Bitten by the Shrimp-keeping Bug

[skrimpster]

Greetings!

I'm just starting out a nano opae ula tank, and really fascinated by these hardy little brackish shrimp. I have some experience keeping and breeding freshwater shrimp (crystal red shrimp and cherry shrimp mainly) and fish in nano planted tanks. This hobby is so addictive!

Just ordered 20 supershrimp, snails and macroalgae today. I've left the tank cycling for a month with some pure ammonia chloride to start and everything is testing great. Ammonia started at 2 ppm, and now it's 0. Nitrites are 0. Nitrates <5 ppm. Algae and diatoms everywhere!

I know these guys can thrive fine without a filter or heater. I like having a bit of gentle water circulation so using a small sponge filter with ceramic media and mini-air 1W pump. I left in a nano betta tank heater in during the cycling process to help the bacteria multiply faster. Will remove the heater before adding any shrimps or snails since the tank temps will average about 72 - 74 F (23 C) anyway.

Salt used is Instant Ocean reef crystals. Mixed with RO water to a salinity of 1.012. pH is 8.2. Lighting is the same LED lamp used in my other planted shrimp tank, Beamswork EA Timer FSPEC LED with 12 hours on/12 hours off cycle. Tank is the standard 2.5 gallon Aqueon tank with glass lid. Substrate is Petco black sand. Lava rock and coral rock with a few marimo ball chunks from other tanks.

Also, that hornwort in the before photo was a big mistake. Nope...never again. I'm just sticking to macroalgae and moss balls for this tank.

Before


After



Can't wait for them to arrive!

[sliphorn]

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Looks good but I suggest removing the marimo balls as they will slowly die in the brackish water and pollute your tank. The mossballs that mustafa sells are brackish water mossballs, unlike the marimo which is fresh water only. You definitely do not need a filter but your set up won't hurt anything. Good luck, keeping opae ula is definitely an addicting hobby.

The shrimp and snails you ordered will clean that algae up in no time at all.

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[skrimpster]

Thanks for the advice, sliphorn. I think you are correct. Originally I had them in there since they can tolerate salinity up to 1.015 SG (various marimo care resources cite this), but the big problem is the high pH. Marimo tolerates 7.5 pH or lower, and not that the high pH as a typical Opae Ula tank at half seawater salinity. The test balls are starting to be overrun by other algae, which indicates that the balls aren't really thriving.

I wanted to see how the little bits would interact with the water conditions out of curiosity, but ultimately, I'm most likely just going to keep the cheato macroalgae that Mustafa sells. Later on I might try the algae balls from his tanks, but not sure how much space that tiny tank will have with the macroalgae.

[sliphorn]

Thanks for the advice, sliphorn. I think you are correct. Originally I had them in there since they can tolerate salinity up to 1.015 SG (various marimo care resources cite this), but the big problem is the high pH. Marimo tolerates 7.5 pH or lower, and not that the high pH as a typical Opae Ula tank at half seawater salinity. The test balls are starting to be overrun by other algae, which indicates that the balls aren't really thriving.

I wanted to see how the little bits would interact with the water conditions out of curiosity, but ultimately, I'm most likely just going to keep the cheato macroalgae that Mustafa sells. Later on I might try the algae balls from his tanks, but not sure how much space that tiny tank will have with the macroalgae.

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Yes, toss the marimo out. Mustafa's mossballs are very small and extremely slow growing, so one or two in your small tank would be just fine. The macroalgae can be fussy and it really depends on conditions in the tank. for some it grows like mad and for others not so much. There's alot of info on the forum about that so I recommend doing a search and reading up on it.

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[skrimpster]

July 6th Update:

Received package via USPS from petshrimp.com. No ice pack was included--talk about hardy little critters! Shrimp, snails and macroalgae were very well packed and everything was bagged separately. Got 21 shrimp (1 extra for DOA). Also discovered 2 tiny baby shrimps in the bag. Not a single one perished.

Drip acclimated the shrimp and snails for an hour (note: which isn't necessary for opae ula but it's just one of my habits for all aquatic animals so did it anyway) into the new tank. Used my Fluval shrimp net to transfer them over. Funny enough, some grabbed onto the net without having me chase them. The snails were so much smaller than I expected (and that's a good thing).

The shrimp swam pretty excitedly during the first half an hour or so. They were mostly pale and a few light red ones. Saw some nice deep red saddles on at least 3 females. Snails were very active and roaming the tank.

I left the house for some errands, and came back a few hours later. They were grazing and doing normal shrimpy stuff. They colored up a bit, probably due to the dark substrate. A couple of shrimp had molted. Caught one of them munching on the molt already.


Daylight


Moonlight


Molt Muncher


Misc. thoughts and notes:
I scraped the front glass a week before arrival and did an 80% water change to dead hornwort leaves and floating algae. Salinity dropped to 1.011 SG upon refilling.

Tank SG has stayed around 1.011 SG since. The tank has about 1.75 gallons of liquid space (all the displacement from the rocks and filter removed about .75 g of volume). Calculated roughly 1 tsp of Instant Ocean reef crystals to 1 cup RO water will yield about 1.011 SG.

