Stunted growth in orange neocaridina

[Sarpijk]

Hi all, I have a problem with the population of my orange shrimp. I keep them in a 30 litre Aquael cube mainly planted with anubias sp. along with some emersed adiantum sp.

Upon introduction to the tank I had many berried females but now after about 5 months there is a definite decline in the population of young shrimp while what I see is only shrimp not reaching adult size. Could this be an indication of an overpopulated tank?

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[Natasha]

How many shrimp do you have in the cube? What are your tank parameters? Running CO2?

 

[Sarpijk]

Right now I can count about 35-40 shrimp all of the same size. It's a low tech tank no co2 and no ferts.

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[Silviu Man]

Hi!

Probable there is a limiting factor that push the population of shrimps to the limit. Most common is acces to the feed and the second one is the territory.
It is well know that when the population reach the resources/geographical limit, it start to show abnormal behavior, including low fertility and canibalism.
This is happen with all species which inhabits islands. If you changed something in the parametters of the water, this phenomenon becomes acute.

Edit : Should check also if your filter is working well in terms of biological filtration.

 

[Sarpijk]

Hi Silviu man, do you reckon that a bigger filter or more frequent feeding could rectify this situation? I should also add that we have a relatively hot summer and I am pretty sure the water chemistry has been altered due to evaporation.

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[Natasha]

Yeah, imo that is a lot of shrimp for a 30 litre tank, the population is reaching a limit there. More space should help.

Is your intent to breed?

Some people keep a larger secondary cull tank to which they move lower grade shrimp to keep the primary tank at a good population level for breeding. Some have grow-out tanks that they move babies and growing shrimp to so they have a bit of space to grow without getting bullied - also gives the berried shrimp in the breeder tank a less stressful and crowded space and improves breeding success rate.

In the short term, making sure the water is good, filter is running well and that the food is distributed enough to allow all shrimp to get some will keep them going but it might be time to expand your shrimp housing

 

[Silviu Man]

We also have hot weather here but the evaporation will never be so high that will concentrate the water.
A better biological filtration always give better results. Regarding feeding, maybe not more frequent but more concentrated.
Let me give you an example : when birds face heat stress, the ingesta of the feed drop even with 40%. First mesure to take
is to concentrate the feed. Then after to suply with vitamins and other nutrients via water. By analogy, when there is a high request
for feed and you don't want to push too much the organic matter in water, then use much concentrated/digestible feed.

 

[Sarpijk]

I have already setup a 50 litre tank running on a fluval 105 where I intent to gradually move some shrimp . Thanks for the answers .

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[Finn]

Hi mate, what it sounds like to me is a problem with the water parameters, I'd check your KH and TDS and make sure they're reasonably high, at least 2-4 KH and 200+ TDS. I've had problems keeping neocaridina in soft-water tanks with low GH and KH (and not helped by the use of buffering aquasoil either), where the population level would just about be sustained but the longevity and hardiness of the shrimp greatly reduced. This became very apparent when the same stock, moved into a pure sand substrate tank, would develop notably larger, healthier and far longer lived adults.