Controlling shrimp population...

[ChrisP]

Hi guys, I'm thinking of adding some red cherry shrimp to my 60L tank. The only thing I'm slightly concerned about is I've read they breed like crazy and I don't want them taking over. What methods do people use to control the population?

 

[PBM3000]

10ml of pure ammonia.

 

[mort]

I have them in a 120l and its never been a problem because I have fish. The adults are fine with them as are all but the smallest shrimplets. Enough make it through to keep a healthy population. If you are going shrimp only then you might need to take some out periodically (like removing females to reduce further shrimplets) but you can normally trade these with the lfs. They thrive in different conditions and might not boom in certain ones so I wouldn't worry about populations until you see them start to rise.

 

[zozo]

Same here +/- 100 litre tank, running for 2 years now with Cherries from the start. I definitively have enough but not overpopulated. Fish like Barbs sp. Trichopsis sp. and Dario sp. are fanatic hunters and keep them well in check. With enough hiding places for the shrimp, they balance eachother perfectly out, the barbs occasionally go for bigger shrimps, and the Trichopsis and Dario are so small they constantly roam the nooks and crannies try to get to the fry. But can't get t them all.. Next to that snails are again shrimps food competition, have the same diet, when it comes to shrimp and snails, both propagate according the food provided. I got about 5 snail sp. in the same tank all potential pests, but they aren't. Don't be afraid to feed sparsely. I personaly do not use any special shrimp food, they get what the fish leave behind and what the tank provides on its own.

This tank is a low energy tank, but receiving a vast amount of day light.. I had some green spot algae outbreak on th plant leaves early summer and since i can not realy dim daylight without making a dark cave out of the room. I grapped a bottle of Easy carbo and dosed 2ml daily to get the tank over the hill during the brightest months. I noticed with killing off algae which is next to detritus one of their main food sources it also declined the snail and shrimp population. Not saying you should use glut or any other chemical, but definitively keep algae growth in check, it helps..

 

[Progen]

That's the same predicament which I'm having. I had orange, yellow (with stripe) cherries and fire reds. Wanted to keep them in a 55G big tank but couldn't bear the thought of their babies getting eaten so I kept delaying and delaying and delaying moving them so now all I have is a bunch of translucent misfits in the nano. The tanks will be connected via water bridges so I thought of putting very fine mesh at the shrimp side but that'd mean a population explosion then since they'll be very happy there without predators and on the other hand, I can't bear to hear the screams of a million babies.

 

[roadmaster]

I Keep painted fire red shrimp and cherry shrimp in 55 gal tank that houses three adult plecos' and a few guppies.
Plecos pay the shrimp no mind,and guppies can't put a dent in population much,or so it appears.

 

[Progen]

But the majority of planted tanks will have some form of shoaling fish and fishes in groups are usually competitive and hungry all the time.

 

[ChrisP]

Thanks guys. All I have in the tank are a few Harlequins and tetras. Sounds like I should add a few barb's to control the shrimp population? How about Cory's? Will they nibble on a few shrimp fry?

 

[HiNtZ]

10ml of pure ammonia.

Hah! Brilliant!

In all seriousness, just sell them to your local fish shop for store credit. Or donate them here. When you start getting your fire reds and painted reds you can make some nice pocket money.

 

[Wacca]

Surely they will only breed within the libations of food supply. No food. No babies surviving. I've kept RCS in my 180 for years now and have a healthy population the only fish in there are flame tetra and yellow phantom tetra. Granted they will eat quite a few of the shrimplets if they come out of cover but with the amount of moss and other tiny hidey holes in the planting I wouldn't imagine it'd be a huge amount.
Another thing that keeps the population down is when ever I do a filter clean I find a dozen or so living within the filter medium