Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

There is some Hawaiian name for them (somehting like opeia?). I had some awhile back and was told that although they live in brackish rivers in Hawaii, they can be kept in freshwater with no problem. Right; all our Hawaiians died within a week while all the rest of the shirmp in the tnak are still thriving and multiplying. Are Hawaiian red shrimp truly brackish water critters or can they really be kept in freshwater if you slowly acclimate them to it? Can they be bred in freshwater or do they need salt to breed/hatch/babycare?

Have you checked out my species page yet?
That's mandatory reading before posting any questions here.

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

Just for you info, I keep my shrimp in full strength seawater, but that is not required. They can live in very low salinities, too. I have not tried to acclimate them to freshwater, yet. Your shrimp probably died because they used to live in brackish water and you threw them into freshwater, which gave them an "osmotic shock".

I'll change that information chane above as I learn more about these shrimp.

Mustafa

I set my tank up with brackish water actually a little more closer to 50/50 and cycled for the shrimp since I read this was closer then true brackish. However, when the shrimp arived, to my surprise, after testing the water it was amost full salt. I tred to asimilate as slow as possable but I still had some die off.

The die-off was more likely to be due to stress and poor health prior to shipping, unless you got them from a fellow hobiest. I recently took mine from 1/2 salt to full salt in 24 hours due to an emergancy with another salt water animal. The Opae ula did not seem to notice the chage in salinity.

I rarely see mine because they live under the under gravel filter, but right now they are out zooming around and mating in 34 PPT salt water. The females all have saddles.