Just a quick update, I've had many berried females but absolutely zero larvae and i am still feeding them around 5 to 10 fish flakes every Sunday evening for food. I've noticed a lot of green algae and biofilm growing which is more the likely from the food and waste so I've decided to put in some more macro algae to suck up all the nutrients/nitrates. I put a ball in this tank when i first set it up and after a few days/week the whole ball had vanished! It didn't break up and I had no snails in the tank at the time so I want to see if the same thing happens again this time (maybe the shrimp are eating it). I have wedged it up in the thermometer away from the bottom of the tank to try and keep it away from the Alpha Opae ula's.
Spotted some alphas eating the thick layer of algae on the surface of the water tonight which is a first, ive always read they dont eat algae but now i know they do! I fed the tank some fish flake and shot a quick video:
Edit: Heres the algae eating Alpha, its short.. out of focus and awful quality but you get the idea
These guys have been moved to a smaller tank to give their old tank to a new Opae ula larvae tank:
They seem to be doing well and i have not noticed any dead ones, they had new substrate so i have moved a bag of super mature substrate in a mesh bag into their tank to help cycle the tank faster.
You tank looks great :). Were you able to breed M. lohena larvae in your tank?
Thanks friend! I have never seen any larvae floating and i didn't get around to trying out a seperate marine strength/salinity tank for the berried female to live in. I'm not sure if the eggs get aborted or the larvae get released and perish the same day?
Haha...I guess you'd need them if you got a opaeula population explosion. I just started on rearing them with 3 shrimp small micro tank bought from a local fish shop. But I noticed one had eggs under her stomach so I am preparing a bigger tank using the guide on this website.
I saw the lohena sold in the shop and it looks bigger...a pity nobody seems to have successfully breed them in captivity
@Beano I noticed the Opae ula shrimp bred like crazy after upgrading my tank to a larger size. If you transport over all of the old tank into the new one and make up some brackish water and let that water sit for a day or so then add it into the new tank you wont get any issues.
