Fluval Edge and Opae'ula

[seans]

Hi,
Long time follower, first time poster....I recently purchased a six gallon Fluval Edge that I would like to setup as a breeding tank for opae'ula. Right now I have nine of them in a small 0.5 gallon plastic betta tank and they appear to be doing very well, voraciously eating shrimp pellets, actively swimming around, and molting. My main concern right now is being able to find hardscape....I want to either mirror their natural habitat with dark colored lava rocks or using those fancy rocks that you all use for your Iwagumi tanks. Does Aquascapes in Aiea have a good selection or does anyone recommend any place else. Or if someone has any live rocks that they would be willing to sell, that would be great as well. They have to be a certain size since the opening on the top of the Fluval Edge is rather small. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Best regards,
Sean S.

[MABJ]

There's a guy named Rob here who keeps several awesome Opae tanks.

Look him up, or his threads at least. He gives great advice.

I'm sure you know these guys need a minimum of brackish water to thrive in captivity.

I think your Fluval edge would be a perfect selection.

[seans]

Thanks MABJ!

Originally Posted by MABJ

There's a guy named Rob here who keeps several awesome Opae tanks.

Look him up, or his threads at least. He gives great advice.

I'm sure you know these guys need a minimum of brackish water to thrive in captivity.

I think your Fluval edge would be a perfect selection.

[Rob in Puyallup]

Hi Sean...

I just bumped into this. Welcome to the posting world! :-)

Great choice for an opae tank.

I'm thinking you're in Hawaii. (Lucky you!)
Keep in mind that I'm writing from my limited experience with Opae Ula...

Aragonite sand. Comes in both black and white. Comes "live" with nitrifying bacteria.

Lava rock. Comes in red or black. Sometimes a mixture of the two. Probably best to get aquarium grade (whatever that is). Mine came from the seller in Pahoa. "Live" (with bacteria) from their brackish opae ula growing ponds.

Live rock. Get the cured stuff, that to me means rock with no obvious life on it. My lfs holds new live rock in their rock only tank until zeroes on ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Takes weeks. Could have algae by end of the curing. Keep in mind that you'll be putting it in brackish water with a whole lot less "salt" so you'll be, in effect, re-curing it. Inside these very porous "rocks" are many very small lifeforms, many that can't tolerate the differences in specific gravity. In my opinion its worth it. Live rock is very cool!

I've found that the opae ula love sand. They roll the individual grains in their mouths sucking the goodies off it the way I do sunflower seeds. Aragonite sand is an excellent choice as it helps buffer the pH, something lava rock can't do...

Here's a start for ya!

[seans]

Thanks Rob! I actually read your entire journal on your opae'ula tank which got me motivated to give it a try on a much larger scale. I should be receiving my tank early next week and I'm planning to go a store that carries a lot of ADA stuff. If I can't go the native lava/live rock route, I'll go with the Iwagumi theme since I'm Japanese.


Best regards and thanks again!
Sean

Originally Posted by Rob in Puyallup

Hi Sean...

I just bumped into this. Welcome to the posting world! :-)

Great choice for an opae tank.

I'm thinking you're in Hawaii. (Lucky you!)
Keep in mind that I'm writing from my limited experience with Opae Ula...

Aragonite sand. Comes in both black and white. Comes "live" with nitrifying bacteria.

Lava rock. Comes in red or black. Sometimes a mixture of the two. Probably best to get aquarium grade (whatever that is). Mine came from the seller in Pahoa. "Live" (with bacteria) from their brackish opae ula growing ponds.

Live rock. Get the cured stuff, that to me means rock with no obvious life on it. My lfs holds new live rock in their rock only tank until zeroes on ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Takes weeks. Could have algae by end of the curing. Keep in mind that you'll be putting it in brackish water with a whole lot less "salt" so you'll be, in effect, re-curing it. Inside these very porous "rocks" are many very small lifeforms, many that can't tolerate the differences in specific gravity. In my opinion its worth it. Live rock is very cool!

I've found that the opae ula love sand. They roll the individual grains in their mouths sucking the goodies off it the way I do sunflower seeds. Aragonite sand is an excellent choice as it helps buffer the pH, something lava rock can't do...

Here's a start for ya!

[Green_Flash]

I don't like the Molokai live rock, they use cement I think (broke open a piece) and it comes plagued with pests IME.

The only other live rock we can get is called Real Reef Live Rock. It costs like $400 for a 50 lb box though. Currently the only size you can order.

Aquascapes has an ok selection, I wish they had large piles to pick from like this:

[Rob in Puyallup]

Seems many of the pests wouldn't survive the transition to brackish. I have a tubeworm, a couple small snails and some copepods, nothing harmful. Had a small anemone type critter but haven't seen it in a couple weeks. Oh, and yesterday I found several sprigs of red macro algae, very pretty, that!

Much of the live rock is man made these days. I have some created with red lava rock. Is better than the stuff harvested off a reef somewhere, I'm thinking.

Don't pet shops sell it by the pound like they do here?

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