New/old Opae Ula owner.

[12thMan]

I received an ecosphere as a gift back in 2001, and kept it at my office during that time. It initially had four shrimp, but after 12 years or so two had passed away, but I thought still have two alive after 12 years was pretty impressive. Mind you I didn't know anything about this shrimp other than cleaning their tank with the magnet about every two weeks or so.

Fast forward to about three weeks ago, and a co-worker accidentally stumbles into my work space and knocks over the ecosphere, causing it to break open. I instantly (A) freak out and (B) run to grab a cup to try to salvage the two shrimp that I legitimately care about. Thankfully I'm able to channel about half a cup or so of water off my desk top and into a paper cup, along with, and delicately picking up, the two shrimp who were feebly wiggling around on my desk. Quite sad but at least I was able to get them into water.

So silver lining, I had to research the shrimp as I wanted to try to keep them alive and I learned about how amazing they are, and how cruel the ecosphere set up is. It bums me out that I lost two of the four in that device, but live and learn. So I've been learning on the fly, and haven't had the luxury of running an empty tank for a few weeks to a month in advance... I had to wing it. So I went to a fish store near my office, and was able to get some freshwater and salt water water out of their water tanks (apparently they have tanks of just water for people to buy water from, thank god) along with some dead coral, java moss and a small baggie of sand/crushed coral (?). And a beta tank, which is just under a gallon.

So I'm learning on the fly, but I think I'm doing ok. I got some lava rocks from Home Depot as well, and wash everything thoroughly in distilled water first. I have the salinity set to 1.012 and the tank gets indirect sunlight and is between 68-73 degrees depending on day/night.

Before finding this forum, I did purchase 20 opae from another site as I read that opae ula are social. When I got the 20 opae in the mail, 5 so were DOA unfortunately. So I should have about 17 opae ula in my tank, but I've only counted 12 out in the open at once, but I built many hiding spots I can't see into so who knows. My ammonia is a little high, the test strip puts it at "1", stressful. So I'm adding a a drop or two of a solution to lower that every few days.... I'm guessing it is from my substrate?

Anywho I'm learning on the fly as I said, but here are some pics of my tank. This forum has been a bit help, lucky to have found it. If you have any feedback or see something I'm doing wrong, please feel free to let me know.

Below is a link to a handful of crappy cell phone pics of the tank.

Pictures of my tank and opae ula. http://imgur.com/a/jDAoV#0

-Sean

[Mustafa]

Welcome to the forum! I took a look at your tank and it looks like everything is just fine, although the tank is clearly not "ready", yet. All that coral rock you have int here will be covered first with brown algae, and then with green algae. I would stop adding ammonia neutralizers to the tank at this point. Just let the tank sit there and do nothing. Once the tank is "ready" the shrimp will be out there a lot more often.

Just a side note...the fact that you got 5 DOAs out of 20 is pretty common when people just pluck these shrimp from nature and sell them for little money (and possibly even claim they are "breeding" them). So many shrimp die this way every single year. And to think that these shrimp only occur on ONE Island chain in the entire world (and even there 90+ % of their habitats are gone..).....

The only thing I would add is that my experience has shown that the best substrate is an inert substrate with just some coral rock, or other calcium carbonate rock, added on top. Just a little bit is usually enough. Those types of tanks are my most productive tanks.

[12thMan]

Appreciate the advice Mustafa. Is there an inert substrate you'd suggest?

[Mustafa]

I use course silica sand in most of my tanks, but fine gravel works, too. As long as it does not harm the shrimp, any inert substrate will work.