Algae eating capacity: Moderate

Bumble bee shrimp only grow to an inch long and eat algae. Bumble bee shrimp belong to the family Atydae. A hybrid version of the bumble bee shrimp is the Crystal Red shrimp. They have light black stripes down their backs like bumble bees. They prefer temperatures in the low 70's F and slightly acidic water. Bumble bee shrimp will eat fish food, soft moss, vegetable matter, and soft algas. One keeper reports that they prefer fish food and do not eat much algae. They are active and peaceable. Bumble bee shrimp are supposed to be easy to breed on a diet of fish food. Unfortunately, they only live to about 15 months of age. Neocaridina species are similar to bumble bee shrimp in many ways. My local fish store had some bumble bee shrimp for sale for about $2 but they were very small, about the size of adult brine shrimp. At that size, even small fish might eat them, or they could get sucked into the filter intake. For more information on bumble bee shrimp including the Crystal Red
Information used with permission from Robyn