Birth control for CRS colony?

[beanbag]

Hello folks,

If I get a batch of CRS for a small tank, is there a way for me to prevent the shrimp from having babies?  I want the colony to only get up to a certain size and then stop.  I don't want to deal with giving / selling shrimp, culling / killing them, etc.  Maybe after a while when shrimp die of old age or whatever, I will "turn on" breeding for a short time, then turn it off again.

[sdlTBfanUK]

I don't think there is a contraceptive pill you can give shrimps so they will just do what comes naturally to them. I have this same problem and am at the stage of culling 2 per week (adult size) Taiwan Bees, started that a month ago., to make room for new shrimplets (I will review this occasionally). 

There will be ones without good colour/markings which makes it easier to decide which to get rid of and if you have a fish tank I am sure the fish will enjoy the treat, must be the equivalent of a Lobster to us, yummmm!

I will be watching this post with great interest as I have this same dilemma? Sorry I can't offer a better solution though.

Simon

[Zoidburg]

Best thing is to have all males in one tank.

 

After that, incorrect water parameters/higher pH than what the shrimp were raised in... but it's not really recommended and there might still be some breeding.

[jayc]

15 hours ago, beanbag said:

I will "turn on" breeding for a short time, then turn it off again.

Now I have heard it all ! 

 

[sdlTBfanUK]

I had another thought last night!

Similar to Zoidburg, just have a couple of Females (1 would be better but if that dies you won't get any new babies until you get another female) and the rest males.

I 'believe' Caridina' reach sexual maturity at about 6 months (double the cherry time) so you should be able to tell males from females before they start breeding so you can remove the excess females fairly easily and restrict the flow of shrimplets. It will still mean disposing of some shrimps.

Otherwise, as Zoidburg says, just keep all Males or all Females but you will then have to restock every so often. IF you have all females they are a bit bigger so easier to see?

Of coarse the whole question is only relevant if all goes really well and you get the suitable parameters for them to breed, otherwise, as Zoidburg say it won't be a problem anyway.

Simon

 

[Zoidburg]

Having all males and one female accidentally gets into the tank is much different than having all females and a male accidentally gets into the tank. If there's only one female, then only one could get knocked up. If it's one male, well... he could get all the girls preggo!

[unofficialzoo]

You said you didn't want to kill any shrimp... not sure if you meant you personally don't want to kill them, or if you meant you don't want any shrimp to die in your tanks at all. You should be able to naturally control population one of these ways, but two of them involve shrimp deaths, not by your hand but as part of the circle of life:

• restrict feeding, making the tank inhospitable for baby shrimp (they simply won't have anything to eat and won't survive)
• another possible outcome of restricting feeding is actually that the females won't berry at all due to food not being prevalent enough, or maybe not getting enough protein (no deaths)
• add some guppies, tetras, or other small fish to eat small shrimplets, controlling population for you

Can also try to make a male-only tank as suggested above, but might not be feasible depending on your situation and where you're getting your shrimp. I'm personally okay with natural selection and predation in my tanks if I keep fish and shrimp together, but not everyone is. With the above methods there may occasionally be some babies that survive, but not enough to overtake your tank (if they start getting out of control add more fish/restrict feeding more).

[Jay_Walker]

I'm happy to take some off your hands ?

[Steensj2004]

You could just creep on them a lot, make them real uncomfortable. Nobody wants to do the hippity-dippity with some creep watching them.

 

 

you're welcome.

[Cleeon]

have 2 tanks is the best solution and when you feel have enough number, just move every time you see an adult males getting "frenzy swimming" to another tank