New Belgian opae ula owner!

[Zlatan2601]

Hi all, a short introduction: since yesterday i am a new opae ula owner! From time to time i will post some updates and pictures. Yesterday i bought all my gear and i have met with a fellow opae ula owner. He give me some water with the right bacteria a'd algae, also a rock, and there were already some opae ula in there. So sooner than expected i can share photos of my set-up and my opae ula
Here i have some pictures of my tank and the opae i spotted this morninfg (you can also see a larvae floating around...).

[Aureln79]

Hello Zlatan ! Nice tank ! You found the Opae in Belgium?

[Zlatan2601]

Yes I did! I've been talking for days to someone i've met on a forum. We've been together to a store to buy everything and he gave me some of his stones and water from his tank (with the right bacteria and algae) and there were also some shrimps in there!

[Zlatan2601]

The legs of my seastar are coloring yellow and falling apart. Still ok to keep it in the tank or not?

It's been in the water for a few days, shrilps are still ok. The seastar was in my closet for several years so it was dry.. found it on a beach some years ago

[Zlatan2601]

Photo of the sea star:

Photo of the sea star

More bad news, until two days ago i saw quite some larvae when i flashed light on the tank. Today i see non, plus i found a dead one (see photo).
Any advice?

Dead larva

[Varanus]

Pure speculation but it sounds like the sea star may have decayed and polluted the tank with ammonia. Regardless, I'd remove it and do a partial water change. Maybe add some water conditioner like Prime to neutralize ammonia.

[Aureln79]

Photo of the sea star: IMG_20190123_193912.jpg

More bad news, until two days ago i saw quite some larvae when i flashed light on the tank. Today i see non, plus i found a dead one (see photo).
Any advice?
IMG_20190123_195648.jpg

Did you test nitrits ? Maybe an increase of them

[Zlatan2601]

Haven't tested this yet, i don't have a kit at this moment. I need to get one but i will be traveling tomorrow and during the weekend, hope they make it...

[Zlatan2601]

Update: grown ups are still fine but the green algae disappear and makes room.for brown algae... :/

Good or bad?

[Mustafa]

No need for testing. Just take out the decaying sea star, do a 80-90% water change, and then leave things alone. No shrimp should be dying at all.

[Zlatan2601]

Took the sea star out but i didn't doo a water change. However they seem ok and are as bright red as before...

[Mustafa]

Glad to hear that!

[Zlatan2601]

Just an update as it has been a while. Shrimps are doing fine, but the diatoms (brown algae) are really annoying. I have two options: leaving the tank so all glass gets covered with the ugly diatoms (and i dont see any shrimp), or cleaning the glass and disturbing the shrimp so they become pale and hidden for 5 days.

Below you can see a picture of one of the full grown opae ula. Unfortunately no berried shrimps het, but guess this would be too soon (shrimp introduced kn the tank in january)

[Varanus]

Its likely if you wait long enough and don't feed the tank then the glass should start to clear. That said, I don't think cleaning the glass a bit will disturb the shrimp too much. I've done it a few times in mine.

[ryangiggs]

Just an update as it has been a while. Shrimps are doing fine, but the diatoms (brown algae) are really annoying. I have two options: leaving the tank so all glass gets covered with the ugly diatoms (and i dont see any shrimp), or cleaning the glass and disturbing the shrimp so they become pale and hidden for 5 days.

Below you can see a picture of one of the full grown opae ula. Unfortunately no berried shrimps het, but guess this would be too soon (shrimp introduced kn the tank in january)
IMG_20190410_201205~2.jpg

Put in 1 or 2 horned nerite snails... they should clear the glass within 2-3 days... The shops here in Singapore which sell opae ula mostly used these snails as clean up crew... all of my opae ula tanks have at least 1... my biggest tank needed 3 to keep the glass clean... Although they are listed as freshwater snails... they can survive in brackish water as well... and they need brackish water to breed... been having them for 3yrs now... very interesting to watch them clean the glass...