[Artemis]

I started an Opae Ula shrimp tank back in February, with 10 shrimps in a 5L/1 gallon jar (old laboratory equipment but well washed). They have aragonite substrate, some mossballs and a plastic plant to sit on and the water is Instant Ocean mixed to a specific gravity of about 1.010. They used to have a light but it broke and as there is plenty of algae in the jar I didn't replace it!

One of the females became berried and the babies hatched in mid September. However, I have a pretty cold house (a tiny Victorian terrace) and I leave the heating off during the night and when I'm at work during the day. I'm in the UK where it is now pretty chilly and the larvae, although alive, didn't seem to be developing.

I moved them to my office at work on Tuesday! They went white after being sloshed about in the car but are mostly red again now. Fingers crossed the larvae grow up in the nice warm (22-24 C) office.



The jar



Some inhabitants

I don't have a camera good enough to take pictures of the babies unfortunately!

[odin]

Welcome to the Opae ula forum! Thats a great tank and your shrimps look loverly and red so they must be happy
They will stay as larvae for around 15 days so keep your eye out on them sticking to the side of the tank when they morph into fully fledged shrimps, they can be hard to spot though! How long have you had your setup for? If you use a heater you will get constant breeding if that is what you are going for

[Artemis]

Thanks for the welcome!

I saw some of the babies swimming around horizontally like grown ups this evening so I think they're mostly out of the larval stage. I set up the jar in January and added the shrimps in February this year, so it's been about 9 months.

The babies were definitely larval for more than 2 weeks though. I think they were at an average temperature of 15 or 16 C and they must develop much slower then. I'll have to get a lens to photograph them.

I have been considering a heater but I'm worried about them being cooked (5L is smaller than most fish tanks). I don't know how I'd get it set up through the narrow neck of the jar either so for now I'm taking advantage of my over heater office. It's definitely over 20 C 24 hours a day

[opae ula related]

Welcome Artemis,



This could be an option and it doesnt require to be in the water.

[Artemis]

That looks great actually!

[Artemis]

I managed a few (bad) pictures of the babies today. They're fully fledged miniature shrimp.

[odin]

Oh hey they look awesome, congratulations on the baby’s!


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[Artemis]

I still haven't got a heater but things seem to be continuing well at the office.

I've seen two molts since the big move so hopefully we'll see another berried female soon.

[Artemis]

Berried!

Finally some more reproduction! As I hoped, the nice warm centrally heated office has led to more babies. I spotted my second berried shrimp today. It looks like she has 8 or 9 eggs

[Artemis]

Definitely preggers