There are females and males in the tank, and the females have been saddled the entire time I’ve had them. All in all, 17 shrimps in the tank if I recall correctly.
Here’s their tank, ~7 gallons with a salinity of 0.010 (fairly terrible picture but you get the idea):
They have plenty of hiding places in the lava rock and a nice but small clump of chaeto. The light is dim but still enough for the chaeto. They are housed with a population of Mylasian trumpet snails that I pick out every now and then when they get a bit too promiscuous. I only scrape the two “front” sides of the tank every three or four months.
There’s been struggles with this tank, specifically with chaeto because I seem to have quite the black thumb for it. There’s been two occasions where the chaeto rotted from the inside out and released unknown but presumably noticeable amounts of ammonia into the water. I lost one shrimp in the first incident, have not lost another since and am doing my best to keep this third chaeto alive (including adding mts and turning the light wayyyy down.)
And I get it! I get that they’re shrimp and they’re sensitive, but…. I feel like I’m missing something here. I don’t do water changes unless I have to, only top ups. The tank has been stable for months and I’m monitoring the chaeto closely to make sure it’s not doing anything. I bother the tank as little as possible. I don’t even feed them to give them as much peace as possible! From everything I’m reading, I’m doing everything right, but I suspect there’s a missing piece somewhere.