Opae Ula Trial & Error

[SparkleOasis]

I have sadly gone through 2 batches of Opae Ula. They're dying and I don't know why. I'm heartbroken and discouraged now. Can someone please give me instructions on how to properly set up a small 2.5 gallon tank of Opae Ula? Are there any other retailers out there that sell these amazing creatures? Please help!
-Courtney

[gerd]

Hi Courtney,
please let us know, what you did with your 2 Gallon tank.
Temperature, salinity, light, food, what kind of rocks and very important, how long did
you wait after starting the tank with Halocaridina rubra?
Recommended salinity is 12 ppt (about 1.008 sg) to 23 ppt (about 1.016 sg).
Regards Gerd

[Mustafa]

Hey Courtney,

I'll second Gerd's suggestion to post more information and also recommend reading the following:

http://www.petshrimp.com/hawaiianredshrimp.php

And especially THIS:

http://www.petshrimp.com/opaesetup.php

If you *exactly* follow everything in the second link, you should have no problems. Of course, one of the problem may also be that you got stressed-out, badly packaged shrimp...in that case even the best setup won't always help.

[snowfie]

I have sadly gone through 2 batches of Opae Ula. They're dying and I don't know why. I'm heartbroken and discouraged now. Can someone please give me instructions on how to properly set up a small 2.5 gallon tank of Opae Ula? Are there any other retailers out there that sell these amazing creatures? Please help!
-Courtney

This exact same thing happened when I upgraded my 3gal tank to a 5gal. I was able to isolate the problem to the aquarium gravel I was using. I wanted white gravel, I thought it would contrast nicely with the red color of the shrimp. All my test strips came back fine and it looked beautiful but my shirmp kept dying. I also had different ornamentation (some kind of manufactured lavarock arch and a peice of coral made of artificial material).

In my previous tank I used crushed coral. So I completely drained the tank, washed it thoroughly, and reestablished with crushed coral and the old ornamentation (real lava rock with silk flowers embedded that I'd made myself) now they seem quite happy.

They're not reproducing, which was the whole reason I got a larger tank. I now have a pile of lavarock with crevaces that I thought would make it more conducive toto breeding, but still no shrimp babies.

[Mustafa]

They're not reproducing, which was the whole reason I got a larger tank. I now have a pile of lavarock with crevaces that I thought would make it more conducive toto breeding, but still no shrimp babies.

Usually, when these shrimp don't breed it's because there is too much food entering their system. They literally only have to be fed every 2-3 weeks for reproduction. The rest of the time they live on the algae and other microorganisms growing on the substrate and the walls of the tank. When the water is too polluted with organics the shrimp either don't set eggs or the larvae that hatch die almost immediately.