Passing it on

[phlox]

Hi all,

I am moving on from my job in the new year and since I'll be moving and don't want to freak them out, I'm passing my opae to a coworker who dotes on them. She is a little nervous about not killing them, so I just want to make sure I'm giving her a happy, healthy opae community. I just have four shrimp in a half-gallon betta tank, and they seem happy enough.

I did notice, though, a startling number of floatey black flakes when I added some water before the weekend. I assume it's opae poo (the substrate is black sand, but it's never suspended before,) and just want to make sure the bacteria is still healthy and able to keep up.

I did a test strip, and the numbers came out as follows:

GH 180 (although this isn't fresh, so I'm not sure how that works)
KH 180
pH 7.0
Nitrites- somewhere between 0 and 0.5
Nitrates- somewhere between 0 and 20

Is this healthy/is there anything else I should test?

I've also had some molting but no berries-- not sure if all my opae are female or if there's something else I should be doing. What do you think?

Thanks for your help!

[Mustafa]

I wouldn't worry about water parameters. If your shrimp have been healthy and happy so far, then don't change anything. With four shrimp there is a possibility that you only have one gender, but there may be other reasons why your shrimp are not breeding. For one...a light and plenty of algae growth is needed for the shrimp to have enough to eat (and the water to be "filtered" by the algae) in between the once every two weeks feedings. Other than that...just tell her to look at this website, read all the information and she should do just fine.

[phlox]

Thanks so much, Mustafa! She's really looking forward to taking care of them.