Added about 0.75 ppm of Dr. Tim's ammonium chloride solution last Tuesday to make sure the bacterial cycle was still active. Tested the water yesterday (Friday) and found no ammonia, no nitrites, no nitrates, pH 8.2. The green algae is very effective in cleaning up the leftover nitrates. Maybe later might consider removing the sponge filter, but so far the shrimp seem to be fine with it running.

In a few days, will feed them some Fluval shrimp granules or Hikari Shrimp Cuisine granules. I'll give them a tiny pinch and see if they'll eat it. Even though both foods have minute traces copper sulfate, have not had a single issue with my other shrimp breeding and thriving (cherries and crystal reds). Could also crush a mini Hikari algae wafer and feed them some crumbs. Wondering if the asthaxanthin in their food might color up the shrimp too.

If they do breed, may consider trying out a 1 gallon brackish jarrarium set up for a few shrimp. I currently have a 1 gallon dirted walstad-style jar that has cycled through and grown tons of plants.

[sliphorn]

July 6th Update:

Received package via USPS from petshrimp.com. No ice pack was included--talk about hardy little critters! Shrimp, snails and macroalgae were very well packed and everything was bagged separately. Got 21 shrimp (1 extra for DOA). Also discovered 2 tiny baby shrimps in the bag. Not a single one perished.

Drip acclimated the shrimp and snails for an hour (note: which isn't necessary for opae ula but it's just one of my habits for all aquatic animals so did it anyway) into the new tank. Used my Fluval shrimp net to transfer them over. Funny enough, some grabbed onto the net without having me chase them. The snails were so much smaller than I expected (and that's a good thing).

The shrimp swam pretty excitedly during the first half an hour or so. They were mostly pale and a few light red ones. Saw some nice deep red saddles on at least 3 females. Snails were very active and roaming the tank.

I left the house for some errands, and came back a few hours later. They were grazing and doing normal shrimpy stuff. They colored up a bit, probably due to the dark substrate. A couple of shrimp had molted. Caught one of them munching on the molt already.


Daylight


Moonlight


Molt Muncher


Misc. thoughts and notes:
I scraped the front glass a week before arrival and did an 80% water change to dead hornwort leaves and floating algae. Salinity dropped to 1.011 SG upon refilling.

Tank SG has stayed around 1.011 SG since. The tank has about 1.75 gallons of liquid space (all the displacement from the rocks and filter removed about .75 g of volume). Calculated roughly 1 tsp of Instant Ocean reef crystals to 1 cup RO water will yield about 1.011 SG.

Added about 0.75 ppm of Dr. Tim's ammonium chloride solution last Tuesday to make sure the bacterial cycle was still active. Tested the water yesterday (Friday) and found no ammonia, no nitrites, no nitrates, pH 8.2. The green algae is very effective in cleaning up the leftover nitrates. Maybe later might consider removing the sponge filter, but so far the shrimp seem to be fine with it running.

In a few days, will feed them some Fluval shrimp granules or Hikari Shrimp Cuisine granules. I'll give them a tiny pinch and see if they'll eat it. Even though both foods have minute traces copper sulfate, have not had a single issue with my other shrimp breeding and thriving (cherries and crystal reds). Could also crush a mini Hikari algae wafer and feed them some crumbs. Wondering if the asthaxanthin in their food might color up the shrimp too.

If they do breed, may consider trying out a 1 gallon brackish jarrarium set up for a few shrimp. I currently have a 1 gallon dirted walstad-style jar that has cycled through and grown tons of plants.

=======

Nice! I don't think you need to feed at all until the algae has been consumed. The shrimp will also find plenty of bacterial yummies in and on the sponge filter. I'm always amazed at how clean and free of algae these little guys can keep a tank.

=======

[Dch48]

I use 3 tsp of Instant Ocean Sea Salt to a quart of distilled water, 6 for a half gallon , and it gives me a salinity of 1.010. I don't get how you can use more.

I now have 16 shrimp and a Horned Nerite snail in my one gallon tank and all are doing well. I know many people don't feed them at all but about once a week , I put a tiny amount of Spirulina powder in the tank and they go crazy over it. I'm hoping it will give them more of an incentive to breed since many creatures breed more when more food is available. They also have colored up a lot more and are even more active after getting the Spirulina.

[Vorteil]

Just my 2 cents:

You have a lot of algae in there. Don't feed. While "others" when given more food may help to increase breeding it's not that way with Opae Ula. Everything here on the care is the correct way to raise the opae. If there were food to feed you would also find it in the shop. Dr. Rick Santos did major reseach on the opae at Auburn University. Read up on it to help educate yourself more. Biofilm and algae is all that's required. It's already in your tank. Keep in mind that's one of the major reasons there's no filtration required. They have a clean simple diet. By adding and feeding foods you're just going to disupt the balance and later wonder why the tank may not be doing as welll as expected.

What happened to "set it and foget it"? Just top off the water.

