RCS stocking

[Cichlid Kid]

Ideally about how many RCS could I keep in a 2 1/2 gal. Nano? Its a fully cycled Aqueon mini bow with pond snails and 1 gold mystery snail.

 

[BakerBoy17]

Well they breed very fast. I would say get about 5-10. You can get more but since they breed so fast, I wouldn't get so many.

 

[bs6749]

You can easily keep 30 per gallon. I've kept far more than that in a tank when I had breeding tanks of them up and running. I'd start with a dozen of them.

 

[bonibelle]

Does anyone know if RCS will cross with Crystal Red Shrimp? The guy in the fish store gave me both..for a $1.00 each. I didn't really know what I was getting, so I just took 10..5 of each!

 

[BakerBoy17]

Yes they will breed together.

 

[bs6749]

I know for a fact that crystal red/black shrimp WILL NOT cross with red cherry shrimp. CRS/CBS are a species of the genus Caridina and RCS are a species of the genus Neocaridina.

You should not mix species of the same genus as they WILL crossbreed. For instance, do not mix RCS and snowball shrimp, yellow shrimp (the yellow variety of RCS), and blue pearl shrimp (derived from snowball shrimp).

Additionally, do not mix CBS/CRS with tiger shrimp, green shrimp, blue tigers, etc.

 

[BakerBoy17]

Oh I'm sorry. I've read from many shrimp breeders that they would.

 

[bonibelle]

but its fine that they are in a tank together right?

 

[RedFlame]

Yes it's fine, they will not interbreed, one is a neocaridina the other is caridina. You can have them in a tank together but you have to have the parameters setup for crystals, which means ph under 7. I keep my crs in a ph of 6 with pure RO water and add Mosura mineral plus to bring up the TDS and the Gh. If this is your first shrimp experience I would recommend staying away from crystals especially for that size tank, they aren't a beginner shrimp. Also I would say shoot for about 10 per gallon, although they are small they seem to poop endlessly.

8 shrimp tanks and counting, crystal reds, crystal blacks, Orange eye blue tigers, yellows, cherrys, fire reds, snowballs, red rilis and blue pearls. Good luck.

 

[fort384]

I agree with RedFlame - I would stay away from trying to keep CRS in a 2.5 gal tank, especially if this is your first experience with shrimp. RCS are extremely hardy... but CRS are finicky and don't like quickly changing water parameters. They can be housed together, but as has been pointed out, it is not the best idea due to the differing "ideal" conditions of caridina vs. neocaridina.

 

[bs6749]

For $1 each, you can't go wrong obtaining experience with CRS. Surely they are the hardier C Grade and not the more finicky S+/SS/SSS, which would go for FAR more money than that. I completely agree that you should have the tank set up to cater to the CRS and add the RCS in with them. CRS ARE more fragile but the lower grades seem to be easier to keep alive.

I can tell you from personal experience in breeding CRS/CBS, RCS, snowball shrimp, yellow shrimp, and tiger shrimp that 30 per gallon is not a problem. I know a gentlemen that is an avid aquarium guy that had a 55g tank with over 2000 RCS in it, which works out to be a little over 3 dozen per gallon. They may poop a lot, but that's what water changes are for.

 

[fort384]

Agreed on the numbers. I had 100 or so in a 5 gal with no issues. I was giving them away they were breeding so fast .

 

[RedFlame]

@ bs6749 - While I respect your experience, comparing someones experience and stocking numbers in a 55g compared to a 2.5g is a stretch, especially with rcs which you basicaaly have to try to kill. I could not imagine a 2.5g with 60 plus shrimp, it is hard enough to maintain stable parameters in a 2.5g let alone with a large quantity of harder to care for shrimp.

To the OP, while it may be possible I think it is poor advice and I say shoot for lower stocking numbers especially while learning the shrimp. It will be a challenge but not impossible. Good luck and keep us posted on your successes and challenges, we've all been through them.

