[odin]

Here is a thread to share my Opae ula tanks and weekly updates, hopefully this will help others interested in keeping these awesome little shrimp. :D


My current setups:

Tank #01 - Deep red Opae ula only (quantity 30?) tank, Black sand & Ocean rock
Size:30 litre
Heater: 20°C
Filter: No
Lights: 5W LED light 12 hours on/off
SG: 1.010
Feeding: nothing added
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Tank #02 - Red with clear bands only Opae ula (6 added) tank, Black sand & Ocean rock
Size:30 litre
Heater: 20°C
Filter: No
Lights: 5W LED light 12 hours on/off
SG: 1.013
feeding: nothing added
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Tank #03 - Communal Opae ula (quantity 300?) tank with 3x Zebra Thorn Nerite snails (Clithon Diadema) - Black sand & Ocean rock
Size:67 litre
Heater: 22°C
Filter: No
Lights: 2x3W LED light 12 hours on/off
SG: 1.010
feeding: once a week.

[odin]

Products i am currently using:

Foods:
Shrimplab Algae Borneowild Red Ruby Shrimp King complete Shrimp Essentials Spirulina Additives
Biodigest by Prodibio which is a concentrated bacterial solution which biologically filters and eliminates aquarium waste. I dose one vial every 2 weeks. Equipment
Tanks
Glass feeding bowls Glass feeding tube
Syphon
Net
Heater
Timer
Lights
RO containers
Bucket

Environment
Salt
Substrate
Oceanrock
Crushed coral
RO water

[odin]

Initial tank setups started around the start of August and added livestock around September 2015.

02.08.2015 to 06.09.2015
All 3 tanks are setup with my RO water mixed with Instant ocean marine salt to a SG of 1.010 - 1.013. Tanks left maturing with small air driven filter, my aim is too grow algae before adding shrimp.

07.09.2015
All 3 tanks have a 50% water change with RO water mixed with Instant ocean marine salt to a SG of 1.010 - 1.013. There is lots of green algae on the tank walls and ocean rock so there is a food source. Shrimps added and seem to be pale and exploring the tank at all depths of the water.

Water quality in all 3 tanks:
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
0 nitrate
8.0 PH

14.09.2015
Still no change, Water quality in all 3 tanks:
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
0 nitrate
8.0 PH

21.09.2015
Slight ammonia detected in the communal tank #3 (the one with the largest quantity of shrimp) the small cubes i cant really tell from the chart as its pretty vague in the lower levels when comparing.
0 +/- .2? ammonia
0 nitrite
0 nitrate
8.0 PH

Did a 10 litre water change in each tank, i noticed the shrimps seems to be unsettled alot which i assume was the ammonia.

28.09.2015
Started dosing all 3 tanks with Biodigest to help with cycling the tank and keep the bacteria in check. Tank parameters are pretty much the same as the previous week.

05.10.2015
Noticed nitrites! in all 3 tanks but a higher concentration in the small cubes (tank #01 and #02) probably from their smaller volume.

Water quality in tanks #01 and #02:
0 ammonia
0.25 nitrite
0 nitrate
8.0 PH

Water quality in tank #03:
0 ammonia
0.15 ? nitrite
0 nitrate
8.0 PH

Now I have nitrites showing I have started doing 50% water changes every 2 days to keep the levels down. The shrimps don't like being disturbed but its for their own good!

12.10.2015 to 09.11.2015
All 3 tanks dosed with Biodigest Every 2 weeks and the same routine of water changes to keep the nitrites as low as possible. The Opae'ula are beginning to become very deep red, this must be down to the large fresh water changes. Either way i am happy because they are happy.

16.11.2015
The test results for my tank #'s 01 and 02 are all showing zero in ammonia, nitrites and nitrates!
Unfortunately the large tank with the majority of Opae'ula is still showing nitrites, so.... water changes still.

23.11.2015
All 3 tanks dosed with Biodigest, i decided to remove the air driven pumps from all 3 tanks today. I just hope it wont affect the beneficial bacteria too much but the biodigest i am adding should help out in that department.

30.11.2015
All 3 tanks now show the water parameters:
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
0 nitrate
8.0 PH

No more water changes! (wahoo!)

07.12.2015
All 3 tanks dosed with Biodigest.
Tank #03 fed a fine sprinkle of pure spurilna powder which sat at the surface, shrimp very interested and caused a lot of movement in the tank but I'm not sure all the Opae'ula were confident with hanging on the underside of the tank waters surface to eat the algae powder. I will try another food next week.

14.12.2015
water quality in all tanks:
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
0 nitrate
8.0 PH
Tank #3 fed shrimp King complete pellet, this food broke up very fast but the shrimp did pick parts up and swam off with bits, will try a different food next week.

21.12.2015
All 3 tanks dosed with Biodigest.
Tank #03 fed Borneowild Red Ruby, food attracted shrimp to start but they soon left it alone, removed leftovers in the morning so as not to polute the water.
Added 5x Zebra Thorn Nerite snails (Clithon Diadema) - 2 died the same day even after acclimatisation so removed the perished ones, could of been shock or the lengthy delivery.

