Overcrowding / over population

[karakowski]

I was thinking of setting up a tank for super shrimp in the future: maybe 10 shrimp in a 2 gal tank. After so long, can the tank become overcrowded with shrimp, or do the shrimp stop breeding when the tank nears maxium capacity?

[dan d]

Welcome to the forum

From what I am learning, it takes a lot of these shrimp to create a concern with overpopulation. I have a 3 gallon tank with 8 shrimp so I too will be curious to the answer to this question from Mustafa.

Dan

[tooth]

Apparently, 50 in a half-gallon is not too many. That said, I'll put 20 or so in my 10 gallon and let them multiply from there.
Brad Hills
Alpine, Utah

[Mustafa]

I was thinking of setting up a tank for super shrimp in the future: maybe 10 shrimp in a 2 gal tank. After so long, can the tank become overcrowded with shrimp, or do the shrimp stop breeding when the tank nears maxium capacity?

A two gallon should be able to easily support anywhere between 50-200 shrimp over time before they may stop reproducing. Honestly, I have not had a situation, yet, where my shrimp stopped reproducing due to overcrowding, but common sense tells me that there would be such a point (obviously) due to competition for food. At some point you will reach a situation where you cannot increase the amount of food you give the shrimp every two weeks, as more food would increase nutrient levels (nitrates, phosphates, etc.) too much as to be detrimental to the shrimp in the long term. As I said, I have not reached that level, yet, in all these years, so at this point I would not worry too much about upper limits. Just make sure that you make your shrimp happy by following the instructions here and they should start reproducing at some point. As they only have about 8-20 eggs at a time, you won't see a huge shrimp explosion in short amount of time, either. But, as they live 20+ years, you will definitely see a large population increase over time. More shrimp hatch, but none really die....that's the great thing about these animals. You can potentially keep these shrimp going in the same tank for decades, or even centuries when your descendants inherit the tank (let's hope we'll also be around to witness that some day...).