 

[jetajockey]

I agree with RedFlame, I think 30 per gallon is a bit much. In this scenario that's 75 shrimp....in a 2.5g???

You could put that many in a tank that size, sure, and if left unchecked even a small group of a dozen or so would easily reach that density in a few months, but is it really an optimal number just because they aren't dying?

I try to aim for around 10 per gallon as a target density, but usually I am thinning them out anytime there are so many that they have to walk on each other because there's nowhere else to go.

 

[bs6749]

I look at it this way...I started with 30 RCS in a ten gallon tank and provided them cover in the form of live plants and the occasional light feeding. Within 6 months time I had over 300 in that tank and they were THRIVING with more berried females in the tank. If they aren't happy, they aren't going to be breeding. Period. It's not a matter of it being optimal because they weren't dying, it's a matter of it being optimal because they were BREEDING. Though you two may not think it will work, the SHRIMP, who lived in the tank, PROVED that it worked in those numbers. This isn't about what we FEEL is right, it's about FACTS and the MAX that will work and myself, fort, and MANY others have experienced numbers up to and exceeding 30 per gallon to work perfectly fine. That is the number I reported because that is my experience. 30 is greater than 10, so 30 is a better indication of the max. If people report 40/50 per gallon being successful and breeding as rapidly and readily as mine did, I'm not going to argue that because it is their experience and I'd start to believe that more than 30/gallon were possible. I probably have had more than 30/gallon before but I don't know that, so I can't report that. I'm only reporting what I know to work.

Starting off with 30+ in a 2.5 gallon tank is not a good idea in my opinion because it leaves little room for expansion and the numbers would quickly exceed my personal experience levels from what I've maintained before. I'd start off with about a dozen.

 

[jetajockey]

Relax, I never said it wouldn't work. Breeding is 'sort of' an indicator of conditions, the instinct to breed is strong and if they only bred in optimal conditions then it wouldn't do much for survival of any species in the wild, would it?

I could put 100 or 150 rcs into a 2.5g and make it work just fine if I really wanted to, but it's not to my liking because I don't think it's fair to the stock to be packed in so tightly. If I was putting them into a store display for sale, that's a different story.

A 2.5g footprint has about 78 inches of floorspace, so each shrimp would be granted about 1 square inch to itself footprint-wise in a 30 per gallon ratio.

It's all just opinion in the end, a 2.5 gallon tank could house 25 shrimp and it could house 75 shrimp, I personally would just prefer to aim for about 25 myself.



An analogy would be that I frequent a chinese buffet that has a 75g display with at least 10 adult blood parrots in it. It works just fine, they have a ton of filtration and the fish look healthy from what I've seen, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless they like watching their stock spend all day navigating around one another. And if someone asked me how many blood parrots they could put in their 75g I would not answer 'You can do 10+ with good filtration' just because I know someone who does it.

 

[bs6749]

A 2.5g footprint has about 78 inches of floorspace, so each shrimp would be granted about 1 square inch to itself footprint-wise in a 30 per gallon ratio.

An analogy would be that I frequent a chinese buffet that has a 75g display with at least 10 adult blood parrots in it. It works just fine, they have a ton of filtration and the fish look healthy from what I've seen, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless they like watching their stock spend all day navigating around one another. And if someone asked me how many blood parrots they could put in their 75g I would not answer 'You can do 10+ with good filtration' just because I know someone who does it.

Perfect. You are further proving my point for me. A 2.5g that has roughly 75 square inches allows for 1 square inch per shrimp. A 10g tank has about 212 square inches of footprint, and with my known 300+ shrimp in that tank (more likely 350) that results in 1.41 shrimp per inch taking only the 300 number into consideration. Now, I have proven that they have thrived in an environment 40% more crowded than what I recommended for stocking limits in a 2.5g if you want to go by floor space per shrimp. So with that in mind, I could have recommended 42 shrimp per gallon in a 2.5g tank and the shrimp would each have as much floor space as the 300 in my 10g.

