My Progress

[Dch48]

Everything is going well but I decided to test the water in the tank. I got the expected 0 Ammonia and 0 Nitrite but what surprised me is that there is also 0 Nitrate. There used to be Nitrate of about 5. I guess the macroalgae (which is growing) is absorbing the Nitrates? Maybe that's also why there is no longer any other kind of visible algae even though the tank gets a few hours of indirect sunlight and that tank lights are on for 12 hours every day.

[Vorteil]

Isn't that good? You want your nitrates to be low.

[Dch48]

Of course but I wasn't expecting to see none. I guess it means the tank has balanced out well. The shrimp are active and you can see the dark line running down their body to the underside of the tail which shows that they are well fed and their gut is full.

[Varanus]

Its also important to keep in mind that "0" on those water tests doesn't necessarily actually mean 0. It can just mean the amount in the water is too small for the test to detect.

[Dch48]

Two months in and everything is good. The macroalgae is bright green and growing slowly, Some of the shrimp are sometimes a very deep red while others stay a pale pink. There is still the one with the weird head who always stays pure white. He is as active as the others so I'm not concerned. There is no visible algae but I do see a thin film on the lava rock and sea fan so I'm sure that's what they are feeding on. The tank is on a stand next to a window and has a light that stays on about 12 hours a day. The little Horned Nerite seems to have gotten a bit bigger. I'll try to get a picture of the white one so you can see the bulge on his head.

There have been no berries since the first time when the female lost the eggs. She only had 4 or 5 and lost them after about 3 days.

[Vorteil]

Sounds like your tank is running well.Time is all it takes and stable parameters.

[Dch48]

Some pics:

The Nerite is just an empty shell that I superglued to the lava rock. The live Horned one is much smaller.

[Dch48]

Just noticed today, I have 2 heavily berried females ! Maybe they won't lose the eggs this time.

Two months to the day since the last ones went in.

[Dch48]

The two females still have their eggs. This is the longest I have had shrimp keep the eggs so hopefully they will hatch.

[Dch48]

The 2 still have their eggs, about 10 or 12 on each one and now there is a bright red one that has one single egg under her abdomen.

[Dch48]

The odds of me seeing babies seem to be diminishing. The 2 who had a lot of eggs now only have 4 or 5 each. The red one still has her single one though.

[MrsT]

The odds of me seeing babies seem to be diminishing. The 2 who had a lot of eggs now only have 4 or 5 each. The red one still has her single one though.

I had failure a number of times before those female get it right. You will get there one day don't worry, they just need time to learn and adjust.
Mine seemed to happened when the tank got dirtier. I should say when I least expected.
And after the first successed it went on with other females and continuesly got berried.

[Dch48]

Just over 3 weeks now and the redder one still has her single egg and the others still have like 5 each.

[Dch48]

One month and I still see one with 5 or 6 bright red eggs and the Red shrimp still has her single one.

[Dch48]

Woke up this morning to see a floater! Only one so far but that's more than I ever saw from my freshwater shrimp. There still is a female with eggs and I think she is the mother of the floater because yesterday I noticed that one of her eggs was just barely hanging on.