I rescued all 14 shrimp from a friend's parents' house over 2 months ago and placed them in this old 1 gallon goldfish bowl. The water is half old water, half new water (which was equal parts pre-mixed seawater from a local shop and distilled water). The black lava rock is the original rock, and the sand is from Point Dume beach here in Southern CA.
They're doing fine so far. None have died, and every night they're actively swimming around.
I looked on other websites for tips on feeding them. So far seaweed sheets (like that for sushi), Hattori algae discs, kernels of rice, and spirulina flakes have all failed. I now feed them this spirulina powder I found at a Whole Foods Market in Santa Monica.
It was $19 for a 5oz jar of 100% pure spirulina powder, which seems like the exact same stuff Fukubonsai sells for much more. Instead of floating it on top, I mix it into water and drip it in. I take a shot glass, fill it half way with distilled water, and with a scoop made from a cut coffee stirring straw, I scoop out a mass of powder equivalent in size to a smaller shrimp and stir it into the water. Once it turns a blue green color, I slowly drip the liquid into the tank, watching the spirulina water drift down to where the shrimp are.
I feed them like this once a week, every sunday morning. By sunday evening, they are all gorged on spirulina, as evidenced by the noticeably darker "guts" visible through their thorax. The following monday morning I usually find 3 or 4 molted exoskeletons on the sand.
After I move this month, I plan on relocating them into a larger breeding environment, a 3 gallon betta tank to be filled with some Point Dume sand and lots of Hawaiian black lava rock.
It's been real interesting 9 weeks so far. These opae ulae have been really fun to take care of...
To everyone else with opae ula tanks, please post pictures of your tanks...
thanks
