Jump to content

Odin

Recommended Posts

Hey SKF, 

I thought I would start my own thread here so I don't keep hijacking other people's threads :i-can-fly:

 

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 :)

 

 

image.jpeg

And here is my main tank,

 

image.jpeg

Edited by Odin
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 by Mech
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

d40f48e72c95e20b1fb994947d074c68.jpg

Sent from my SM-N920I using Tapatalk

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 by Mech
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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;

 

image.jpeg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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!?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 by Mech
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

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...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Join Our Community!

    Register today, ask questions and share your shrimp and fish tank experiences with us!

  • Must Read SKF Articles

  • Posts

    • ngoomie
      Alright, I've done a bit more research on gentian violet's cancer-causing potential but I haven't yet done research on malachite green's to compare. But from reading the California propositon 65 document about GV (North Americans incl. some Canadians will recognize this as the law that causes some products they buy to be labelled with "known to the state of California to cause cancer", including the exact product I bought) it seems that the risk of cancer is related to internal use, either injection or ingestion. Speaking of ingestion, I think GV bans mainly relate to its use in treating fish/shrimp/etc. which are intended for human consumption, because of the above. And in countries where GV isn't banned for this purpose, it does seem to get used on various species of shrimp without causing any issue for the shrimp themselves (at least enough so for shrimp farming purposes). See the following: In February, the FDA Began Rejecting Imported Shrimp for Gentian Violet and Chloramphenicol (2022 article by Southern Shrimp Alliance) FDA Starts New Calendar Year by Refusing Antibiotic-Contaminated Shrimp from Three BAP-Certified Indian Processors and Adding a BAP-Certified Vietnamese Processor to Import Alert (2024 article by Southern Shrimp Alliance) Southern Shrimp Alliance and some other organizations have tons of other articles in this vein, but I'd be here for a while and would end up writing an absolutely massive post if I were to link every instance I found of articles mentioning shrimp shipments with gentian violet and/or leucogentian violet registering as contaminants. That being said, I know shrimp farmed for consumption and dwarf shrimp are often somewhat distantly related (in fact, the one time a shrimp's species name is listed that I can see, it's the prawn sp. Macrobrachium rosenbergii, who at best occupies the same infraorder as Neocaridina davidi but nothing nearer), but this at least gives a slightly better way of guessing whether it will be safe for aquarium dwarf shrimp or not than my bladder snail anecdote from the OP.
    • sdlTBfanUK
      I would hazard a guess that perhaps those eggs were unfertilized and thereby unviable? Did the eggs change colour, usually yellow to grey as the yolks used up, or any eyes in the eggs. Is your water ok, using RO remineralised and the parameters in range, as I have heard others say that if the water isn't good it can 'force' a molt? How is it going overall, do you have a good size colony in the tank, you may have reached 'maximum occupancy' as a tank can only support so many occupants.
    • beanbag
      Hello folks,  The current problem I am having is that my Taiwan bee shrimp are molting before all their eggs have hatched.  Often the shrimp keep the eggs for 40+ days.  During that time, they lose about half or so, either due to dropping or duds or whatever.  Shortly before molting they look to have about a dozen left, and then they molt with about half a dozen eggs still on the shell.  Then the other shirmp will come and eat the shell.  These last few times, I have been getting around 0-3 surviving babies per batch.  I figure I can make the eggs hatch faster by raising the water temperature more (currently around 68F, which is already a few degrees higher than I used to keep it) or make the shrimp grow slower by feeding them less (protein).  Currently I feed Shrimp King complete every other day, and also a small dab of Shrimp Fit alternating days.  Maybe I can start alternating with more vegetable food like mulberry?  or just decrease the amount of food?
    • ngoomie
      Yeah, cancer risk was a thing I'd seen mentioned a lot when looking into gentian violet briefly. I kinda just figured it might only be as bad as the cancer risk of malachite green as well, but maybe I should look into it more. I've been doing a pretty good job of not getting it on my skin and also avoiding dunking my unprotected hands into the tank water while treating my fish at least, though. Maybe I'll just not use it once I'm done this course of medication anyways, because I know a store I can sometimes get to that's pretty distant carries both malachite green and methylene blue, and in pretty large quantities.
    • jayc
      Can't help you with Gentian Violet, sorry. It is banned in Australia violet for potential toxicity, and even possible cancer risks. I thought it was banned in Canada as well. At least, you now know why there isn't much info on gentian violet medication and it's use. But keep an eye on the snails after a week. If it affects the snails, it might not kill them immediately. So keep checking for up to a week. Much safer options out there. No point risking your own life over unsafe products.
×
×
  • Create New...