I've recently rekindled my old love of the aquarium hobbies. I have a 29g (109Lt) aquarium that I've just restocked with fish. I have a 20g (75Lt) long that has a breeding colony of red cherry shrimp in it. When I was a kid, I had this pyramid shaped plastic aquarium with an under gravel filter and a dome light in the bottom, that I kept three or four golden mystery snails in. I've always loved inverts.
I belong to a really great Facebook group for fresh water plants and shrimp, but I couldn't find one for Opae Ula. That lead me here. I am really excited to be joining this community.
A few days ago, I set up my first Opae Ula tank. It's a 10g (37Lt) that I got for $3 (£2.34) from a white elephant sale. I bought a 7lb bag of lava rock from home depot, a mix of red and black, for $4.50 (£3.52); and a bag of aragonite substrate. I had a Nicrew LED that I had replaced with a bigger one, I cut a sheet of glass for the lid and I was ready to go.
Originally my son (age 7) and I were going to put together a Lion King like Pride Rock out of the lava rocks. Unfortunately, I had forgotten how long it took to cure, so we had to scrap that idea. We settled with making a pile on one end. I figured this would simulate their tunnels from the pools and was still something he could help with. I also formed a little bit of a curve at the bottom to give it maybe a "harbor" sort of look.
Please excuse the black blasting sand on the side of the tank.
I mixed up the salt and the water and poured it in and added the, I guess i would say, more decorative lava rocks. I tried to add them in such a way that it would look like maybe they had once been on the pile. I don't know if that comes across.
After inquiring in the freshwater plants and shrimp group, I found a main land breeder that I knew I could trust based on his reputation in the group. He sent me 50 adults plus shrimplets. They arrived well packed with no losses during travel. They clung happily to a clump of algae he included. I floated them while I went out for the day and I did some tea spoon water transfers before setting them loose in their new home. That was Sunday. They seem to have really gotten comfortable in their tank. There is always activity for me to watch. They are exploring and swimming and sometimes I see them doing loop-de-loops.
I funny thing is happening to the algae from the seller. As air bubbles from the substrate or lava rock are released, they catch the algae on the way up. When enough bubbles catch a piece, it first becomes partially suspended in the water and then eventually floats to the top. The shrimp go up and graze on it, dislodge the bubbled and it re-sinks. It's a pretty cool effect, and switches up the aquascape a little bit.
The black rock to the left is my son's favorite because it is hollow inside. I placed it up front so we could easily watch it and see if we could catch a shrimp going into it. No luck yet. We have some good algae growth going on now. in a few days the light will be hooked up to the timer to give them a proper cycle.
I'll update this as interesting things happen.
I belong to a really great Facebook group for fresh water plants and shrimp, but I couldn't find one for Opae Ula. That lead me here. I am really excited to be joining this community.
A few days ago, I set up my first Opae Ula tank. It's a 10g (37Lt) that I got for $3 (£2.34) from a white elephant sale. I bought a 7lb bag of lava rock from home depot, a mix of red and black, for $4.50 (£3.52); and a bag of aragonite substrate. I had a Nicrew LED that I had replaced with a bigger one, I cut a sheet of glass for the lid and I was ready to go.
Originally my son (age 7) and I were going to put together a Lion King like Pride Rock out of the lava rocks. Unfortunately, I had forgotten how long it took to cure, so we had to scrap that idea. We settled with making a pile on one end. I figured this would simulate their tunnels from the pools and was still something he could help with. I also formed a little bit of a curve at the bottom to give it maybe a "harbor" sort of look.
Please excuse the black blasting sand on the side of the tank.
I mixed up the salt and the water and poured it in and added the, I guess i would say, more decorative lava rocks. I tried to add them in such a way that it would look like maybe they had once been on the pile. I don't know if that comes across.
After inquiring in the freshwater plants and shrimp group, I found a main land breeder that I knew I could trust based on his reputation in the group. He sent me 50 adults plus shrimplets. They arrived well packed with no losses during travel. They clung happily to a clump of algae he included. I floated them while I went out for the day and I did some tea spoon water transfers before setting them loose in their new home. That was Sunday. They seem to have really gotten comfortable in their tank. There is always activity for me to watch. They are exploring and swimming and sometimes I see them doing loop-de-loops.
I funny thing is happening to the algae from the seller. As air bubbles from the substrate or lava rock are released, they catch the algae on the way up. When enough bubbles catch a piece, it first becomes partially suspended in the water and then eventually floats to the top. The shrimp go up and graze on it, dislodge the bubbled and it re-sinks. It's a pretty cool effect, and switches up the aquascape a little bit.
The black rock to the left is my son's favorite because it is hollow inside. I placed it up front so we could easily watch it and see if we could catch a shrimp going into it. No luck yet. We have some good algae growth going on now. in a few days the light will be hooked up to the timer to give them a proper cycle.
I'll update this as interesting things happen.
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Last edited by goshawn on 24 Aug 2017 09:27, edited 1 time in total.
