Hiding Supershrimp...

[robandmichele]

hello, i am new here. i went to a workshop, and got a teeny tiny habitat with 3 opae in it. i promptly forgot it in my car and killed off two of them. Since i live in hawai'i, i decided that they were so cool, i'd set up a habitat for them and breed them. I read a lot about them. both in literature and on sites like this.

ended up getting a 55 gallon aquarium, lava rock (a'a), coarse and fine sand, coral, seawater and freshwater. The lava rocks are piled up pretty high on one side of the tank to provide them natural cover and subterranean place to hide, chill out, and, hopefully breed

so far, i've bought about 40 of these guys. they come home, acclimate to the temperature, get let out into the "wild", swim around happily for a little while (hours), then promptly, find the pile of lava rocks and dig in for the duration.

in over two weeks, i've NEVER seen one emerge. i've even turned on the bubbler (i put it in for emergency aeration), but the only thing i dislodged were some baby crabs that must've came along with my rocks, and one either molt or skeleton.

i'm pretty sure they didn't ALL die. and if they did, i'd have hoped that at least a few of the bodies would have floated out when i turned the aeration on.

any advice? its not so fun just looking at rocks- lol

thanks, michele

[Mustafa]

Welcome to the forum!

Let's see if we can diagnose your problem... Did you let the tank cycle or did you immediately put in the shrimp? It's best to let the tank sit for a few weeks to a month or two before adding the shrimp. If you did let the tank cycle it can be the case that there is actually a lot of algae already available on the rocks where they sit so they don't feel the need to run around actively looking for food. These shrimp are not usually shy at all and run around all over the tank picking at food. Only happy shrimp pick at food, so usually if there is something wrong, they find a dark spot and just sit there. There isn't really anything you can do about it except wait it out. Do NOT feed at all in the meantime. Just wait until you see the shrimp run around and pick at stuff. That may take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months actually. Patience is required in this case. Did you measure your salinity at all? Did you use a commercial salt mix or did you get water from the ocean? Ocean water can be contaminated sometimes, which can cause problems...

[robandmichele]

TY Mustafa,
i used ocean water and let the tank sit for about two weeks. my salinity is ~1.01. When i first set up the tank, i used a UV filter to kill any "bad" bacteria, then just let nature take its course. but you're correct in noting that by not using marine salt, i put a whole lot more variables into the equation. and a big lessons learned about leavig a fnot a lot of algae, its just a thin layer in the rocks and sides of the aquarium. i've seen a few shrimp come out, so i know they didn't ALL die. i'm about 3 weeks into the experiment now, and today i brought home another couple dozen 'opae. they seem much mellower and comfortable in the tank. A number of them went for the rocks right away, but about half of them just hung out on the glass and gravel. They are definitely much less spastic than the first several batches. mahalo, michele

[Mustafa]

HI Michele,

Please let us know about your progress in a few weeks. Like I said, if you leave the tank alone it should settle and establish its biological balance eventually. Your shrimp will be all over the place at that point. Here is a video of one of my tanks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvkc5kU57D4

As you can see the shrimp are running around picking at the substrate...that's this species' usual behavior. Hiding means that they are waiting around for better times....and an established tank.

[robandmichele]

hello everyone,

my opae seem to be doing better. they are happily sitting on the rocks. the only time they have hidden is if i turn the air pump on. then they all hide and turn white for awhile. so i've stopped turning it on (was worried they didn't have enough oxygen). Haven't fed them anything, and they seem to be getting bigger and redder, so i'm just going to sit back and wait a few months to see if i get any offspring.

a few odd things.

1) a hitchhiker came with my rocks from the beach- a sand crab. he got bigger and bigger and then one day just died. i kinda figured he would die sooner or later because my water is 1:1 fresh to saltwater. but a funny thing happened. there must've been crab eggs or babies or something also in the sand or the rocks because i've had i think three baby crabs (have only found two lately) in the tank. they started off teeny, and have progressively gotten bigger. wondering now how long they can live in the brackish water.

2) i seem to have some very very tiny parasites in the tank. i can see them clearly on the glass. at most they are maybe half a millimeter. they're so small we can't see any distinguishing features on them. neither the crabs nor the opae seem to be bothered by them, but they don't seem to eat them either. anyone have any idea what they could be?

thanks, michele

[Mustafa]

the only time they have hidden is if i turn the air pump on. then they all hide and turn white for awhile. so i've stopped turning it on (was worried they didn't have enough oxygen).

--Good! Just remove the air pump. It's really counterproductive.

Haven't fed them anything, and they seem to be getting bigger and redder, so i'm just going to sit back and wait a few months to see if i get any offspring.

--You may want to start feeding them about every two weeks at some point if you want offspring. Just a little bit...if they go for it...then feed again in two weeks. If not, take out the food...wait another two weeks.

1) a hitchhiker came with my rocks from the beach- a sand crab. wondering now how long they can live in the brackish water.

--depends on the species. Some species are estuarine species with a wide salinity tolerance.

2) i seem to have some very very tiny parasites in the tank. i can see them clearly on the glass. at most they are maybe half a millimeter. they're so small we can't see any distinguishing features on them. neither the crabs nor the opae seem to be bothered by them, but they don't seem to eat them either. anyone have any idea what they could be?

--I can guarantee you they're not "parasites." Parasites would have to live on or off of some other organism and derive some benefit to the detriment of that organism. What you are observing are most likely a species of copepod. There are numerous species in both saltwater and freshwater.