Quart Jar

[Vorteil]

So I've had this opae quart jar for over 2 years now. Started with 15 opae or so. It's been doing great I've fed it 4 or 5 times at the begining and now no longer feed. Population by now must be over 50 easily. There have been many berried females and floaters throughout the year. Pics aren't the best but just wanted to share.

[sliphorn]

So I've had this opae quart jar for over 2 years now. Started with 15 opae or so. It's been doing great I've fed it 4 or 5 times at the begining and now no longer feed. Population by now must be over 50 easily. There have been many berried females and floaters throughout the year. Pics aren't the best but just wanted to share.

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Impressive.
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[JennyPenny]

That's a nice set up. It makes me consider a tank with black substrate. Your shrimp look great!
It looks like you have a pretty thick layer of substrate. You don't need to use so much, just about 0.5-1 inch is sufficient, and then your shrimps will have more room to swim.

[JoeG]

Vorteil a couple questions. Is the jar in a north facing window? Have you ever measured how much actual water is in the jar? I like how all your tanks have lots of algae for the shrimp. It has to be a light thing because you said you don’t feed very often or not at all. What’s the secret? I want to grow more algae in my tank.

[Vorteil]

These are the only two "jars" that I have inside the house. Both get natural direct sunlight. I believe they face the north & get at least 6 hours of direct sunlight.The glass inside is never cleaned so it does look a bit blurry or hazy at times. I beleive it's in balance. Not too much nutrients but enough for the opae & algae.The only substrate that's in the jar is the lava rocks which the opae are constantly going in & out of. I have never measured the actual volume of water. These jars just sit in the same place almost year round. In the summer I pull them aside when the days are extremely hot. The macroalgae has not grown much since I put it in there. I believe it's due to the little amount of nutrients avaiable.

In order to grow more algae you have the have the nutrients in the tank to support it. At one point in time I started to get hair algae. I would pull it out by my fingers on a daily basis. I did a partial water change and cut back on my feedings. Eventually the tank came back into balance and I have very little hair aglae.

[JennyPenny]

My mistake, I thought that was sand. Very cool what you have going on with the lava rocks. Now I want to get some!

[Vorteil]

All my tanks have lava rocks as a substrate.The opae seem to like to go in & out of it. In my 6 gallon nanocube the whole back area which is for the filter is completely filled with lava rock. If I were to guess I would say there's about 80% of the population back there. I think most of the babies hide out there too.