[caine]

Hi, I'm new here but have kept aquariums for quite some time.

I've been keeping opae ula for about about 8 months. Originally i had them in this little 5 gallon equipped with a heater, HMF + small adjustable pump, gravity fed ATO, crushed volcanic rock substrate and a pile of volcanic rock for the shrimps to hide and breed in. I started with 11 shrimp. After two berthing events, I now have about 35 shrimp. 12 of these are juveniles. When one of my aquariums opened up for new residents i decided to move them from the 5 gallon to the newly vacated 10 gallon aquarium.

This is what the 5 gallon currently looks like.


The juveniles are still in there. I'm finding it challenging to catch at the moment so I'll let them fatten up a bit before moving them to the new home. The new home.is much better.



It is a standard 10 gallon aquarium with crushed volcanic rock substrate, volcanic rock piles for breeding and hiding. It is running a heater, gravity fed ATO and a PVC pipe DIY, air driven, undergravel filter running at a trickle. I decided to do the UGF to try to simulate the slight current that I imagine their natural habitat would have between rocks and rubble. Salinity is at 1.010.

https://vimeo.com/184620054

In addition to the shrimps, I have some horned nerite sun snails in there to help clean up a little.

Here are some closer up photos of the setup. The original 11 used to be more red, but only a few are red now.






If you look really closely, you can see a female carrying a clutch of eggs. It looks like they are ready to be released any time now. I don't even understand how she can swim without dropping the eggs :o They seem to like the rock pile on the left a lot and I'm not sure why.

These guys have only been in the new he for two days. I'm considering increasing the salinity slightly in a few weeks to see if it will help with colouration.

Hopefully I'll learn a lot from you guys here! :)

[Ann]

Hi Caine,
It's great to see you here. I just love your photos. I'm very interested in learning about your experiences with Opae Ula. Odin and Opae Ula Related are the great sources of information here. I learned so much! They are very generous with their knowledge. Glad that you are a part of the Forum!
Ann

[odin]

Hey Caine, welcome to our forum! Those photos are great and the shrimp look to be doing great in your setup. Over time the Opae Ula do seem to lose some of their vibrancy and I'm not sure if this is due to environment or food source being different to what they are accustom to in the wild. I wouldn't mess with the salinity if you are having successful breeding as you obviously have perfect water perameters already!

Keep us informed on that berried mom shrimp and keep the photos coming as it's great to see other keepers setups. If you need any help with anything just put up a post.

[opae ula related]

Nice! I like the way you try to hide the heater, etc.! Is that drift wood?

[odin]

@caine I love the substrate you have too, did you break it up yourself or buy it that size? Also do you have any tips for making a tank size upgrade any less painful then it looks to be?

[caine]

Nice! I like the way you try to hide the heater, etc.! Is that drift wood?

Thanks! That's a chunk of petrified wood that my uncle gave me. I have two more chunks. One in my Sulawesi Cardinal aquarium and another that is dry. I love them.

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[caine]

@caine I love the substrate you have too, did you break it up yourself or buy it that size? Also do you have any tips for making a tank size upgrade any less painful then it looks to be?

I did try to break it up once and it took forever. I actually discovered that they sell bags of it as grip enhancer for icy driveways and sidewalks (I'm in Canada). Its mixed red and black volcanic rock about 3 to 6 mm in size. I painstakingly pick out all the red ones, but you'll see that I miss some. I also used this for my Sulawesi's.

I do wish I could find a good source of black volcanic, rugby ball sized, boulders.

As for upgrades, I found that it was mostly easy. I setup the hardware and hardscape, filled it up with RO, turned on my air and heater. I then added salt over a weekend until I had a match in salinity with the old aquarium. It took a couple of days for the dust to settle. I didnt even cycle the tank. I just moved over all the volcanic rock that was already full of beneficial bacteria just prior to moving the shrimps.

I think it helps that I have a lot of excess gear from when I went caridinia shrimp crazy and was running over 10 aquariums.

[odin]

Ahhh i see, black lava rock is even harder to find here in the UK... like finding hens teeth , im tempted to upgrade the size of my tank but i keep putting it off lol.

[caine]

It has been another day and the opae ula have coloured up a bit. Maybe even to their original purchase colour. They are starting to explore a bit more in the new setup, but it helps that I just fed them :)

https://goo.gl/photos/FxZokpfT9Ghqf1iy5

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[odin]

They seem to like to hang out in that corner as if they are all plotting something , What sort of food do you feed them and how often do they get fed?