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Just as a quick round up, I was half expecting the tanks to of started their cycle before adding the shrimps from die-off on the ocean rock if there was anything on or in it, It WASNT live rock i used as this would die and release way too much ammonia then needed and couldnt keep under control via water changes resulting in shrimp deaths.
The tanks started to cycle pretty steady until the nitrites started to take over and the ammonia disappeared. It took weeks and weeks annnnnnnd weeks of bi-daily water changes to reduce the nitrites and i expected to see them lower and nitrates to appear like in my fresh water fish tanks when cycling but the PPM of the nitrites and ammonia must of been so low that the by product (nitrates) was too low to show on the chart.

This is what i had recorded in hand written notes and will continue to update as i go along.

[odin]

4th January 2016

Feeding my #03 community tank, Shrimplab Algae wafer (1 broken in half and added)
Dosed all 3 tanks with Biodigest and topped up the 2xcubes with RO

water quality in tank #03:
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
0 nitrate
8.0 PH

The nerite snails are doing a great job removing the stubborn algae on my tanks front wall, good news as it makes viewing inside much easier. The shrimp seem to pick at and ride on the shells of the nerites... Almost 'plaguing' them :D
As I feed this tank weekly I am not worried about the shrimps competing with the snails for food.

Both pieces of food had been devoured 100% in a few hours, Opae'ula mostly eat algae so there is no surprise there :p

[odin]

5th January 2016
I don't normally update mid week but i came home to find one of the LED lights had died and gave my communal tank #03 a flashing effect sort of like a strobe

They will have to have natual sunlight until i can get a new LED replacement, not that the shrimp or snails will mind! Plus the tank is directly in front of a window.

8th January 2016
Tanks #1& 2 seem to be doing fine, 'doing their own thing' I still have not fed either of these tanks.

One of the residents in tank #01 is munching down a moult:

Tank #3 has received its weekly feeding of one and a half shrimplab algae wafer (split into 3 parts and a 3rd in each dish). The shrimps got really excited when I dropped in the food, whether this is because I still have no lights and they prefer a night feed or they really like the food :)

The Nerite snails are enjoying the algae covered ocean rock, I'm hoping they will breed at some point.

[odin]

09th January 2015

Replacement LED light turned up, £34 worse off but its a necessity :D
I will install and add photos later,

Edit: We have light!
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Noticed 90% of the Opae'ula in tank #01 are huddled around the heater, i have it set to 20°C as its a smaller tank and gets warmer faster... i may raise the temperature of the heater up by 1°C just to see if its the water temp and not the algae on the heater they are attracted to.

[odin]

12th January 2016
Decided to try tank #01 on an algae wafer, it sat in the tank for 3 hours untouched so I removed it, obviously a lot of natural forming food still in that tank.
I also fed tank #03 some pure Spirulina powder, all the Opae'ula went wild and ate, here's a video and some photos.

Edit: The nerite snails are riding on top of each other, would be nice to see some baby snails.

[odin]

19th January 2016
Nothing much too add this week, I dosed all 3 tanks with biodigest, thinking of avoiding feeding tank #03 this Friday and just see if this has any effect on the green and brown coloured algae on my ocean rocks. I got the snails to aid in this job so maybe it will speed things up.

22nd January 2016
Skipped feeding tank #03 today, ran water sample tests on all 3 tanks and results are as follows:

Tank #01
Ammonia: 0 PPM
Nitrite: 0 PPM
Nitrate: 0 PPM
PH: 8.0
SG: Tank #02
Ammonia: 0 PPM
Nitrite: 0 PPM
Nitrate: 0 PPM
PH: 8.0
SG: Tank #03
Ammonia: 0 PPM
Nitrite: 0 PPM
Nitrate: 0 PPM
PH: 8.2
SG: I've noticed in tank #02 where I have selected only clear and red banded Opae'ula to live and try and breed, the shrimp seem to go pale and loose all colour and look unhappy and a day later they are deep red and clear again. I've also noticed the lack of algae growing on the tank walls and it also seems something could be wrong somewhere but I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe its the lack of shrimp/community numbers because they shrimp seem healthy enough? They were all deep red constantly when living in my community tank #03.

[odin]

31st January 2016
Today i received a new box of Biodigest as i was running low! keeps the tanks healthy :D
I also fed the large tank (#03) a half piece of Shrimplab Algae wafer and a small sprinkle of pure spirulina.. enough to have a very thin layer that spread to around an inch in diameter on the surface of the water. Tanks 1 and 2 show nothing new and seem to be very happy.

Took a few photos too!

[odin]

2nd February 2016
Today i took a magfloat magnetic scrubber to the front wall of the inside of the tank releasing algae all over the place and all the Opaeula shrimp went crazy for it! it was as if they were being fed and it was raining algae on them. :)

They didnt like the noise and vibrations of the cleaner being dragged over the glass and i got 50 shades of pale shrimp
I dosed all 3 tanks with Biodigest today also.

Ive also taken some photos and a video of some of my Zebra thorn (Clithon Diadema) snails