My new Opae Ula tank

[AndyH]

Hello everyone!

I'm new to Supershrimp. In fact, I'm new to aquariums in general. None of my friends or family have aquariums.

My only experience so far: About two months ago, I bought some Sea-Monkeys from Walmart. I did some research but apparently not enough of it. Lol. I set up a 1/3gallon tank for them with some gravel and driftwood. Come to find out, driftwood was not a good idea at all. Neither was the gravel - they kept getting stuck and dying. I also overfed them and killed about half of the population. After more research, I've swapped the gravel for some much smaller substrate, swapped the driftwood for a single lava rock, and cut way down on the feeding. Now they're swimming around very happily! However, I wanted to get something a little less childish but still didn't require too much daily maintenance.

I discovered Opae Ula when I was browsing aquarium stuff on the internet. I thought they looked pretty cool, so I started reading all about them. Found this site, then found the forums, researched a bunch, and now I'm collecting everything to start my own Supershrimp tank. I hope to apply what I've learned with the Sea-Monkeys and what I've read on the internet and on these forums so that I can have a thriving tank with Supershrimp that eventually reproduce.

I've purchased pretty much everything except for the live organisms (Chaeto, Snails, and Supershrimp) at this point. I've got a 3 gallon tank, a little light that came with it, a small airstone for the corner with very light air flow (which I won't even run all the time), distilled water, natural sea salt mix for aquariums, some substrate, some lava rocks, and some small calcium carbonate rocks. I also have some Formula 1 pellets for food.

At the moment, I'm just trying to figure out how I want to set up the hardscape. I know I need/want a little cave or sheltered area where the shrimp can hide/reproduce. But I don't want it looking like a messy pile of rocks in my tank. I'm just trying to come up with something somewhat visually appealing that actually fits in the tank.

Once I get that figured out, I'll be cleaning everything, ordering the Chaeto and snails, and setting up the tank so it can start to cycle.

I guess the only two questions I have so far:
1. The snails DO go in there when I'm setting up the tank to cycle, right? I'm pretty sure I read to put them in, but I was wondering what they'd eat since the algae wouldn't be growing yet.
2. I've seen many posts that say that a filter is not needed (or recommended) because it could suck up the baby shrimp and the shrimp don't like the water current anyways. At the same time, it seems like every picture of a Supershrimp tank I see has a sponge filter in the corner. I'm just wondering if the airstone and Bio filter on my rocks will be enough (once it gets established), or if I need to swap the airstone for a small sponge filter.

Finally, I just wanted to say sorry for the long post, but thanks for reading! I'm hoping to add some pictures and updates soon. And I can't wait to discuss what happens with the other members of these forums.

[Mustafa]

Welcome to the forum and congrats on deciding to get into keeping these fascinating animals! I'll get straight to your questions:

1. Yes, you should put in the snails right along with the Supershrimp Macrogalga. Don't worry about what they would eat. Even if you don't see it, there is plenty of biofilm that immediately grows on all surfaces in a tank. They'll be more than fine.

2. Do NOT put a filter of any kind in. Also, ditch the airstone. Yes, you may see pictures with filters and airstones (even in some of my older pictures from half a decade or longer ago), but that's just because people can't wrap their minds around the fact that a tank can be setup without them. They also don't want to accept the unique physiological properties of these shrimp that makes it possible for them to live in environments that would be quite deadly for some other organisms. Not that these types of conditions are ever reached in our home aquaria, but I'm just pointing it out to make a point. There are still people that ignore the information given here and perform water changes on a regular basis. People also don't want to accept the "feed every two weeks" advice and feed every day or every few days (and then wonder why their tanks crash at some point after some initial success). I can only provide the information but can't force people to follow it. Let's just say that with the information provided on the Supershrimp information pages I am breeding thousands of Supershrimp every single month, so it's obviously working. Just read the setup information given on the Supershrimp information pages and you'll have a problem-free experience.

I also would not worry about providing a pile of rocks for them to hide under and breed. If you have a medium sized rock there will be more than enough space to hide under. The shrimp don't need a pile of rocks to breed. If you saw my breeding tanks, you would not see any piles of rock at all. Again, just follow the instructions on Petshrimp.com and everything else will fall in place.

[AndyH]

Thanks for the welcome and the reply Mustafa!
Sounds good about the snails.
And that's good news about the filter too. I don't want to buy completely unnecessary stuff! Haha.

[LeShrimp]

On the filter topic you don't NEED it but the sponge filter is great for growing bacteria and the shrimp tend to like it.

[AndyH]

I decided that I'm going to have some black substrate and some white substrate on the bottom of the tank. Then I'm going to use a few different sizes of lava rock and some 'instant ocean holdfast' that I have to make a rock structure that looks like a wave about to crash. I think this will be cool since I like to surf and also because the shrimp are originally from Hawaii and a wave reminds me of both. It'll leave lots of empty water in the tank and won't look too crowded.
I'll get some pics up in the next few days, assuming I can pull it off!

[AndyH]

Well, I finished setting up the rocks and substrate in the tank. I took two pictures with my phone:


What do you think?
I'm about to make the brackish water. I already ordered the snails and macro algae last night... I'll be ready to start cycling the tank as soon as they arrive!

[KenCotigirl]

I like the black lava. The two colored gravel looks interesting but how do you add water without having them mixed.

[AndyH]

Thanks!
Yeah, I've actually never done it before, so I'm not positive it'll work, but I do have an idea. I'm just going to put some plastic down on top of the substrate and then gently pour the water on top of the plastic. I'm not too worried about keeping the colors separate though... I feel like they'll get messed up eventually no matter how hard I try.

[KenCotigirl]

Andy. More pictures when you finish setting up the tank!

Ken

[AndyH]

I will for sure!
Does anyone know if the brackish water snails sold on this site ever climb up the side of the tank and escape? The top to this little tank isn't very good to begin with. Plus there is a huge cutout where they could escape if they do that kind of thing. I just don't want snails getting out and drying up on the floor.

[Mustafa]

The snails won't climb out and fall on the ground, unless there is something wrong with the water in the tank. They may graze some dried up algae outside the water if your water level falls a bit and there is enough air humidity..that's about it. Animals don't just escape an aquarium for no reason...there is usually something wrong with the water (or they are being chased by another animal).

[AndyH]

Alright, cool! I asked because I read on another site about someone putting some snails in with some sea monkeys. The snails kept getting out of the tank and drying up on the floor. So I was wondering if I'd have a similar problem with your snails. But I guess the conditions in the sea monkey tank weren't what those snails were accustomed to. Since your snails have been living with the Supershrimp in your breeding tanks, they should be good with the water if the shrimp are good with it. Thanks!

[Mustafa]

Yeah, sounds like those snails in the sea monkey tank were trying to escape the water they were in. You can't just take random snails (even if they can tolerate brackish) from freshwater and plunk them into half or even full ocean salinity...their physiology can't take it. The snails you're getting won't have a problem with that at all.

[AndyH]

Well, I got the water in the tank without any problems and only accidentally mixed some of the white and black substrate in a very small area. My snails and chaeto arrived on Feb 1st. That was fun taking them out of the bags and putting them into the tank; good to finally see some life in there. I took this one picture of the snails shortly after plopping them in:



On Feb 2nd, I took a week long vacation. I'll be back to my tank tomorrow night. I'll take a few pictures and see how everything did while I was away.

[danzel]

What kind of snails are those? The look longish and not the usually round shell snails