Two year anniversary!

[JoeG]

I received my 33 shrimp December 1, 2017! It’s hard to believe that I’ve had them for two years. There was one shrimp fatality a couple weeks after I received them but I haven’t noticed any since. The tank is 5 gallons and it has only had 1 small partial water change about a month ago when I added too much spirulina by accident. I have only fed the shrimp about a dozen times or so over the past two years. I saw the first berried shrimp July 2019, after 1 year, 7 months, and 19 days. This resulted in 15 floaters and in September we had another batch of 35 floaters. Currently I have one berried female with lots of eggs, and another with only 3. I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience with these guys and get great pleasure when a new berried shrimp is spotted or a bunch of floaters appear. By my calculations if we haven’t lost any of the shrimp we are up to 82 and still only see about twenty at any time. Still lots of room to grow.

Here are a couple pictures of the tank:

The first photo shows some of the 35 floaters. (They are just now starting to cruise around the tank.)
The second photo shows the reflection of a small mirror that I put next to the tank to get more natural light for algae growth. (Not sure it is actually working but I figure more light over winter can’t hurt).
The third shows a closeup of the lava rock and aragonite gravel bedding.

[Vorteil]

Nice tank and size to grow into. Always a great source of enjoyment. Goes to show you patience pays off. It can sometime take awhile till they actually breed.

[JennyPenny]

I saw your questions on another post and saw your tank here. Your tank looks great and I wouldn't worry about having enough algae. Your shrimp are clearly doing well!
If you are concerned , just pick up some macroalgae. Once you have it, it grows like a weed. I throw out chunks of it a few times a year, but if you have a pair of long tweezers then it's really easy to get out.
Otherwise, a window that gets some morning light might help, then you don't have to worry about the shrimp getting too hot. It can be tricky to find the perfect spot.

[Dch48]

My macroalgae does not grow like a weed. I've had the tank for 6 months now and it's just slightly larger than it was at first and has not spread at all. The tank sits at a South facing window and also gets 10-12 hours of LED light a day. There is no other visible algae either.

[Vorteil]

The reason there's no other algae growing is the lack of nutrients in the tank. The algae won't grow if there's nothing to feed it.