Description
Remarks: Amano shrimp (Caridina multidentata) are named after the late Takashi Amano, a famous photographer and aquascaper that introduced this species to the fishkeeping hobby. These shrimp quickly grew in popularity not because of their looks, as they typically are clear with a few black specs, but because of their voracious appetite for algae. Amano shrimp can quickly clean up many types of algae including stubborn black beard algae. An interesting thing to note is the type of things the shrimp feed on can actually alter their color, some getting a bit of a blue, green, or brown hue. While adults can live their whole life in freshwater, this species goes through a larval stage that requires brackish water conditions so they can’t reproduce in the freshwater aquarium. This typically is not an issue as amano shrimp have a long life-span for a shrimp, usually 3-5 years, with some reporting having specimens for as long as 10 years.
These shrimp reach quite a large size compared to other freshwater shrimp in the hobby making them more suited for being kept with small to medium-sized fish upon maturity compared to smaller species like cherry shrimp. They also differ from most other shrimps in that instead of only flopping and hopping around when out of water, amano shrimp are actually very good at crawling around on land, making them notorious escape artists. For this reason, we recommend they be kept with a tight-fitting lid.
