The Opae ula shrimp Forum and online store

Hi all, my name is Linda. I recently purchased a Opae ula setup from a vendor in Hawaii. It is a vase which contains 12 oz of brackish water, a lava rock, a little gravel, a plastic plant, and 4 shrimp. They are adorable!! But I am thinking of upgrading them to a half gallon tank with a heater, that I used to keep snails in. I have ordered a refractometer so I can check the salinity in the vase so I can match it in the tank. I plan on purchasing Instant Ocean salt and distilled water.

I am not planning on filtering the tank, but instead I will treat the water with Seachem Prime daily to bind the ammonia, thus preventing nitrite and nitrate production. This is how I care for my betta tank, it works great. I want to give my new shrimp buddies a healthy home.

I am glad that I found this forum!!

Hello B,

Welcome to the forum & world of opae ula. I personally would not use Seachem Prime. You'll be perfectly fine without out it. The opae produce very little waste. The waste it does produce will be used to feed the algae once it grows. These shrimp and set up go completely opposite of your typical salt or freshwater set up. I'm sure others will chime in here on this and post their opinion. Just my 2 cents. For example I keep my jar very simple. I don't move it much. Gets 4-5 hours of sunlight. I've only fed it 4 times in the 8-10 months I've had it. I won't feed it at all from now on. There's no reason to since I can see a light surface of algae growing on the glass plus the biofilm.

This is a great forum that's here to help fellow enthusiast. The goal here is to eduacate and share with on another. Everyone here is extremely helpful.

Welcome to our forum @BettaBeau ! I'm glad you are enjoying it, giving shrimp more space is always going to be a good move and it will help them thrive. You will get better water parameters and your tank will become way more stable which in turn will help things along with breeding. Indeed you don't need a filter or a pump... i use a heater as here in the UK it gets really cold and its not fair on the shrimp to suffer.

Btw is that your Bretta in your AV? if so its very nice,

Thanks, Vorteil and Odin! I was worried about not filtering and cycling the tank, even though I've read that it isn't necessary.

I have ordered some spirulina powder, since there is no algae in the vase yet. I won't feed much of it at all since there is only four shrimp at the moment. A tiny amount every two weeks until algae is visible, I was thinking.

Yup, that is my betta, his name is Kenda. He's awesome!

If you are worried about cycling you could setup their new home and let the tank sit with all its substrate and salt water for a good few weeks and as soon as you see algae growing then add your shrimp. The bioload from the 4 shrimp wont make any impact to be honest on your water so no need to the seachem prime.

Thanks for the advice. I am so happy to have these little ones, they are fascinating!

I agree and i can sit and watch them for hours, keep us all updated on your progress and tank upgrade when you get time to get it started!