Do shrimp populations really keep themselves in check?

[Lcc86]

I'm relatively new to keeping neocaridina shrimp. I bought three blue pearls a few months back to go in one of my nano tanks that houses my African Dwarf Frogs. I've now got about 10 and one of them is berried again. I was worried that maybe the population might get out of control at some point but have read that populations tends to control themselves. How does this work? I know not all the shrimplets will survive, but my ADF's are so derpy they have no chance of catching anything, I've watched them try and they're hopeless haha.

As a side note the babies are always orange and blue, does anyone have any info on shrimp genetics and how this happens? They look quite cool but it just surprised me as the original three were all solid blue.

 

[Naughts]

My opinion is that Neocaridina, like pest snails, slow down breeding when food is scarce.

Others believe that smaller tanks create smaller populations but you could infer that food is also scarcer here, because there is less space to grow grazing opportunities of biofilm/algae/microscopic organisms. They are grazers and need to forage all day long, an occasional dose of manufactured food is unnatural for them and should be viewed as supplemental feeding. This is why they are not recommended for new tanks that haven't established an ecosystem.

In terms of bio-load it would be hard to overpopulate with Neocaridina in a well maintained tank. Shrimp keepers however, have varying tolerances for the exponential increases in poo on the substrate.

You're lucky they are populating from such a small number. The shrimplet's colouring sounds cool.

 

[Lcc86]

My opinion is that Neocaridina, like pest snails, slow down breeding when food is scarce.

Others believe that smaller tanks create smaller populations but you could infer that food is also scarcer here, because there is less space to grow grazing opportunities of biofilm/algae/microscopic organisms. They are grazers and need to forage all day long, an occasional dose of manufactured food is unnatural for them and should be viewed as supplemental feeding. This is why they are not recommended for new tanks that haven't established an ecosystem.

In terms of bio-load it would be hard to overpopulate with Neocaridina in a well maintained tank. Shrimp keepers however, have varying tolerances for the exponential increases in poo on the substrate.

You're lucky they are populating from such a small number. The shrimplet's colouring sounds cool.

Thanks, I wasn't immediately worried by having around 10 but was just a bit concerned about what to do if they keep breeding!

There's a good amount of biofilm, probably a bit too much tbh, I very very rarely feed them so they must be getting more than enough atm. Had a small hair algae outbreak which I've put down to overfeeding the frogs as nothing else in the tank had changed, so I cut back feeding and kept the lights off for a good few days which has helped.

I'll have to try and get pictures of the shrimplets, their backs have differing amounts of orange while the rest of them is blue, it's an interesting little mix. I wasn't confident I'd do well with shrimp as I bought 4 pandas to go in my other nano tank and they didn't last unfortunately, but they're thriving in this tank!

 

[MaloK]

I thought at first that they would, but it was "positive thinking".

Even after drastically cutting back on the food the last months in an attempt to lower the population...

I'm really sad to say that yesterday, I saw more than 20 berried shrimps and gave up counting them.

 

[Lcc86]

I thought at first that they would, but it was "positive thinking".

Even after drastically cutting back on the food the last months in an attempt to lower the population...

I'm really sad to say that yesterday, I saw more than 20 berried shrimps and gave up counting them.

Omg if I had 20 berried shrimp I'd be in trouble