My success story

[tooth]

I assume the cause is temperature. The tank is in a room with temperature of 66 to 69 F during winter, 70 to 74 F in summer. The tank has no heater. I assume the water temperature is a little higher than the air temperature, but there is not a thermometer in the tank.
Reproduction has only occurred from about April-May to August-September, up until 2 days ago.
The tank gets no direct sunlight, and I have the light set on a timer, which I do not change. Therefore, I don't think hours of daylight is a big contributor. I understand I'm not following rigorous scientific protocols when I make my assumptions.

[Mustafa]

LED lights of the same wattage tend to be much "stronger" than compact fluorescent lights, especially since their light output barely deteriorates over time. If, for some strange reason, you still have a nutrient surplus in the water column, it could cause unicellular growth that makes the water murky. That should disappear after a while though, even with strong lights, as the unicellular organisms use up the nutrients.

[tooth]

Yes.
I now have 3 berried shrimp. I think the warmer temperature from the HO fluorescent bulb has fooled the shrimp into thinking spring has come early.
I also think the cloudiness is decreasing with the old bulb.

[Mustafa]

I'm pretty convinced at this point that it's not warmer temperatures that trigger reproduction. I have carrying females at 55-57 degrees water temp in my garage and some larvae at around 60. They eggs and larvae develop faster at the higher temps, but these guys reproduce just fine at the lower temps too it seems. Maybe there was another trigger?

[tooth]

Hmm. Nothing else has changed with the tank (that I can think of). Maybe just a bigger population with more individual variation? The number of berried shrimp has stayed at 3, so this is not a reproductive explosion like I usually see in Spring.

[Mustafa]

Possible. But like I said, they do breed more consistently and faster in the 70s range.

[tooth]

A quick update. There are now 7 or 8 berried shrimp. One has released her brood, another is in the process. There are 10, or so, larvae floating around.
It has now been 6 years for the tank, with no food added.
Hope everyone is having a nice Spring and Easter season.

[i<3Opae]

Amazing! Thanks for the updated. Please post a pic soon!

[Mustafa]

It's the magic tank with the magic shrimp! I hope to see updates from you for many years to come!

[tooth]

Thanks, Mustafa, it's been a lot of fun.
This Spring saw a total of about 9 berried females. I thought they were done several weeks age, but this last week 14 larvae appeared. Mommy must have been hiding. In total I figure the tank added another 100 or so new denizens.
A bittersweet update: My wife, Cindy, and I are headed to Mongolia for a year to do humanitarian work and teach English. Our son is staying in the home, and will be watching/caring for the tank. It is highly unlikely he'll be posting to this forum, so this is goodbye for a while.
I hope all have a wonderful summer, and we'll talk again in about a year!
Brad

[Mustafa]

Thanks again for the update and I hope you'll have a great time in Mongolia! Luckily, the shrimp don't really need much of anything (in your case not even food), so I'm sure they'll be ok.

[Opaeula_mama]

I bing read this whole thread. It feels like I'm waiting on the next season that's been canceled. It's really been almost 2 years since tooth's trip to Mongolia with his wife. I wonder how they are and if the tank ever recovered from the issue it was having... dang

[Paulzie67]

I bing read this whole thread. It feels like I'm waiting on the next season that's been canceled. It's really been almost 2 years since tooth's trip to Mongolia with his wife. I wonder how they are and if the tank ever recovered from the issue it was having... dang

LMAO I know what you mean! I just joined recently and started reading this thread without jumping to the end first. But getting here, I feel the same. I hope he gets a notification and updates us all

[Mustafa]

I may have to email "tooth" to see what's going on with him. I hope he's doing ok.

[helgi]

Just to share

I set up a 27 liters (30x30x30cm) cube tank at the end of July, and two days ago the first larvae began floating in it. Kinda success!