How to acclimate FW-BW Opae to SW
Moderator: Mustafa
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theshrimp_123
- Shrimp
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How to acclimate FW-BW Opae to SW
How do you do it? Drip acclimation is what i was thinking, but im now so sure. Anybody know?
The best way to do it is veeeeery slowly. Put them in a temporary holding tank containing water similar to what they are in now. The acclamation process may take weeks (yes weeks) as you must only raise the salt gravity by .002 every week. This will minimize the stress the animal goes through. Hopefully you won't be going from pure fresh to salt as that will take a while 
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chlorophyll
- Shrimp
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I've acclimated down to fresh, but not up. I took it down 1 part per thousand per day. These opae ula are still living, and with good color, in the fresh water about 4 months later.
In reverse, I guess you'd calculate how much seawater-strength water would constitute a 1 ppt rise in your shrimp's water, then use that amount daily.
For example, the seawater I have is about 34 ppt salinity ... so about 34 'parts' of salinity in 1000 ml (1 L) of the seawater, or 1 part in 29.4 ml of seawater...
If your opae are in 15 Liters of water, you'll just need to add 15 parts daily, or (15 x 29.4=) 441 ml. So daily you would FIRST remove about 441 ml from the shrimp tank, and then replace that water with 441 ml of seawater. Or to be more careful, you could do 220 ml in the morning and 220 in the evening, or even drip the amount in daily, or something like that (though I don't personally consider this necessary).
Of course, all measurements probably won't be exact, but should be close enough. And periodically check salinity manually.
I *think* I have this math properly thought out!
Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.
Sorry, I'm not familiar with specific gravity ... but there must be conversions you can use.
IMO, 1 ppt/day is very careful (and I recommend that), but you could probably push it to 2 or 3 ppt/day. Average freshwater shrimp larvae spilling out into estuaries and the ocean safely take a relatively quick increase in salinity.
Incidentally, I did experiment with one individual opae ula and it successfully adjusted to being dropped from 12 ppt directly into pure freshwater. Or at least, 2 months later it still lives on in the freshwater.
In reverse, I guess you'd calculate how much seawater-strength water would constitute a 1 ppt rise in your shrimp's water, then use that amount daily.
For example, the seawater I have is about 34 ppt salinity ... so about 34 'parts' of salinity in 1000 ml (1 L) of the seawater, or 1 part in 29.4 ml of seawater...
If your opae are in 15 Liters of water, you'll just need to add 15 parts daily, or (15 x 29.4=) 441 ml. So daily you would FIRST remove about 441 ml from the shrimp tank, and then replace that water with 441 ml of seawater. Or to be more careful, you could do 220 ml in the morning and 220 in the evening, or even drip the amount in daily, or something like that (though I don't personally consider this necessary).
Of course, all measurements probably won't be exact, but should be close enough. And periodically check salinity manually.
I *think* I have this math properly thought out!
Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.
Sorry, I'm not familiar with specific gravity ... but there must be conversions you can use.
IMO, 1 ppt/day is very careful (and I recommend that), but you could probably push it to 2 or 3 ppt/day. Average freshwater shrimp larvae spilling out into estuaries and the ocean safely take a relatively quick increase in salinity.
Incidentally, I did experiment with one individual opae ula and it successfully adjusted to being dropped from 12 ppt directly into pure freshwater. Or at least, 2 months later it still lives on in the freshwater.
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Neonshrimp
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