got an Ecoshere for Christmas...

Amethyst · Post by **Amethyst** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 2:40 pm

My younger sister (bless her heart) knows about my love of fish/planted tanks, etc, and bought me a small Ecosphere for Christmas. Since we live in Canada, it was brought up from the US by a friend at work. Having read about these Ecospheres online, I was somewhat horrified to get it (!), but also excited about getting the shrimp out of that little torture ball and into a happy home.

I currently have two 33g tanks, a 10g, and a 2 . These are all FW. The 2g is an unheated, acrylic hex tank. It is currently planted with Vals, anubias nana, Java ferns, a small crypt and a tiny, struggling lily. It's uninhabited except for the odd tiny snail (I recently moved the betta who lived there to a much nicer 10g) and is filtered with a mini filter set on the lowest flow.

What do I need to do to get this tank ready for the opae ula? I'll be getting a hydrometer and some marine salt tonight or tomorrow. I'll obviously have to remove the majority of those plants, but that's not a problem.

1) What about substrate?

2) How much salt do they really need? I don't know that there's enough water in the Ecosphere to test with...

3) How do I cycle a fresh water tank at the same time turning it into a brackish tank?

4) Do the opae ula need a filter at all?

I realize that all this would have been best done BEFORE getting the shrimp, however thanks to my well-meaning yet ignorant sister, that is not an option.

Thanks in advance!

Amy

TKD · Post by **TKD** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 4:01 pm

Hi Amy

Try and use the search button as it will help you allot

Here are some links
http://www.petshrimp.com/hawaiianredshrimp.html

Do a search for Opae ula in the following link and you will get tons of hits.
search.php?mode=results

TKD

Amethyst · Post by **Amethyst** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 5:08 pm

I've read extensively from both of those links, but I guess I'm looking for information/advise specific to my situation, ie. converting a FW tank to BW and cycling it... and all in as little time as posible since I already have the future inhabitants.

Thanks.

Post by **Mustafa** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 5:23 pm

just increase the salinity to the levels that you can read about in the above links and throw the shrimp in there. Curiously, the nitrifying bacteria don't seem to mind an increase in salinity, so you do not have to cycle all over again. Substrate can be anything and they do not need a filter (especially not a filter that sucks them in). Put a stone or something similar in there for hiding purposes.