The nano invertebrate clean-up crew
Shrimp & snails
Dwarf shrimp and snails are peaceful, fascinating and genuinely useful grazers — a whole hobby in a small tank. They are sensitive to parameter swings and to copper (in some medications and fertilisers), so stability is everything.
10 species on Finfern · 10 with a full care guide.
💧 Get the water right: Stable parameters and a copper-free tank matter more than anything; add them to a mature, seasoned tank. Care model: Shrimp / invert tank
- Cherry Shrimp Neocaridina davidi The beginner's dwarf shrimp — colourful, a cleanup-crew helper, and prolific in stable water.
- Amano Shrimp Caridina multidentata The algae-eating workhorse shrimp — bigger and hardier than cherries, and the best natural algae crew.
- Nerite Snail Neritina spp. The best algae-eating snail that won't overpopulate your tank — its eggs need brackish water to hatch.
- Mystery Snail Pomacea bridgesii The big, friendly, colourful snail that grazes leftovers — peaceful and won't devour your healthy plants.
- Assassin Snail Clea helena The hobby’s natural pest-snail control — a bumblebee-striped carnivore that hunts other snails but leaves fish, plants and adult shrimp alone.
- Ramshorn Snail Planorbella / Planorbarius spp. A harmless algae-and-leftovers cleaner that only "infests" when you overfeed — control the food, control the colony.
- Bamboo Shrimp Atyopsis moluccensis A big, peaceful fan-feeding shrimp that needs flow + suspended food (never a clean, calm tank) and dies to any copper.
- Crystal Red Shrimp Caridina cf. cantonensis 'Crystal Red' Not a hardy cherry shrimp: CRS need soft, acidic, copper-free, rock-stable water — get the water right, then the shrimp.
- Ghost Shrimp Palaemonetes paludosus A see-through, cheap-and-cheerful scavenger shrimp — a hardy clean-up crew, though bigger and more opportunistic than a cherry.
- Rabbit Snail Tylomelania gemmifera A big, droopy-faced grazing snail with real charm — slow-moving, slow-breeding, and a tidy algae/detritus worker.
Plan a shrimp & snails tank
Our free tools use these species' real, sourced care data — no guessing:
Stocking calculator → Compatibility checker → Which fish suit your water? →