Ecosphere

[MelWong]

Switched them over-- deep breaths! One is doing something funny with its leg, but I'm hoping it isn't broken, and I'm hoping they all will be ok. Had to rush the process due to new leadership coming into the office very soon, but am hoping the Ecosphere had the requisite bacteria &c. I put all the algae Mustafa sent me into the tank (half gallon)-- is that too much?

Also, I appear to have sand bubbles in the top; my substrate did not want to stay put when I was putting the water in. Will those go away, or do I need to pop or scoop them out? (And is there a good trick for tidying the substrate, or should I just let it be?)

Thanks again! They seem so much happier already in their new home

If it has a broken leg, leave it alone. It will heal up during its next molt. Some crustaceans even regenerate lost limbs from buds during their molt cycle. They certainly are hardy.

I'd say there's only too much algae in the tank if the shrimp haven't any room to swim. If it's threatening to take over (it grows pretty fast O_O) you can pluck some out and just toss it. Make sure there isn't anything hiding in it first, mind, like shrimps or, in my case, snails. Even if the ecosphere water doesn't have the right mix of bacteria for your shrimpies, the algae you just put into your tank is covered in it (you just can't see it) and it'll take a little time to colonize the tank but it will do so. Give it about, oh, four weeks to become visible? That's when mine did it.

The bubbles will slowly rise up and go away eventually. My own tank has some algae growing in the reef rock, so from time to time tiny bubbles rise up from the rock itself and pop on the top of the tank. You can buy some snails from Mustafa's web store to help stir up the sand, although given the size of your tank, I'm not sure you'd want to put ten of them in there. Mine are breeding, so if it goes well maybe we can talk about me sending you one or two for free?

[shmohney]

I wanted an ecosphere from the first time I saw one, and my brother gave me one for Christmas a few years ago. Unfortunately for the shrimp, they only survived for about a year. Somewhere along the line I stumbled across this site and got interested in the opae again, and now I have a little 1.5 gallon aquarium with about 47 of them. Some good friends of mine have had an ecosphere for about 9 years, and two of the original 4 shrimp were still alive. I noticed that the survivors were quite small compared to mine, and mentioned to my friends that the shrimp were probably slowly getting smaller and dying. They didn't seem concerned, but a couple of weeks later, they called me to rescue their shrimp because their sphere had developed a small leak! There's a video on youtube that shows how to open the sphere from the bottom using just a utility knife. I did it and it was really quite simple. I transferred the shrimp into my aquarium, and also their little sea fan (dead?), and some tiny dead snail shells. Occasionally, I think I spot one of the two tiny shrimp swimming around, so I'm hoping they're doing alright. I have a pile of small limestone rocks and coral in the tank, and a big fast-growing hunk of Mustafa's Chaeto, so I usually only see 10-15 shrimp at any one time. I also have some of Mustafa's snails, and they're reproducing. Now I'm impatient for the shrimp to start berrying. I see plenty of saddled shrimp. Just gotta wait. But I want babies!

[Mustafa]

Thanks for the small report. Wow...9 years without food...that's insane. In any case, your patience will be rewarded. Just make sure to not overfeed. As long as you have algae growing on surfaces, you don't need to increase feeding. Stick to the every 2 weeks rule.

[Iwantshrimp]

Get 1/2 gallon tank and get some pre cultured algae rocks or something for them to eat with sinking fish food that you take the extra out after an hour or so. In the tiny tank the ammonia levels can get high, very high.