Amano Shrimp Prices: The Hobby's Workhorse, Costed
The most-listed shrimp on the index. What an Amano costs per animal, why sizes move the price, and how pack buying changes the math.
Published July 29, 2026 · figures recomputed from data through September 2, 2026 · by Shrimp Price Index
The Amano shrimp (Caridina multidentata) is the hobby's utility animal: a big, tireless algae eater that goes in community tanks, planted tanks, and shrimp tanks alike. It's also the single most-listed shrimp on this index — and one whose price varies more by size and pack than almost anything else we track.
A typical Amano runs $6.75 per shrimp right now across 6 vendors and 40 tracked listings — current per-vendor prices are on the Amano tracker page. Unlike the color morphs on this index, an Amano's price range isn't about grades or lineage. It's about three practical things:
What moves an Amano's price
- Size. Vendors sell regular and large/jumbo Amanos, and the large animals carry a real premium — they're older, wild-harvested stock, and prized for outmuscling bigger tankmates. The high end of the range above is a size premium, not a fancier shrimp.
- Pack size. Today a single Amano runs $7.50 per shrimp against $5.95 in a 10+ pack — a 26% single premium. Since the standard advice is one Amano per few gallons and they do their best work in groups, most buyers should be pricing the pack (the pack math).
- Wild supply. Nearly all Amanos are wild-harvested (they breed in brackish water, so captive breeding is rare), which makes availability seasonal — another reason the in-stock timing matters more than price timing (prices here hold still).
Amano vs. cherry shrimp for algae duty
Keepers often cross-shop the two. The honest comparison: an Amano costs $6.75 against a cherry shrimp's $3.55 median (the red family, priced) — but one Amano eats like a small crew of cherries and handles hair algae the little ones won't touch. For pure janitorial work per dollar, a small Amano pack is hard to beat; for a self-sustaining colony with color, cherries win (Amanos won't breed in freshwater).
Prices are from in-stock listings as of September 2, 2026 and recompute with every daily update.