My females don't develop saddles

[maylee]

ph - 7.4

gh - 8

kh - 2

ammonia/nitrites/nitrates - 0/0/0

temperature - 72f

 

I don't know what it is with my 10G. I have tangerine tigers and fire reds in there. This tank has been running a whole year now. I don't remember the last time, if ever, a female has developed a saddle in this tank. I've had new shrimp that came berried introduced to the tank and they gave birth without issue. But no females will develop saddles, let alone breed.

 

I don't have random deaths in this tank. They molt properly. I use RO/DI water re-mineralized with Blue Diamond. I have never used tap water in this tank. I feed a variety of foods from leaves, commercial shrimp foods, algae wafers, the occasional blood worms for protein etc. I have a sponge filter in there which should provide adequate oxygen.

 

Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[seaj]

I had a similar issue before with my neo shrimp. My water was low in gh and kh, so I added crushed coral to the tanks again, and started giving them frozen brine shrimp a few times a week again as well. All the adult females berried up at the same time, and I had quite the population boom. I'm not sure what they needed, but those two changes got them going. The crushed coral raised my TDS, and brought up the pH a bit too. All my shrimp love frozen brine shrimp. I also keep the lights on for about 13 hours a day.