mech's opae'ula thread

[KenCotigirl]

Good luck with the adventure! Now we need Mustafa to breed the clear ones with green eggs.

Ken

[Mech]

Last night I did a water change on my large tank, as it needed it but I put about 10 - 15 large red shrimps in one of my cubes, and managed to net around 6 shrimps with clear bands and put them in my 2nd cube tank.

It got hard to spot them after they all turned pale in my main tank so I will net them out now as I see them.

[camaronqueseduerme]

I have been checking your YouTube videos and they look great. You have lots and lots of shrimp, I'm jealous. How many berried ones do you have at any given time?

[Mech]

Thanks, I haven't noticed any but I've got really small shrimp in the tank so I dunno what's happening. Unless I've missed the larvae... The tanks are in a spare upstairs bedroom.

[Mech]

Took this video when i saw a shrimp eating direct from the ocean rock, at first i thought that maybe it lost its legs/claws and needed to eat direct from mouth to food but it gets up and eats like the rest and continues to eat strange again. May be nothing but i wanted to share it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i80AZI_qV4o

[KenCotigirl]

Mech very interesting. Cannot say i ever saw that before. Thanks for sharing.

Ken

[mcdaney]

Maybe the algae on that rock is too delicious to just pick on them using claws.. Just chow it down!

[Mech]

Went on for a good long while, usually when farm animals eat from the ground like that it's because they are lame I some way, but this shrimps legs are fine lol. Maybe they are lazy shrimp? I notice if they can't be bothered to swim from the top of the tank to the bottom on the substrate they just go life less and float down... Sometimes upside down and looks like they have died mid water and sank but they spring to life just before they touch the floor! I'm siding on lazy shrimp lol.

[jonesinfershrimp]

lol lazy seems right. i see my ghost shrimp eat the same way sometimes. but they have BBA to feed on which is pretty long ATM.

[Mech]

just a quick update, all 3 tanks doing great! the large tank gets fed once a week and the smaller ones i dont feed shrimp food yet.

Here is a shot of one of my cubes and a shot of one of the banded shrimp in cube number 2 (banded only shrimp)

http://www.opaeula.co.uk/misc/shrimp/01.jpg

http://www.opaeula.co.uk/misc/shrimp/02.jpg

[NYCShrimp]

So awesome! I wish you luck with breeding those banded shrimp. That really is a cool look, and that is one gorgeous shrimp!

What size cubes are thoses? They look remarkably similar to the glass 2.5gals I just bought on sale.

[Mech]

So awesome! I wish you luck with breeding those banded shrimp. That really is a cool look, and that is one gorgeous shrimp!

What size cubes are thoses? They look remarkably similar to the glass 2.5gals I just bought on sale.

Thanks
The cubes are 30litres each as we use that measure here in the UK, I'm not sure what that is in US gallons.

[jonesinfershrimp]

~8gallons

[Mech]

~8gallons

Thanks

[Mech]

I've been experimenting with foods over the last month, I've tried 3 different foods, shrimp King Complete, shrimplab algae and borneowild red ruby.

The shrimp King food was ok, it broke up fast and the shrimps ate but didn't really swarm. This may be due to shrimp being able to pick up food that's fallen apart and swim off with it rather then staying and eating in the dish. This was a pellet style food, all natural.

Shrimplab algae pads, these are high in algae and all natural, they don't break down as easy as pellets and the shrimp seemed to really like them. Interested from the start and they got eaten pretty fast, I will be using this more then often.

The borneowild red Ruby is a specialty shrimp food aimed at red shrimp which comes in pad form which doesn't break up fast, it contains Astaxanthin which enhances the red colour. 100% natural and my shrimps went crazy for it! When I put a tiny piece in each bowl the shrimp swam around crazy like when you put your hand in the tank and swarmed the food I put in.

I'm going to alternate the shrimplab algae pads and red Ruby weekly and I hope this will give them the nutrients and algae to keep them healthy.

I feed them once a week as I have around 300 in the 17 gallon tank. The smaller tanks I don't feed.