Secondly, your analogy is somewhat off. I seriously doubt that in your supposed situation the Chinese buffet owners were aquarium experts such as the person I spoke of who is well known and respected in the discus world, as a fish breeder, and as a maintainer of a well known discus forum. I trust his experience and I know mine. Surely you could get 1000 RCS to physically fit into a 10g tank, but that is when you approach the craziness level exhibited in your story, which I believe is a true story by the way because people that don't have experience don't know better and I've seen similar situations with an oscar in a 10g tank.

 

[OBEYtheFISH]

Hey guys let's take it easy
Obviously he's a starter with shrimp or it appears so
Let's not say to push the limit in how many he can have in a 2.5 gallon or how many you've seen done
Seems like he has 5rcs & 5crs
So let him know how he can make that 2.5 a perfect home for them & what else should be done

 

[jetajockey]

Perfect. You are further proving my point for me. A 2.5g that has roughly 75 square inches allows for 1 square inch per shrimp. A 10g tank has about 212 square inches of footprint, and with my known 300+ shrimp in that tank (more likely 350) that results in 1.41 shrimp per inch taking only the 300 number into consideration. Now, I have proven that they have thrived in an environment 40% more crowded than what I recommended for stocking limits in a 2.5g if you want to go by floor space per shrimp. So with that in mind, I could have recommended 42 shrimp per gallon in a 2.5g tank and the shrimp would each have as much floor space as the 300 in my 10g.

Secondly, your analogy is somewhat off. I seriously doubt that in your supposed situation the Chinese buffet owners were aquarium experts such as the person I spoke of who is well known and respected in the discus world, as a fish breeder, and as a maintainer of a well known discus forum. I trust his experience and I know mine. Surely you could get 1000 RCS to physically fit into a 10g tank, but that is when you approach the craziness level exhibited in your story, which I believe is a true story by the way because people that don't have experience don't know better and I've seen similar situations with an oscar in a 10g tank.

Fair enough. There are plenty of experts out there with different stocking ideas, though, so just because someone is an expert in their field it doesn't mean that they are the be-all on the subject. Just like how we are both disagreeing on target stocking density, I agree with you that 30/gal can work, I have a few tanks that are probably near that right now, but they won't be for long. Why? I don't think they'll die, I just don't like them being stocked so densely.

What I meant with calculating the footprint of the tank was that if all the shrimp were on the substrate level at one time they would have a little over 1 inch of space each, which isn't much for a creature that gets over an inch long itself. In the tanks that I have a heavy stocking density, I watch them run into and crawl over one another constantly, and that's the point where I feel the need to thin them out.

I have the same opinion with non aggressive fish. I could easily keep 20 to 30 tetras in a 20 gallon tank. They would be thriving, breeding, and the water would be kept in good shape through maintenance. But that's not the only criteria I consider when stocking. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone as a stocking plan.

 

[bs6749]

The OP asked "How many RCS can I stock, ideally, in a 2.5g tank?" (or something very similar to that question. I took this to mean: "What is the max that will work, ideally in a 2.5g tank?" To me as an engineer and a former shrimp breeder "ideally" means having healthy specimens, that breed while making the most efficient use of space and resources. I experienced a known 30 per gallon that met all of those requirements and I cited additional information on another person, who happens to be an expert fishkeeper, who reported the same numbers. That's where I'm coming from. To me this was about finding the max and reporting it to the OP so that an informed decision could be made as to stock quantity purchasing and as far as when to get rid of some of them. I think we had different interpretations of the original question.

I too thinned my stock out and decreased the 30/gallon number because I wanted to sell them, but I have no doubt that the colony would have remained strong if I would have left them alone another couple of months. I also felt like the tank was getting a little crowded, and didn't think it would be a good idea to let them go too much longer. I felt like I was at the limit for the capacity of the tank even though they were thriving. If/when I start breeding shrimp again I will plan on using the 300/10g rule to give myself an idea of how many I can have in a tank because I know it worked for me in the past.