New To The Forum & To Opae Ula

[Mustafa]

It should be noted that my neighbor added the Tarebia granifera to his 2.5 gallon desk top. They helped to clean but they definitely did not put a dent in his growing population.

The T. granifera won't put a dent in green algae populations. They do clean up brown algae (usually diatoms) quite well, though. The snails aren't meant to be a clean-up crew in the sense that they eliminate algae from the tank. They only eat excess algae and detritus that the shrimp don't eat. Since the shrimp have legs, they will always get to the algae faster than the snails, so the snails always eat "leftovers." The most important role they play is in their role in slowly processing detritus (i.e. shrimp and snail crap and other organic matter). The nerites can and do put a dent in algae populations, but that's counterproductive in my experience. They clean up *too* well to a point where there may not be any algae growing on the glass/walls of the tank. Plus, they don't care at all for detritus or any other organic matter.

I also would not be worried about 10 snails being too much for any tank. Even in half gallon tanks that's not too much. I don't send out huge adults anyway, and the small snails you get will only grow and multiply if you provide tons of food...which you shouldn't anyway. In other words, the population of snails in your tank will adjust to the tank conditions over time and become balanced. I've never had problems with my Tarebia granifera snails in any of my tanks.

@jpccusa: Thanks for the larvae pictures!

[jpccusa]

Wow, I can't believe it has been a year since I started with the Opae.
I have had great success with these guys. Starting with only 27 shrimp, now I can say I have over 100 in 2 separate tanks.
Both tanks are setup the same way:
- Aquarium gravel
- Black lava rock gravel
- A few hiding spots
- Macro algae (chaetomorpha)
- Reverse osmosis water with specific salinity of 1.014
- Office temperature is somewhat constant during the day (72 degrees), but the AC gets turned off at night and during the weekends. Temperatures can be as high as 90 and as low as 50 during those times.
- The older tank has an LED desk light on top of it. The newer tank has only the office light.
- No water changes, ever. I top-off the evaporated water pure RO water.
- No measuring of water parameters anymore. I figured they are happy enough to reproduce, why bother.
- I feed powdered spirulina, measured with the tip of a pencil (yes, THAT little), once a month (yes, THAT infrequently).

I see berried females, larvae, and juveniles all the time.

[KenCotigirl]

That is great to hear! Before you know it you will be supplying the office with stress relief tanks.

Ken