Culling shrimp. When and which ones?

[Corbidorbidoodle]

I have a couple of questions about culling shrimp colonies. When and which ones?

How long do you wait to start culling? Like, when there's a couple generations, or when there are hundreds in the tank?

Do you take out the bad ones and let the colony continue on? Or do you take out just the best ones and restart the colony?

I've got one colony of reds in a 20gal with some green neons and some brand new clown kilis. There are a few shrimps in there that're a little clearish. I was thinking about grabbing the not-so-red ones and adding them to one of my community tanks. Or would it be better to just get, like, 10 really great shrimps and start a new colony in a breading tank.

And let's say I'm starting a new colony of blues. Should I take out any that I don't like as soon as I see them? Or should I wait until the tank is crawling with shrimp and then take out the best 50% or something?

Thanks!

[Melkor]

If you want the highest quality, then cull constantly. Whenever you see mediocre or whatever your cutoff for quality is(look up each color you have, if they have grades, pick the grade you prefer, and cull anything below that), pull them. Generally you only pull the best and restart if you let things get out of hand for a long while. The longer you wait, the more opportunities cull worthy shrimp have to breed and mess up your colony.  Put a piece of food in, let them gather, observe and pull. 

Edited June 21, 2022 by Melkor

[JettsPapa]

Cull early and cull often.  Take out anything that doesn't meet your standards.  If you don't have any that meet your standards, get new shrimp, and then cull early and cull often.

[TeeJay]

Good to know for when I eventually get the shrimp for the setup I'm working on now. Always wondered what the best process was.

[CJs Aquatics]

I’m newer to shrimp, I actually have been shrimp netting the babies and letting them grow out in a large breeder box within the tank so as soon as they are of size they are eighter added to the seperate cull colony tank if they are not of the quality I desire, or if they are they join the colony producing in the tank the box sits in, it’s made things pretty simple, hopefully this helps 

[gardenman]

Culling and when to cull largely comes down to what you want the "finished" product to be regardless of the species you're breeding. If you want the brightest colored young shrimp, then it's easy to cull young. If you want the best colored adult shrimp you might have to wait a bit longer to cull to let the full adult coloration develop. If you're trying to create larger shrimp, you need to let them develop longer to determine which shrimp will grow largest. If you're trying to create a dwarf shrimp you can generally cull earlier and weed out the bigger guys/gals. It all depends on what you're breeding for. You just have to know where you want things to end and then work your way there through the culling process.