Ecosphere Releasees

[nightsmusic]

Hello!

I'm new, I've scoured this forum as well as the interwebs and I still have a couple questions. If these are repeats of another thread, I apologize in advance. I tried to make my searches as thorough as possible, but from running my own PhPbb board, I know the search engine is not always the best.

I had two ecospheres, one was mine that was three years old, one I'd bought for my daughter that was two years old. I started keeping RCS about three months ago and am really enjoying them, but as I was reading on how to care for them, I kept coming across all sorts of info on how it was actually not good for the Opae'ula to be in the ecospheres. One major reason is that they would get smaller with each molt, if they did molt at all. For me and mine, that turned out to be correct. They were not as big as they were when received.

Long story short, I did a lot of reading, got a half gallon jar, some Carib Sea sand, about a gallon of brackish aquarium water from my local shop, set up the jar with the sand, water, a couple of collected shells I scrubbed well with clear water and a brush and let the whole thing sit for a couple days to settle. The jar has a cork lid so I can remove it to do anything that might be needed. After a few days, I tested the water, the salinity was good, so I opened the ecospheres and coaxed the two shrimp out along with their respective micro algae and other items (some small white stones, a few empty snail shells and a couple of sea fans) and all of that went into the jar.

So far, one shrimp has gotten a lot redder, the other, I can't see right now. I did see a transparent white shrimp shaped object and am wondering if one of them might have molted already. If so, I'm guessing that would mean he's in hiding until his shell strengthens.

My questions are these:

Can I put a few more of the same species shrimp in? Since I have the lid, I can 'feed' them once every week or two if needed.

If I can put a few more in, how many? I don't seem to be able to find any information on optimal shrimp to volume ratio. I've read everything from 50 - 60 in a one gallon container to no more than 10 in the same size.

I see on the petshrimp store site that I can buy 10 shrimp at a time. If adding 10 more is a problem, has anyone ordered just three or four at a time?

I have no filter on this, I'm trying to keep it as ecological as possible. While my RCS are filtered, I had hoped to keep this one 'natural'. I am seeing a bit of white here and there, like little spots, on the black sand though and a film on the surface. Would this be normal or am I in trouble?

I've also added a small marimo but am wondering if I should add a second. The micro algae didn't seem to be a lot but they do like crawling around on the marimo.

I have a very small tiger nerite in there right now because I thought it might be good for the ecosystem, but I'm not sure I should leave him in there and would like some information on that.

I know, I'm probably asking questions that have been asked a thousand times, but some of the answers were contradictory.

Thank you so much!

[Varanus]

This page has most of the info you need but I'll summarize some answers and add some info that isn't there: http://www.petshrimp.com/opaesetup.php

1. Don't feed every week or two, at most feed every three or four weeks, or even less often. This is true for supershrimp tanks in general, but in such a small tank as yours you really need to be careful about how much you feed.
2. A half gallon can easily keep 10-20 shrimp, however you need to make sure the water quality is good first (no ammonia and such).
3. No filter is needed.
4. Marimo moss balls are for freshwater environments, not brackish water, they will likely slowly die and pollute the water in a supershrimp tank.
5. Unless you have a lot of algae, a nerite may have simply too big an appetite to be happy in a supershrimp tank, especially a tank this small (i.e. less space for food to grow).

[nightsmusic]

Thank you, Varanus! I appreciate all the answers.

I'm not leaving the snail in there. In fact, my plan was to put him back in the RCS tank today. I have a huge nerite in the RCS tank that will be going to work with me tomorrow to help a bit with my Betta tank. Hopefully, Killer won't bother him though he hangs there in the water, looking at me like I'm lunch...

I did read a lot of information on marimos and brackish water before I put the little guy in there, and will keep an eye on him. So far, the shrimp seems to like him.

I'll order another 10 shrimp then from Petshrimp. I'm testing the water (strips and a refractometer) and so far, everything seems to be good. I tried two different foods (different times) and one seemed to explode in the water which was another reason I put my snail in. I didn't want it to get disgusting. But I'll hold back and only feed once a month.

I'm still not seeing the second shrimp, but like I mentioned, sometimes my RCS go missing when they molt so I'm hoping that's the case. I just felt so bad for them in the ecosphere and it seemed almost like they were disappearing because they kept getting smaller and clearer.

