[h c]

Hey all,

I have had a 2 gallon tank with ten shrimps (as well as two adopted guppies) for about 3 months now and within the last week, two or maybe three shrimps have spawned and there are almost always at least ten baby shrimps visible at a given time and I suspect the number of baby shrimps to be closer to 15 or 20.. In addition to that, I have three other berried females at the moment which will only add to the population.. Should I be worried about having too many shrimps in this 2 gallon tank?

Oh and also, a recent outbreak of algae that had never existed in my tank is occuring coinciding with this shrimp population explosion. (One of them is hair algae and the other one is quite beautiful atm. its forming as green blobs at the ends of one of my green Cambodia plant.) Are these two events possibly linked?

 

[Bettacrazy]

do you have any other tanks you could put the shrimp in? right now you should try and find homes for some of them because you will have more in no time. and could you be specific on what type of shrimp?

 

[Jorge_Burrito]

More likely it just took a month or two for your shrimp to acclimate before they started feeling frisky enough (or old enough) to mate. The outbreak of algae will actually be good for your shrimplets, but probably not the cause of them.

 

[diwu13]

An outbreak of algae might have provided the shrimps with enough consistent food that the females felt their babies would have enough to eat. Or they could have become used to your 2 gallon.

I would be worried about your shrimps in such a small tank as a general rule is 10 shrimps per gallon and you're already at that limit. Anymore and you'll have to do constant water changes to fight ammonia spikes directly after feeding.

 

[Moody636]

The two guppies are probably contributing more to the bioload than 20 shrimp. I would definitely upgrade your tank if possible. A 10 gallon would be more suitable.

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[h c]

do you have any other tanks you could put the shrimp in? right now you should try and find homes for some of them because you will have more in no time. and could you be specific on what type of shrimp?

I think, I am living in a college dorm actually so thats why I only brought a 2 gallon. I have mostly RCS and some orangeish/clearish RCS.

More likely it just took a month or two for your shrimp to acclimate before they started feeling frisky enough (or old enough) to mate. The outbreak of algae will actually be good for your shrimplets, but probably not the cause of them.

Haha, that's what I think happened too, I was worried the first few months actually when I failed to see any babies.

An outbreak of algae might have provided the shrimps with enough consistent food that the females felt their babies would have enough to eat. Or they could have become used to your 2 gallon.

I would be worried about your shrimps in such a small tank as a general rule is 10 shrimps per gallon and you're already at that limit. Anymore and you'll have to do constant water changes to fight ammonia spikes directly after feeding.

I think I have heard of that rule a few years ago but anyways, thats why I started out at 10.. now after thinking about it, I should have started out with even less. But yes, I may get another small tank that will fit in my collge dorm.

As for my shrimps diet, they actually just eat the algae and the other microorganisms in there, I haven't done a feeding since I first started the tank back in August and as a result my water has been crystal clear with consistent readings of ammonia between 0 and 1ppm .

The two guppies are probably contributing more to the bioload than 20 shrimp. I would definitely upgrade your tank if possible. A 10 gallon would be more suitable.

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My water parameters in general has been great and I don't think its likely that my guppies are contributing much to the bioload because they they are quite small at about 1cm and consume nothing but algae and the microorganisms in my tank.

 

[allaboutfish]

1pm ammonia isnt great. anything above .25 is dangerous.

 

[h c]

1pm ammonia isnt great. anything above .25 is dangerous.

Typo sorry lol, .01 ppm

 

[shrimpzoo]

Ammonia should ideally always be at 0 but okay.

 

[diwu13]

The college I was at allowed up to 10gallon tanks in the dorm rooms. If that is possible for you you could easily transfer the filter, plants, substrate into the 10 gallon and introduce the shrimps and guppies right away. Both have very little bioload so the bacteria present on those should be sufficient to stop any ammonia spikes. And you mentioned you don't feed them anything anyway?

 

[h c]

Ammonia should ideally always be at 0 but okay.

That's what I strive for hard to measure ammonia with a color test when the colors difference are just so fine.. tbh, it much closer to 0 than it is .01 but yet its not perfect (Wish it was though) hehe

The college I was at allowed up to 10gallon tanks in the dorm rooms. If that is possible for you you could easily transfer the filter, plants, substrate into the 10 gallon and introduce the shrimps and guppies right away. Both have very little bioload so the bacteria present on those should be sufficient to stop any ammonia spikes. And you mentioned you don't feed them anything anyway?

Yes, its definitely possible, I'll probably upgrade during winter break when I have lots of time ^_^

This tank was really made to be as low maintenance as possible, it was inspired by ecospheres. Thus, I don't feed them and its working beautifully atm ^_^