Happy news and call for advice

[Oople]

Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum and still a novice with opae ula. I wanted to thank everyone for the wealth of information shared on this site; share happy shrimp news; and ask some thoughts from other members.

First, the good news. I have a 2.5 gallon tank with about a dozen adults. Today I counted at least 22 babies! I am not sure if they are all siblings but I only saw one berried female and they all seem to be at the same stage.

Their current tank isn't very pretty and have been wanting to upgrade it but not at the risk of messing with the babies. I am planning to wait until the larvae get a little older and aren't floating around anymore to do anything. Right now there's a thin layer of black aquarium gravel that I want to remove and replace with aragonite sand. There's also a pile of coral and rock rubble on one side of the tank. It's functional but not very artistic. I'd like to change to a more artistic rock landscape. Here's the question I'd like to put out to the forum: would you do a live-in home renovation or get them a rental apartment during the home renovation?

I'm also looking forward to starting a second smaller 3/4 gallon tank for the office. The macroalgae is recommended to help cycle a new tank but would the mini moss balls also work? They are adorable and I hope to have a healthy carpet of them someday. I'm afraid the macroalgae would compete for nutrients and slow down the growth of the moss balls.

I've had a few babies previously but nothing remotely like this current batch of 20+. I'm officially in an opae ula frenzy.

[Edwin]

Congrats on the babies!! I'm still waiting for mine.

A rental apartment would be preferred I think. The renovation would probably disturb them too much and you wouldn't be sure of the water quality during and post renovation too. Be very careful of the renovation. You had painstakingly set up the tank and achieve breeding after all; an indicator that you have been on the right path All the best for the renovation.

[Oople]

Thanks Edwin!

[Oople]

Please bear with me as I try to figure out this photo thing.

Here's a picture where you can see an adult up front and the babies floating in the background.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/149718383@N04/shares/

[Mustafa]

Hi Oople,
The photo link isn't working. Do you mind uploading the photo as an attachment to a post? As for the mossballs...they can be in the same tank with the macroalgae, but the macroalgae do grow much more quickly under the right conditions. However, there are also times when the macroalgae doesn't grow much at all but the mossballs grow and bud like crazy. It all depends on your tank conditions.

[Oople]

Mustafa - I wouldn't mind uploading at all. Embarrassing, but I couldn't figure out how to do that.

[Oople]

I think I got it!
Here's pictures of some adults and another of larvae.

[Oople]

I got a cool picture of a molt a few weeks back.

[Arquisto]

Awesome photo! Glad things are going well and you got some babies!

[Oople]

I ended up just leaving the tank alone since the shrimp seem happy enough. I did get a tank light so that has changed things up enough for them. I also started a work tank and just put the shrimp in. I ran out of distilled water though and have been meaning to get another bottle. This is habit forming.

[Mustafa]

This is habit forming.

Haha...it sure is.