I'm thinking of doing in a different direction with my little Chi tank. While I love my shrimp, they are not really doing well for mysterious reasons. Is there any way to do multis or another shellie in such a small tank?
I think brevis might be a better option. IIRC they don't get quite as big and they aren't as prolific. My most significant experience with shellies was a group of brevis, that I kept for a while that survived, but never bred.
As Jesse said the Multis are very prolific and you'll have to remove some as they multiply. However the Sunspot Brevis I had were larger than Multies. The males were 2", females 1-1.5". Occies are like the Brevis but not as prolific as Multies and might work. Although I've never been successful with occies. I've tried 4 trios at different times and end up with a male.
Not sure what direction I'm going to go in, but I bought the Fluval Spec nano tank that is longer rather than high (like my current Chi), so it does give me more options.
If I did shellies, and I wanted something that wouldn't be prolific, would occies be the way to go? In that case, how many? Footprint is like 17" long and 10" wide.
Occies or Brevis would work. Neither are too prolific for that tank as Multis would be. I'd go with a trio or a small group of grow outs and sell off the extras.
Cover the whole bottom with shells. I used escargot, turbo, tiger eyes, Nerite, and whatever else if could find. I even threw in some oyster shells and corals from the beach. IME Brevis males will eat the fry so I needed more than enough hiding spaces, hence the extra shells.