[bulrush]

So I was selling some RCS to my LFS and noticed my shrimp are smaller than the ones they buy from online. I have about 100 cherry shrimp in a 10g tank.

Then I noticed my single RCS in a plastic waste basket (holding some danios that were born) were HUGE. I guess about 1.5 inches long.

So it does seem that a high population density does have an effect on RCS, and causes them to be smaller. While a low pop density causes them to be larger.

I wonder if this has to do with food availability?

 

[sorab]

I expect you are right, I have a crs tank and the larger the population became the smaller the shrimp were. They do overcrowd themselves quite fast and for the first few weeks it’s mostly the micro food they feed on so if that were harder to gather then they wouldn’t grow as well. Even when they are large the micro food seems to be a very important part of their diet. Maybe the food we give them doesn’t make up for the lack of the tank micro food when the population grows.