Overcrowding

[fujiija]

I have a 8 gal tank that started with maybe a total of 20 CRS, CBS, and Fancy Tigers in January. They bred like crazy and I have given away or separated out well over 100 shrimp.  I still have another 100 left in the original 8 gal tank.  The tank is heavily planted and I have cholla wood, mosses, and leaf litter in addition to spider wood, java fern, anubias, and rotala in the tank.  There are a lot of plants.

 

In the past two months, I had no babies.  The 100 or so shrimp are all adults and I see many, many berried females.  But no babies. 

 

Is my tank overcrowded?  Are the babies not surviving because of lack of biofilm?  I have been overfeeding with Repashy Soilent Green, snowflake, and other assortment of foods  to hopefully keep the adults from cleaning out the biofilm but I am actually not sure what I should be doing.  I have Bacter AE and started dosing a small amount maybe two or three times a week.  I have to clean my HOB filter each week because it filters out so much gunk which I suspect is uneaten food.  My shrimp are active and look like they start to swarm if I don't feed them every day.

 

I have set up a new 10 gallon tank and will move my colony there in addition to continuing to give some culls away to my friends to reduce the colony size.

 

Is there anything else I should be doing other than decreasing the colony size and putting them in a bigger tank?  Is dosing Bacter AE the right thing to do assuming I don't have enough biofilm for baby survival?

[Soothing Shrimp]

What are your params?

[fujiija]

I just did some measurements using my API test kits.  My substrate is Controsoil that was new in January of this year.

 

Ammonia = 0

Nitrite = 0

Nitrate = 5ppm

pH = 6.4

KH = 0

GH = 8

TDS = 160

temp = 76 degrees

 

 

I remineralize RO water using Salty Shrimp GH+.  In order for me to get to TDS 100 (which everyone says I should not go below), I need to get the GH to about 7.  I know this is a little high but the shrimp were doing well.  Now my tank is at TDS 160 and when I do a water change, I keep changing it with KH=0  GH=7 water.  Not sure why my TDS in the tank is now GH 8 as I try to be careful and top off with RO water.

 

The temp in my basement is 74 degrees but I have a Fluval C2 HOB and that raises the temp to 76 degrees.  It's been at 76 for most of the summer.  I am contemplating switching to a sponge filter so my temp will be lower at 74 degrees without that HOB heating up the water a bit.

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

[dao]

I would say that the nitrates are not perfect for baby shrimp. Try getting them to around 0.