ]
http://www.natureaquariumclubofutah.com/main.html

Kind of tough to say. A friend of mine used to own a single Tiger Barb with tetras in a 10 gallon tank. He got rid of the tiger because of how aggressive it was. That was before I got my own fish tank and didn't know much about fish. And looking in the LFS and in petco and petsmart, they are listed as semi aggressive. Ghost Shrimp generally spend most of their time at the bottom of the tank, but they still swim up in the water and even to the surface of the water once in a while. Ghost Shrimp I think might alage but are more scavengers then they are algae eaters. If you really want an algae eating shrimp go for all cherry shrimp or all ammano shrimp or both. Typical price range for ammano shrimp is $2-3. Cherry Shrimp seem to be more expensive in my area so around $6+. Ammano shrimp are bigger, about 2" while Cherry Shrimp are 1.2" Ammano shrimp are white and clear, but are more white and less clear compared to Ghost shrimp. Not all cherry shrimp are red, there are some that are more brownish in color. The red ones are the most attractive though IMO. Also those fan shrimp I mentioned are the most expensive, especially the african one but they are cool to look at even though they don't really help towards cleaning the tank. Those guys can most likely be kept with Tiger Barbs since they have a lot harder shells than those other shrimp I mentioned and are bigger too so they are less likely to be seen as food. Because that african shrimp for example can get up to 7.1" I highly doubt a tiger barb can do any damage to a fan shrimp, especially the african one since that one seems to be more armored (stronger shell). They would be just fine in a 20 gal hex since they are shrimp and not fish and don't really swim around and just walk around on the bottom. Also if you want to get those smaller shrimp, just have some kind of cover for them. Those cherry shrimp, despite being small are quite brave. They really only get skittish and swim away from a fish if a fish touches it. Good thing I don't have any predatory fish or else those shrimp would have gotten eaten a while ago. Also if you do get shrimp, it's generally not a good idea to have loaches with them. Those fan shrimp can be fine though with smaller loaches. Fan shrimp can possibly be ok with larger loaches such as yo yos and clown loaches but its risky and I wouldn't do that. What exactly is a killi? If you really didn't want to risk having cherry shrimp, ammano shrimp or ghost shrimp eaten, you'd be better off getting a pleco. Or you could get a pleco and shrimp.

Ghost shrimp don't eat much algae. They eat leftover food and pick through some fish waste. Amanos are a similar size and would eat algea but the tigers may decide to have them for a snack and amanos aren't as cheap as ghost shrimp since they can't be bred in freshwater. All the other common algae eating shrimp are smaller and would be a definite target for tiger barbs. Bite size shrimp snacks.

You could risk buying those little shrimp and see what happen. I'd suggest getting a few ghost shrimp like maybe 3 at the most first to test out since they are cheaper. If they don't get eaten, you could try those algae eating shrimp. If you just want shrimp, you could probably get those fan shrimp with the barbs. I also recently went to another LFS, they had some shrimp I never seen before. These guys were about the size of fan shrimp but shorter in length and had claws, they weren't crayfish though. With those claws, they could probably kill a tiny fish with them. I dunno, if you saw something like that, you could try putting them with the barbs. Might be risky though. Those shrimp were scavengers though the people at the LFS store said. He kept them in the same tank as blue tetras and peppered cories.

I might just give it a try GH, heck maybe I will discover a new food group for the TB. By the way, if you want the Tiger Barbs to be less agressive, keep them in a scool of at least 6 if not more. Then they won't be as likely to harass your other tankmates. They will be too busy chasing each other!

Only problem being cherry shrimp will cost you a fortune as live food unless you raise them yourself in a seperate tank and they are generally the cheapest of the small shrimp. $5-$6 a piece around here and even if the ghost shrimp survive fine I still bet the barbs will eat any smaller shrimp you add. Amanos aren't much cheaper. If you just want shrimp though and aren't concerned with algae eating shrimp then stick with the ghost shrimp. They are bred in large quantities and sold as feeders so if you look around you can often find them for $.25 each. Get enough of them and they will breed in your tank providing natural live food.

I kept amano's and tigerbarbs before, but there was plenty of cover, and the amano's were full size. The TB's didnt eat them. The ghost shrimp disappeared. Draw your own conclusions.