Caridina Japonica

Nowdays is explosion of green algae in my young spawn tank. I have in tank pair of Poecilia sphenops but this fish don´t eat green algae. I decide to buy Caridina japonica - Amano shrimp. This shrimp is favourite occupant of fresh water aquariums for his flavour for algae. Here is some facts about Caridina japonica:

• Common names: Amano shrimp, algae-eating shrimp, Yamato shrimp, Japonica, alga shrimp, Japanese swamp/marsh shrimp, Yamamoto shrimp, Yamato Numaebi
• Adult size: 5 cm

Optimal conditions:

• Temperature tolerance: 18 - 27°C, ideal 24°C
• pH: 6 - 7
• Water hardness: 6 - 10 dGh
• Feeding: algae, fish food (flakes, spirulina-based fish food)

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Subphylum: Crustacea Class: Malacostraca Order: Decapoda Suborder: Pleocyemata Infraorder: Caridea Superfamily: Atyoidea Family: Atyidae Genus: Caridina Species: C. japonica
Binomial name
Caridina japonica De Man, 1892

Caridina japonica is a species of shrimp found in the Yamato river area of Japan as well as parts of Korea and Taiwan.

According to different sources, Caridina japonica was introduced into the world of aquaria by Takashi Amano in the early eighties. Takashi Amano is a well known photographer and aquarist. He would have been the first who noticed these shrimps' useful characteristic of eating algae and started using them in his show aquaria.

The most important characteristic of Caridina japonica is the translucent body covered with reddish brown points of ± 0.3 mm on their sides which may look like a broken line of reddish colour. The dorsal surface has a white stripe that runs from the head to the tail and the eyes are black.

Females are easily distinguised from males from the more elongated lower row of dots lining the body.

They are usually used in an aquarium because they feed primarily on algae, thus cleaning the aquarium if in large numbers.

Original source: Caridina_japonica

I will update this article with photos of my Caridina japonica soon.