Thank you for everything! I really appreciate the information.

[nightsmusic]

I have come back with another question. Sorry! I put a small piece of cuttlebone or some ground eggshells in my RCS tank to help with shell development. Should I also do that in this as well? I'm not sure I've seen this addressed but since they also have a shell, would it be a good idea?

[Mustafa]

Look under "Equipment and Supplies" here:

http://www.petshrimp.com/opaesetup.php

I don't recommend cuttle bone as it dissolves too quickly, but any other calcium carbonate rock is fine. I also recommend reading the entire write-up carefully. It's really all you need. These tanks are dead simple to set up and maintain. (As opposed to freshwater shrimp tanks...or any other tank for that matter).

[nightsmusic]

Thank you! I did read through that a couple times, but I wanted to make sure. Thank you. I've never worked at all with salt water of any kind so I'm just trying to make sure they live. I did order 10 more and will see how they do, but they should have enough room.

Ironically enough, the freshwater RCS tank I have had going for well over a month must be healthy because I have two teeny tiny nerite snails crawling up the glass. They're about the size of a pin head and the same color as the other nerites. Odd because everything I read said that they would absolutely not reproduce in freshwater. Someone didn't get the memo...

[Mustafa]

It's always good to make double sure. And those are not Nerites I can pretty much guarantee you that. Lots of snails can look similar when they are tiny (and lots of people thought they had nerite snail babies before...but they all turned out to be different snails).

[nightsmusic]

You're right, of course. When I realized all the nerite eggs were gone off the glass, I assumed and yes, we all know what that means. I've been picking teeny tiny pond snails out of the RCS tank now for several days. I'll take the ones I can collect and move them to the lake near us and the rest will end up down the drain (into the septic tank) when I clean the tank out because I can't let them take over everything.

I want to thank you all again for your help. My ten Opae'ula came yesterday. They're in the new 'tank' and swimming around and exploring. They're much bigger than the two I freed from the ecospheres, but I'm hoping those two will grow now that they aren't relegated to the little closed jars.

[Varanus]

You're right, of course. When I realized all the nerite eggs were gone off the glass, I assumed and yes, we all know what that means. I've been picking teeny tiny pond snails out of the RCS tank now for several days. I'll take the ones I can collect and move them to the lake near us and the rest will end up down the drain (into the septic tank) when I clean the tank out because I can't let them take over everything.

If that doesn't work then you could get some assassin snails. They're attractive, reproduce slowly, will usually leave nerites alone, and will quickly eat up pest snails.

[nightsmusic]

I've come back with another question or four!

So, my little tank seems to be doing well. I took the nerite out, there is a bit of algae growth on the glass, the moss seems to be doing well and I actually had to remove a bit of the microalgae because it was growing a bit faster than I thought it would. I think I have some hair algae on the sea fan, but it seems okay.

My questions are these: I started this with the two rescued shrimp and then ordered another 10 from the store here. I am now down to 7 or 8 I think, I can't count them, they move too fast! The bottom of their little habitat is littered with exoskeletons. Do I remove these? Leave them? Should I have expected this loss? Should I drop a small pellet of food in?

I think the two original are still in there, they were much smaller than the ordered ones and I still see two tiny ones. I just don't want to lose them all so am hoping that, though I lost some, this is normal in the lifecycle of the habitat.

I can't thank you enough and this site in general for all of the information I've gained thus far!

[Varanus]

In my experience the shed skins tend to get eaten up pretty quick, but regardless there is no need to remove them.

As for shrimp deaths, if you haven't actually seen any bodies I would not assume any have actually died. As you noted it is quite hard to count the shrimp, and in my experience only a certain percentage are ever visible in a tank at any given time.

As for feeding, adding in a tiny pellet or two should be okay. Just make sure the food is all eaten within an hour or two. If the shrimp have little interest then there is no need to feed for now, and even if they are interested don't feed again for a few weeks at least.

[nightsmusic]

Thank you again.

I won't feed them more than a tiny piece of pellet then once a month. I definitely don't want anything rotting in there. I feed my RCS a pellet or two every two weeks, but I have several and also four nerites in there so within 10 minutes of dropping the pellet in, they'res a pile of shrimp and snails where I dropped them! I've taken to feeding the nerites a small bit of lettuce every other week too. It's gone within a few hours. Voracious little beasts

Thank you again for everything!