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any idea how to get my shrimps to start breeding ?
initially, I got 3 shrimps for 2 years, no luck. top up another 4 shrimps for 6 months. still no luck D:

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Hey Yiyong92, welcome to the Opae ula forum.

We will need to know a little bit about your tank setup, do you have some photos?

• What water are you using?
  What SG/salinity is the water?
  What temperature is the water?
  What substrate are you using?
  What rocks etc are you using?
  Where is your tank situated?
  What size tank have you got?
  Do you preform water changes?
  Do you feed them?

Any other details or strategy's you have tried? The more you list the better we can try and help

brackish water
SG 1.012
never measure temperature
caribsea arag-live hawaiian black
lava rocks
situated in my room table
40x25x26
no water changes
feed them once a week.

never tried any strategy


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these are the only photo I have for now, as I can't take a decent photo of the whole tank. and these photoshoot are my tank with brown algae. I recently wipe them off and the brown algae starts growing again.



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Very cool tank! ive noticed a few things which i would check and take care of first, it may not fix the issue but stands out a little.

1. You have salt creep around the rim of your water surface, this means evaporation is reducing the water levels and in turn will be changing the Salinity of your water constantly, you need water parameters that are stable and don't change so you will need to keep the water topped up or buy a lid for the top of your tank to reduce the water evaporation. You can draw a line on the side of the tank and this will let you know where the water should be kept at when it drops. Don't let it go too long below the required measure line!

2. What water source did you use for the brackish water? If you didnt use RO water, ditilled or bottled water you may have somthing that is having a knock on effect on your waters bacteria and health which leads me to my next point;

3. You have brown algae which is a sign of a newly setup tank, yours isn't new but 2 years old so something must be killing the good bacteria in your tank and the 'nitrogen cycle' is being reset which could be your water if you are using tap water of other stuff that has chlorine/chloramine in it etc. This makes your tank grow the brown algae again before the green algae appears showing a fully cycled tank. I would of said it could very well be a tank crash (PH crash) but if you have aggregate sand this should buffer your tanks water, have you tested the PH level? if that's OK look at the waters source you have used like I mention in point 2.

4. Check the waters temperature, I've found water around early 20's to mid 20's deg C to be good for breeding.

5. Don't scrub the brown algae away and leave the tank to mature and settle, it looks gross but that stage will pass, you could add 1 or 2 nerite snails that will eat it if you cannot stand the sight of it though .

Try these things to stabilise the tank and im sure you will get breeding, the tank size seems good and its not over populated. Let us know how you get on and if you have any more questions just ask

Good luck!

Hi Odin,
Great information. I have a question. Does salt creep occur only because of evaporation, or could other factors contribute?
Thanks,
Ann

Ann wrote:Hi Odin,
Great information. I have a question. Does salt creep occur only because of evaporation, or could other factors contribute?
Thanks,
Ann

Hey Ann, salt creep is usually always where the water line has dropped and left a salt line, you can get it from something splashing the water like a pump/air-stone but when its perfectly level all the way around the tank its definitely going to be an evaporation thing. These shrimp can handle Salinity swings no problem so long as its not incredibly large but you wont get breeding.

odin wrote:Very cool tank! ive noticed a few things which i would check and take care of first, it may not fix the issue but stands out a little.

1. You have salt creep around the rim of your water surface, this means evaporation is reducing the water levels and in turn will be changing the Salinity of your water constantly, you need water parameters that are stable and don't change so you will need to keep the water topped up or buy a lid for the top of your tank to reduce the water evaporation. You can draw a line on the side of the tank and this will let you know where the water should be kept at when it drops. Don't let it go too long below the required measure line!

2. What water source did you use for the brackish water? If you didnt use RO water, ditilled or bottled water you may have somthing that is having a knock on effect on your waters bacteria and health which leads me to my next point;

3. You have brown algae which is a sign of a newly setup tank, yours isn't new but 2 years old so something must be killing the good bacteria in your tank and the 'nitrogen cycle' is being reset which could be your water if you are using tap water of other stuff that has chlorine/chloramine in it etc. This makes your tank grow the brown algae again before the green algae appears showing a fully cycled tank. I would of said it could very well be a tank crash (PH crash) but if you have aggregate sand this should buffer your tanks water, have you tested the PH level? if that's OK look at the waters source you have used like I mention in point 2.

4. Check the waters temperature, I've found water around early 20's to mid 20's deg C to be good for breeding.

5. Don't scrub the brown algae away and leave the tank to mature and settle, it looks gross but that stage will pass, you could add 1 or 2 nerite snails that will eat it if you cannot stand the sight of it though .

Try these things to stabilise the tank and im sure you will get breeding, the tank size seems good and its not over populated. Let us know how you get on and if you have any more questions just ask

Good luck!

I used distilled water to top up. thank you very much odin!

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You're welcome.

Nice setup! I see hiding places so that is good. Your first three could of been (well high odds) that they were the same sex. With 7, there should be one of the opposite sex in there.
Odin is right on with his observations.
Is your tank only half full? The more water the better.
Yeah, you should invest in a temperature gauge and maybe a heater.