[thecollector]

I'm new here...

I bought some Opae Ula from Oden a while back and said I'd let him know how they get on.

Well it's been a while since my order. And I've just caught my first four baby Opae and wanted to share the good news...

Below is a picture of my current tanks:
Tank 1 is a 10l nano cube (far right), the water level is at about 5l, I don't like the hight of the tank and ended up finding tank 2 (middle one), which is an acrylic vase (15cm x 15cm x 15cm) you can get them on Amazon or eBay.

On the left is Tank 3, it's one from from eBay - same size as the Amazon one (tank 2). There is a difference in how the acrylic vases are made and the one's from Amazon are a lot better. They have better clarity, than the eBay ones and are thicker. The amazon ones do seam to have scratches and defects all in the same place, I've got two of them and it looks like the mould they are made in, produces the same imperfections in the exact same place.

Once you have the substrate in, you don't notice the imperfections.

I’m not too concerned as I’m planning on making some plywood tanks, (covered in Epoxy and fibreglass), to move the Opae Ula into. As I can’t find off the shelf shallow but wide tanks - so as to try and mimic the pools the Opae come from. And to be able to keep the temps consistent especially in the summer here in London. Looking to add a titanium plate, to add external water cooling to the tanks - yep like a PC...

[odin]

Welcome @thecollector and thanks for signing up and letting me know how the shrimp i sold you are doing! I'm glad yours are breeding for you, i too would love some long shallow but narrow tanks that would sit well on a bookcase or similar. Maybe you can goto a fish/pet store and have some made for you because i cannot see them being expensive in the sizes you would want.

These shrimp are very addictive to keep and i noticed you have MTS (multiple tank syndrome) like may of us in the hobby. Once your shrimp are breeding like yours are doing now you know your water is perfect for them so well done on getting it like that.

[thecollector]

Thanks Odin...

Back to the baby tank, it's the round thing on top of tank 2 - the middle one. It's temporary until I setup another amazon cube.

Unfortunately I don't have a good way to get close up shots, I've bought lenses for my iPad, but it's very difficult taking pictures. If anyone has an recommendations they would be appreciated.

I use some cheap USB LED strip lights I got off of eBay. They run off a powered USB 3 hub that has individual on/off buttons for each USB port.

The tanks all have a thin layer of Caribsea Aragonite.

I use Tetra marine salt, simply because the salt I wanted to get was out of stock and the seller offered to send me a bigger bag (4kg vs 1kg of the out of stock one) of the Tetra salt.

I've bought a bunch of Hydrometers, including the floating ones, but evenly just bought the Red Sea seawater Refractometer. Should not have wasted my money on the other stuff.

The Refractometer is just so much easier to use, and I’m now getting consistent brackish water: I try to aim for 0.012 but end up at 0.010.

Which seams to work as I’ve got 4 babies. From 3 berried Females.

The first one I saw about a month back had a whole bunch of eggs. I could see more than 11 - couldn’t count all the eggs. Then a week or so ago, I saw two other females, one with about 7 eggs. I first though the first female had dropped some eggs, until a couple of minutes later another berried came up next to her (one with only 7 or so eggs). Did a happy dance.

[odin]

Lol what ever you are doing keep on doing it as its going well for you, What are you using to transfer the young over with?

[thecollector]

For my water:

I have a table top water distiller, was for another project, which needed distilled water. It was much cheaper for me to buy the distiller from eBay (about £50, including delivery from Germany) than having to buy 25l of distilled water every so often.

Costs about 40p (£0.40) each time I distill about 3.5L (starts off with 4L). So to do 25L would only cost £3.024. Can't get 5L deliver for that amount from eBay or Amazon, even on prime. If I hook it up to a solar system (uses 700w per hour - takes 3 hours to run) than I'll have no more lecy cost - still on my todo list.


Need to Distill some more water for the new baby cube and to do a water change on the other tanks.

I use standard BBQ lava rock in all the main tanks.

I've got some Biohome filter media that I got as a sample from filterpro.co.uk mostly in tank 1. As well as some of the Biogravel Marine, mostly in tank 1.

Each time I setup a new tank, I take out 2 bits of the Biohome media to seed the new tanks.

I also use the API Stress coat+ and Quick start. Plus pure balance marine gel balls to start the tanks and then one ball every week or so.


So far I’ve not had any issues when starting from scratch.

Only had issues when trying to cycle the tanks, before adding the Opae Ula.


Using fresh mixed water, plus a couple of drops of the API Stress coat+ and Quick start and then a gel ball. Has solved a few issues that I’ve come across. It's now my go to method, when in doubt, change it out...


I might jut use the old tank water (when I do a water change) from tank 1 for the new baby cube. Don't want to mess up.


Each tank has at leat one moss ball - they are about 3 to 4 cm wide.

I'm currently trying out subwassertang in each of the main tanks. So far after nearly two months, the Opae hasn't eviscerated it, nor has it's died.

I got some micro algae with my order from Odin, but the Opae have mostly eaten it.

[thecollector]

Lol what ever you are doing keep on doing it as its going well for you, What are you using to transfer the young over with?

I bought that glass smoking pip thing.

Took me ages to collect the first 3.

Then tried my old trusty turkey baster. Got the last one out in one. Best money I've spent, wish I could get my money back on the glass pipe - that thing is difficult to use in tight spaces and the babies are so skittish they dart out as you get to the surface.

[odin]

I tend to put my finger over the hollow tube end and put the catcher near the larvae then slowly release my finger off the hole and it sucks water into the catcher and up the spout while bringing the larvae into the cup part of the catcher then reapply my finger to stop the larvae shooting all the way through the glass catcher and not damaging it.

[thecollector]

The main reason for the name is not because of the tanks.

But because of the Opae from different sources.

Bought 20 from Odin, but had a problem with my tank water, and ended up losing nearly half.

Tank 2: has Opae from the UK distributers of Ecospheres, bought them in their shrimp world diy ecosystem. They (the distributers) can take a while to respond if there is a problem with the order, say some die after receiving them. But they do try to resolve by either sending out another shrimp world or refunding your money.

Tank 3 is a different issue, I won't add their business name here, (but if you look at the image you'll get the product name and can easily find them using google. You’ll know who they are when you see the same baby tank on their web site). On paper they have a better product than the shrimp world diy ecosystem, as you get 5 Opae vs 3.

But the people selling them are more interested in selling, than dealing with any issues. Lost some because of delivery, and they won’t respond.

Trust me when I say: my recommendation is to stay way from them.

If you are not looking for Opae Ula genetic diversity, but just want some Opae to have around, just get them from Odin. In fact I might hit him up again for some more myself.

[thecollector]

I tend to put my finger over the hollow tube end and put the catcher near the larvae then slowly release my finger off the hole and it sucks water into the catcher and up the spout while bringing the larvae into the cup part of the catcher then reapply my finger to stop the larvae shooting all the way through the glass catcher and not damaging it.

I see...

Might try your way, when I next see a baby to move out...

[odin]

The problem is a lot of these company's don't really care much for the shrimp or you once they have left their warehouse which is a shame, its the main reason why i setup this forum (to help keepers and to help with after sales if needed).