Why do Virtual Tank fish stop dropping shells after a while?

[ItzPress]

Topic.

[Inkaflare]

You need to keep them fed if you want them to drop shells. This means that for the screensaver to earn you shells, you need to have Zorf as a pet to feed your guppies, and if you have carnivores, you need Prego or a Breeder bought from the shop to produce eatable baby guppies.

[ItzPress]

I have them on auto-feed with 2 Zorfs (one is Presto). But after a long while, like 7-8K shells or so, they stop dropping shells. And then when I boot up the VTank manually via the game, all of a sudden they all drop shells at once as if they were withholding it.

[BaggovTenner]

I know this is really late but i had the exact same problem today, I did some digging and this is what I found:

3) You hit the theoretical "Shell Limit" on the screen saver. -- It's
a rare thing, but the game sometimes sets an arbitrary limit to
the number of shells that your fish can generate in a single
session for your screen saver. Once this limit is reached, you
fish will stop dropping shells for some reason until you
interrupt the screen saver. This limit is at least 5,000 Shells,
but it does vary per user & the contents of your tank.

At last check for this "Shell Limit", it was around the 9,000
mark for me.

To check for yourself, just modify your power saving settings so
your screen saver can run for about a hour (or longer, if your
tank doesn't have a lot of fish). This way, you can keep track
of the shell tally. When your fish aren't producing any more
shells, the number on the shell tally is your limit.

It's from a very detailed guide below, start reading from 12) Miscellaneous Q&A, Question 3
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/924446-insaniquarium-deluxe/faqs/35666

[TaylorHasRocks]

You have to feed them for them to drop shells.