Opae ula shrimp tank.

[Odin]

Hey SKF, 

I thought I would start my own thread here so I don't keep hijacking other people's threads 

 

i have a large tank which i am still fighting very very low nitrites for some reason, but I also have 2 30L cubes which I'm going to experiment with for breeding. I have put about 10-15 large red Opaeula in one cube and the other cube has around 6 red and clear banded coloured shrimp in, I want to see if it's possible to breed this characteristic as it crops up now and again. I have a few more but as the main tank had a net in the shrimp turn pale and it's hard to spot the banded ones lol.

Here is a quick shot of two of the brackish cubes. If the image is too large in size let me know I'm posting from my phone :)

 

 

And here is my main tank,

 

Edited April 24, 2017 by Odin

[Odin]

So im always watching the shrimp and record what they get up to, and i noticed this one eating and pulling direct from the rock with its mouth? i thought at first maybe a bad moult or lost its claws/arms but they get up and show the arms and then continue eating without its arms. Thought id share.

 

Edited November 22, 2015 by Mech

[Odin]

Not much to add but the water Params are now perfectly stable. No more water changes for at least 6 months or so... Depends on nitrates. Weekly feeding for the large tank only as the smaller ones have a lot of algae growth. I bought some different food which should be here today. Borneowild Red ruby, it's suppose to help colour up red shrimp and keep them healthy.

[Odin]

I have baby Opae ula :)

[Grubs]

Congratulations!  I can't see any legs.  Do they have planktonic larvae or direct developing young shrimp?

[revolutionhope]

That's so cool! According to ohmyupae.com they live for years and years!

Sent from my SM-N920I using Tapatalk

[KeenShrimp]

That is amazing??? like a tadpole shrimp!

[Odin]

The female carrys the eggs like normal freshwater shrimp but for 5 weeks, then they hatch into larvae and get released over a few days. The larvae swim around head down tail up for about 2 weeks before growing into shrimplets. They have little legs that flap around very fast, they are just up from their eyes on either side of the body, if you look carefully you can see the blur of the movement.

These guys live for 20 years, don't need water changes and eat maybe one food pellet a month if at all (they eat algae and biofilm that grows naturally). truly amazing shrimp.

Edited June 8, 2016 by Mech

[KeenShrimp]

Wow @Mech, the lifespan is incredible. Do you keep them in brackish water or fresh? Do you use something like Sulawesi salt for these?

[Odin]

7 hours ago, KeenShrimp said:

Wow @Mech, the lifespan is incredible. Do you keep them in brackish water or fresh? Do you use something like Sulawesi salt for these?

That is correct, they live in brackish water but they can tolerate very low to pretty high levels of salt and you don't have to worry about keeping the levels stable (they are built for fluctuating salt and fresh water changes that come fast or slow).

No remineralisers are needed at all :)

These are my tanks for them;

 

[KeenShrimp]

No wonder they live for 20 years: no water change can kill them. So cool. I do not think we have any of these in Australia yet. Up until now I thought that Opae Ula were just Hawaiian cherries: I was completely wrong and it turns out they are amazing!?

[Odin]

They tolerate water temps from around 15deg C up to 30ish so sometimes you don't need a heater. Just salty RO water and a tank/container :)

edit: no water agitation needed or filters and pumps either.

Edited June 9, 2016 by Mech

[Kaylenna]

I saw this post and got excited about possibly restarting an opae ula tank... but you're in the UK!  *tear*  I had to leave my 5gallon tank worth in the US when we relocated to AU. 

And yeah, their tanks are rather cool - once you get it right, nothing needs to go in or out other than the occasional top off and the only electrical thing I had for it was the light.  Once mine settled down and started producing babies (after 3-4 months of fiddling with the salinity), the population exploded. 

Congrats on your babies!

[sky99]

Hello!

Do you think that i could make brackish water with sea water (i live in the caribbean, the sea is everywhere) diluted with softwater to house those?

I have seen an online store that sells those, i really want to try those!

I've read that they are really cool about salinity levels...

[Zoidburg]

Just to be on the safe side, it's best to get RO water and salt crystals to make "saltwater" for tanks.

Although I'm sure it's "okay", to a degree, to use saltwater and tap water mixed together, you never know what creatures you could be introducing into an opae ula tank (besides the shrimp!), or what bacteria, plus tap varies and who knows what all is in that water... so not recommended.