Ok so I really do not have much luck with ASFs. Even my mice are not as finicky as them. The first group I had ate their babies ever single time no matter what I tried. The next group I got I didn't have long enough for them to actually breed because an incidence where the adults ate each other when the water bottle fell off (have auto waters now). The females of course ate the males so yeah no breeding after that. So the guy I got the original group from has a friend that breeds them in 10g aquariums and had way too many and was going to put them down. I was given like 20 something young ones. I now have some pregnant looking ones in the bunch. They're all in a 105qt tub with the sides cut out with 1/4th hardware cloth. They are kept stocked with food, have an auto water spigot, and a wheel to run on.
How many can I keep in this setup? Should I cull down the numbers? Ideally I would like to have a decent sized group where I can just pull out the sizes I need but from what I've read removing an established adult could throw off the whole balance. I know you can't readd them to the setup if separated and that if I want a separate colony I'd need to move a group to a new tub when young. Could I keep maybe 3 adult males and 5/6 adult females and just pull babies as needed? And leave them in to grow out until needed or would they start eating each other? I'm not sure what overstocked would be for 105qt since they're quite big and ASFs aren't that large. I keep 6/7 adult rats in these when needed.