Breeding issue

[kyle0901]

Hello everyone. My set-up looks like this, 20 gallon water. salinity 1.010, coral crushes on the bottom as substrates, lava rocks boiled before placement, supershrimp moss ball and algae in position, 60 shrimps. Temperature 15-30 degrees celsius in my region. Dedicated 16 Watt lights turnning on and off every 12 hours, tank also in place with indirect sunlight. Top-off and filled with distilled water only. A single horned snail for cleaning. No2 no3 ammonia frequently tested and read 0. A quarter pennie sized spirulina flake fed in tank every 2-4 weeks.

It’s been eight months, one shrimp dead, others alive but not active and behave strange, sometimes all 60 gathered on three smaller rocks on the near side. no mating behavior, minimum algae growth, whole tank appear yellowish instead of greenish, what is wrong with my tank? Thank you for any advice in advance!

There is no better sense of achievement than seeing a berried female appear in my tank.

[Vorteil]

Looks good. Nothings wrong. Just need to give them time & patience. The females only breed 1-2x a year max. None are guarantee to breed.

[Nellyville41]

My 1 gal took over a year for breeding to happen. It also depends on temperature of the tank and food source.

[kyle0901]

I got this strong feeling that something went wrong. Shrimps are tolerating, not thriving. I just don’t know what that is. I appreciate more diagnosis thanks every one!

[Bryan]

Maybe give them a place to hide. Lave rock cave or ceramic pot with a hole or “U” cut into the top and then placed upsid3 down in the tank. They like to be able to get away from it all.

[JennyPenny]

The tank looks kind of sparse. I think you should add some lava rocks for more hiding places.
It is not unusual for a newly established tank to not have much breeding in the first year. Some people have shrimp that berry in the first few months, but that seems to be the exception, not the norm.
I doubt something is wrong. One dead shrimp is not bad.
I set my tank up with crushed coral and also noticed a yellow tinge to the tank. I recently set up a second tank and am in the process of switching everything over to the new tank. I choose to use oolitic aragonite sand for substrate, which I like a lot so far.

[kyle0901]

Thank you Bryan and JennyPenny, I will definitely try your suggestions.