Compatible tankmates/plants

[Mustafa]

Hey Mustafa.... how did the first batch turn out? Are you having any luck at all? It sure would be nice to have a new tank mate for the supershrimp.

I've had several batches from different females. The larvae hatched and were floating around with the Supershrimp larvae for a while. They are about 1/20th the size of the Supershrimp larvae. So, even they are supposed to be pretty advanced for larvae, they are still tiny. I did not feed them really, so most of them are gone. I still have not set up a specific breeding tank for the crab larvae, so I'll have to make that happen first. There is so much to do, but so little time....and space.

[Rob in Puyallup]

Thanks for that, Mustafa,

I do have cyanobacteria in my second opae ula tank. I set it up on Nov 21, last year. It's a 10 gallon. I've never really fed this tank, some Spirulina powder at the beginning a time or two, because there was a shrimplet amongst the crowd. Will spirulina powder "seed" a tank, I wonder? Is this the cyanobacteria that I have growing?

Seems once it's started, it takes many tries to get rid of it. I did have way too much light over the tank at one time. I've reduced the lighting to just the typical fluorescent (instead of it and two high powered, I think, 10 watt LED units that was over it when I put the tank together). I've removed as much of the cyanobacteria as I can manually. Again, I never feed the tank. I tried Maracyn 2 with no luck, the cyanobacteria still flourishing. Many have suggested Erythromycin... I do shy away from chemicals...

And you are right about the algal growth in the other tank. There is a fair bit of it, I was expecting it from the live rock.

[Mustafa]

Ok, latest update. The crabs have been growing very quickly on the "naturally occuring" diet of snails and macroalgae. A lot of females are running around with eggs. However, what I did notice is that once the tank has been depleted of snails, the crabs start getting aggressive towards each other. I had to rescue two crabs in two different tanks that had barely any legs and claws left. Also, all that eating and producing waste (i.e. nitrate, phosphate etc. accumulation) has caused an unusual amount of algae (and probably bacteria) to grow in some of the tanks. From experience, I know this is not good..... So, if you want an almost maintenance free (besides the occasional feeding and topping off of water) Supershrimp tank, then the only compatible tank mates still remain the brackish water snails.

The crabs are interesting enough in their own right (although largely nocturnal), so they may deserve their own tanks in the future.

[Mustafa]

Thanks for that, Mustafa,

I do have cyanobacteria in my second opae ula tank. I set it up on Nov 21, last year. It's a 10 gallon. I've never really fed this tank, some Spirulina powder at the beginning a time or two, because there was a shrimplet amongst the crowd. Will spirulina powder "seed" a tank, I wonder? Is this the cyanobacteria that I have growing?

Seems once it's started, it takes many tries to get rid of it. I did have way too much light over the tank at one time. I've reduced the lighting to just the typical fluorescent (instead of it and two high powered, I think, 10 watt LED units that was over it when I put the tank together). I've removed as much of the cyanobacteria as I can manually. Again, I never feed the tank. I tried Maracyn 2 with no luck, the cyanobacteria still flourishing. Many have suggested Erythromycin... I do shy away from chemicals...

And you are right about the algal growth in the other tank. There is a fair bit of it, I was expecting it from the live rock.

Light is not the culprit here, Rob. There is no such thing as *too* much light in a well balanced tank. Cyanobacteria thrive on nutrients and, above all, organics. If you detect no nitrate in your tank, that's because the cyanobacteria are that efficient at eating it all up (and they can fix their own nitrogen if there is none left and keep going). Of course depriving the cyanobacteria of light will eventually reduce them as they are photosynthesizing organisms, but that's just treating the symptoms, not the root cause. It's like taking pain medication to deal with your headache, although the root cause of your headache is a tumor. It may work temporarily, but does not solve your problem. The root cause, in this case, is your live rock (and feeding...at least in your other tank). As the name implies, "live" rock has lots of micro and macro-organisms living in it. The vast majority of them are adapted to full ocean salinity. If you plunk that rock into a low salinity tank, most of those organisms will die...and there are a lot of them (even if you don't see them). Same with most algae and biofilm that coats the rocks. Those are prime conditions for cyanobacteria. No larvae will live in such a tank and you may start losing some shrimp soon, too (will happen sooner or later). Trying to kill the cyanobacteria with antibiotics and similar medicine only makes things worse. As the Cyanobacteria die, they release not only lots of organics into the tank water, but many species also release toxins. Plus, antibiotics will also kill the nitrifying bacteria that are covering all surfaces of your tank....a disaster.

And, no, spirulina powder does not seed your tank. Too much of it serves as a nutrient source for other organisms, though, including algae, so it may appear like it's seeding your tank.

[SillyDaddy]

I wanted to see what you thought of adding Metabetaeus lohena to the tank. I know they are natural co-inhabitants in the pools in the wild. Also, in my research, I have seen a couple people have tanks with tiny brownish red hermit crabs, and one with blue legged hermits. I was wondering if anyone knows these species so I can research and decide if they are a risk to my sweet babies. Myself I contacted another seller for information about Pipipi (local Hawaiian nerites) being raised as opposed to captured and they referenced me to check local pet shops. Would other species of nerites be a possibility? I ask all this because it seems I am the only one fascinated by a tank of just the handful of Halocaridina rubra and Chaetomorpha algae that I purchased from you, I am guessing it is just me trying to get my kids more interested. (P.S. My original Supershrimp are Ecosphere rescues and are just now red again and have had a couple molts. I rescued after learning a little from my neighbor who had them and then found your site after attempting to learn more about them.)

Is there any chance of purchasing the crabs from you to place in a separate tank? Possible my Fluvil Ebi that I will not be using for these Opae Ula now having learned so much scanning these pages. I was thinking I could feed them other regular shrimp food items and split my Chaeto between the two tanks.

It seems one of the few Shrimp I got from you already has some riders in her saddle. I would like to have the optimum set up soon, and I cant really send you a decent picture as the only camera I have is on my phone. I have coral gravel, coral, Chaeto, and some lava rinsed, dried, soaked in rain water, and dried again in the tank, and my tank is an old hurricane vase, just under a half gallon, I was hoping you had some ideas. I have been waiting for a specialty order 10x10 near aquarium grade cylindrical tank to arrive (any day now), and I will be upgrading to the 12x12 when it becomes available later. I am hoping to liven it up enough that my son who likes to 'look for' things will spend time viewing the tank. He gets bored now that they are all happy and no longer hiding.

[Mustafa]

I don't see a problem with Metabetaeus lohena in an Opae ula tank. Although some claim that they prey on Supershrimp, I have never observed it myself when I was keeping some M. lohena in the past. I'm not sure if they are as hardy as the H. rubra, though. As for nerites in the tank...it can be done, but I advise against it due to the fact that they are quite voracious eaters. Just search "nerite" in this forum to see some threads where I elaborate. (no Nerites are being raised, by the way..they are *all* wild-caught..without exception) Same with informqation about hermit crabs and co. There is a forum member ("Rob in Puyallup") who keeps them with his shrimp, but he has a filter running, feeds his tank way more often than I recommend, and hence, also does regular water changes. He seems to have some shrimp offspring in that tank now, so that setup *may* work if you are willing to go through all the work. Just look up Rob's thread for more info..including my comments.

I don't have the crabs anymore as I decided to take them out of the Supershrimp tank. They were eating all the snails in the tanks and creating tons of nutrients (plus they were hiding most of the time).

[yoster]

The crabs sound interesting. I wouldn't mind buying one or two.

[YoungMrHoward]

How is the crab experiment going? Could you post pictures of the crabs? (never mind. I see that you removed them...)