[skrimpster]

Nice! I don't think you need to feed at all until the algae has been consumed. The shrimp will also find plenty of bacterial yummies in and on the sponge filter. I'm always amazed at how clean and free of algae these little guys can keep a tank.

=======

Thanks! I'll read more and "unlearn" a lot of habits I have with keeping other shrimp and fish.

I use 3 tsp of Instant Ocean Sea Salt to a quart of distilled water, 6 for a half gallon , and it gives me a salinity of 1.010. I don't get how you can use more.

I now have 16 shrimp and a Horned Nerite snail in my one gallon tank and all are doing well. I know many people don't feed them at all but about once a week , I put a tiny amount of Spirulina powder in the tank and they go crazy over it. I'm hoping it will give them more of an incentive to breed since many creatures breed more when more food is available. They also have colored up a lot more and are even more active after getting the Spirulina.

I think my salt may have a lot of water in it by weight. Even though it's in a ziploc bag, the air has been crazy humid lately.

I'll double check again. I ran the numbers through this calculator: https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Cal ... ulator.php
According to this, I need to use 65.51 grams to raise RO water (salinity 0 ppt) to 1.011SG (which equals about 11.5 US teaspoons). So your proportions are closer to what it is supposed to be.

I just used 1 tsp to 1 cup RO when returning the water back to the tank. I let it circulate for a few hours and checked the salinity with a refractometer and it showed about 1.011 SG. I made sure to mix it extra well to not allow undissolved salt in the tank.

Just my 2 cents:

You have a lot of algae in there. Don't feed. While "others" when given more food may help to increase breeding it's not that way with Opae Ula. Everything here on the care is the correct way to raise the opae. If there were food to feed you would also find it in the shop. Dr. Rick Santos did major reseach on the opae at Auburn University. Read up on it to help educate yourself more. Biofilm and algae is all that's required. It's already in your tank. Keep in mind that's one of the major reasons there's no filtration required. They have a clean simple diet. By adding and feeding foods you're just going to disupt the balance and later wonder why the tank may not be doing as welll as expected.

What happened to "set it and foget it"? Just top off the water.

I'll check out that paper. It's learning to treat Opae very differently from the typical freshwater shrimp or fish. Thanks for your advice.

Thanks everyone!

[skrimpster]

July 11 Update:

Removed the sponge filter from the tank. Opae shrimp and snails are doing fine and a few more molted. I'm still wrapping my mind around how counter-intuitive these fellas are. Regained a few cups of water from removing the sponge filter.

Was expecting the water to smell due to stagnation, but that's not the case at all. Keeping the lights at 12 hours on / 12 hours off intervals. Algae growth seems to have slowed down thanks to lack of nitrates (nitrates are 0). Temps are about 74 F in the room.

I'll just let them be, and top off the tank with RO as needed.

[sliphorn]

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Yup. Leaving them be is often the best thing.

=====

[Mustafa]

Any September update?

[skrimpster]

Any September update?

I'll post some photos later but here's a summary:

August

Despite the advice to keep the tank filterless and airstoneless, my tank's cycle crashed. I noticed the ammonia was at 0.25 ppm according to the API test kit. All the shrimp were pretty lethargic, pale, and the snails were near the top. Generally a sign of low oxygen.

I quickly added 2x the dose of Prime to neutralize the ammonia. Added Seachem Stability for several days and added an airstone with a small air pump. Did not lose any shrimp since it was caught just in time. Salinity is 1.013 SG. Later tests showed 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 0 nitrates. I think my small tank had circulation problems.

After the increased aeration and circulation, the shrimp are doing great. The adults colored up to their pinks and reds. Noticed they like to hang out behind the big rock.The chaeto produces so much oxygen it floats. The shrimp swim excitedly during the moonlight and the lights off period. The smaller ones tend to hide more during the daytime LED cycle.

September

Tragedy struck. 2.5g Aqueon glass tank developed a leak near the bottom thanks to crappy seals and shoddy worksmanship (the corners of the thin glass were not evenly sealed together).

Had to transfer everything quickly to an acrylic 5.2 gallon tank. I didn't get a chance to count all the shrimp, but I counted about 18 of them. Some hid in the lava rocks when I put them in a bucket without water. They jumped out of the rocks once they were put back in the tank.

Waiting for a daylight LED strip in the mail to replace the crappy LED that came with the tank kit. Currently using a submersible LED for QT setups. The shrimp are loving the dim light; chaeto not so much.

Feeding: Just spirulina powder once a week, about 1/32 teaspoon max. I'll throw in some Shrimp Cuisine granules (6-8) once every other week. Also left a small chunk of cuttlebone for them to graze calcium. The tank has a lot for them to feast on, so I could go without supplementing them for a very long time.

[skrimpster]

Leaky Old 2.5 gallon Tank


New 5.2 Gallon Tank

[Dch48]

Some of my shrimp are white like that too. Then other days, they have more red. Today I saw a whitish one with eggs that were bright red. I have 16 in a one gallon tank with no circulation. Other than the light color, they seem to be doing well.