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Opae Ula, Hawaiian Red Shrimp, SuperShrimp, whatever...

178K views 765 replies 78 participants last post by  Laika 
#1 ·
For months I've been reading about these very cool shrimp. Finally I gave in to them and after further research decided to take the leap.

I did things in a sort of backward kind of way, as well. I got in contact with a vendor in Hawaii who, through numerous emails, convinced me that with the live rock that I would get with her shrimp a new tank would cycle without a problem, after the introduction of the shrimp and live rocks, that is.

Not sure that I really believed her I ordered some anyway. Fifty shrimp, with live rock, "live" water, food and instruction manual. All for $50.00 plus shipping.

So... right after placing that order I ran out to the LFS. I have a Petco Bookshelf tank set up with red and black crystal shrimp along with some Java moss and some accidentally introduced Celestial Pearl Danio (or whatever they're being called these days) fry. Long story short, they hatched from eggs that had been laid in the moss. (I will remove them before they get big enough to harass the shrimp.)

Anyway, I love the look of the Bookshelf tank (just wish it was made of glass!), so decided some Opae Ula would look really cool in one, too, so bought one for em.

Grabbed some white Live (bacteria infested) Aragonite sand, a little over a pound or two of cultured live rock (man made out of red lava rock instead of collected off a coral reef somewhere), a 2.2 gallon jug of Live Sea water (sea water infested with bacteria!), a hydrometer (measures the salt in water, kind of looks like a thermometer with a long narrow glass stick for an end) and ran home where I already had jugs of RO water...

I set the tank up last Sunday, October 27. I tend to be a bit dense at times so it took me a lot of work to dilute the Live Salt water from 1.025 to 1.016. Ended up using just over 2 gallons of the salt water and 2 gallons of RO.

Dumped in the live sand, tossed in the live rocks, big ones on the ends, live "rubble" in the middle, then live water over all of it... I placed an airstone and dosed the water with Cycle (yes, the bottle says that it's for both fresh and marine aquaria) and crossed my fingers.

All that bacteria, from so many sources may seem redundant, but that may be a good thing!

Here's a pic of the tank a couple days after setup after I decided to get brave and threw in a sprig of Java Moss.
 

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#485 ·
I have a 1.5 gallon opae ula tank that has 50+ shrimp and 2 small nerite snails. It has been going strong for over 6 months. For most of this time some shrimp have a marble or white appearance. Does this always indicate something is wrong? I feed them a combo of spirulina, hiikari algae wafers and some algae pellets that the seller provided. Thanks for any replies!
 
#488 ·
Hi NYC,

Not sure what you mean by "marbled" , but it's normal for opae ula to come in various colors. In my tanks their colors range from white to brilliant red. A number of them have the "rili" look: red on each end with white in the middle.

Have any bred for you yet?
 
#489 ·
Hi Rob,

Thanks for reply! By marbled I meant a combination of white and red. I prefer the bright red that some of mine have. I think some have bred as I have seen really small ones but I have a floor of coral so hard to tell as they can stay hidden.

Do you think I should buy a kit to test the water? If so what test do you recommend (sorry, don't have much knowledge of the hobby yet!)

Steven
 
#490 · (Edited)
Your shrimp sound normal to me, Steven.

It's always good to keep an eye on ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. There are test kits for those at most petshops. Both ammonia and nitrites should measure zero and nitrates as low as possible. If any of those are high you'll need to do a partial water change.

You should also be aware of the percentage of salt vs water in the tank, which is called "specific gravity". You'll find various gadgets at aquarium stores that measure that. That's especially important to know when you're doing your water changes, as you'll want your replacement water at about the same SG as the old water in your tank.

Those are the only parameters I keep an eye on unless something goes bad in one of my tanks. Which with Opae Ula is very rare.

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#492 ·
You're welcome, Steven. We all want our little bugs happy and healthy! :)

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#498 ·
Ken, Here's a couple shots of the white opae ula. One is riding with a tankmate on a Malaysian Trumpet Snail which is slurping single cell algae from the water's under surface.
 

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#500 ·
Will try to keep an eye on him/her/it/them. Would be nice to discover an easy way to sex these critters.

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#501 ·
Well... Look who I found. She's still carrying young:


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#502 ·
And just below the new mother is her sister working towards her birth day:

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#504 ·
It's dark. I did your trick, Ken. A pen light at the top corner of the tank and within a few minutes this showed up:
 

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#505 ·
(Notice the cyclop, too. Lol!)

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