Opaeula.co.uk

A dedicated forum and online store for the Opae ula shrimp! 

Share photos/videos, journals and logs for your Opae ula tank setups for others to read.
 #8735  by opae ula related
 
grrayc wrote:@opae ula related, I got it from my LFS, and it was labelled as "Jade Stone". I still have no idea what it really is, I could not find it online. I am pretty sure it is inert though, which is why I keep it with my betta. Its gorgeous, isn't it?
It is!Image
 #8749  by grrayc
 
Finally put them in! My original ~18ish and ~8 ish of @vorteils dudes!

Here is my new upgrade! There are about 25 in there (I always forget to count as I'm transferring). A lot are hiding, but as you can see, theres a good group exploring their new home!

The left side is a tonnn of small/medium lava rocks built up, with one large lava rock cave (the hole is blocked temporarily so I could see them before they hid). The right side is a dish filled with crushed coral, then the large corals placed on top, for both decoration and calcium carbonate. Two sea fans, one old one new. Waiting on a glass top to come. Also a variation of macroalgae from various sellers.

Not too much algae growth yet, but lots of biofilm from the previous tank, and one lovely user sent me his super duper mature water, and thick algae covered rocks (two). I am pretty happy with it! Constructive criticism welcome (or just, ya know, praise ;p )



(And yes vintage price is right is playing in the background)
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 #8752  by Vorteil
 
Cool video. It's interesting the macro algae you have in there. It looks different then the one you see on the google site. Yours looks thinner & soft vs. the darker green, thicker and wiry(?). I've seen a similar one to what you have for sale in the past. I cannot find it now, I believe they went out of business due to the volcano.
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 #8753  by grrayc
 
Vorteil wrote:Cool video. It's interesting the macro algae you have in there. It looks different then the one you see on the google site. Yours looks thinner & soft vs. the darker green, thicker and wiry(?). I've seen a similar one to what you have for sale in the past. I cannot find it now, I believe they went out of business due to the volcano.
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I actually do have a good chunk of the stringy kind like in your bottom photo. I have a lot of the fluffier kind, but I break it up into smaller pieces to spread throughout the tank.

I believe I have three kinds of chaeto/macro algae species in there. The one from supershrimp, one tiny piece that I added when I got a shrimp sphere off an ebay seller a year almost ago when I first got them, and then this "algae starter"
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I ordered from a certain shrimp ecosphere site a few times. It describes it as "We culture two species of brackish water algae in our own hatchery. One species is Chaetomorpha sp. a truly euryhaline algae (able to tolerate a wide range of water salinity) and is found in the wild in specific gravity from 1.002 to 1.069 (almost three times the salinity of the ocean!).There are other species of the genus Chaetomorpha, used in reef aquariums, that do not tolerate lower water salinity, and will eventually disintegrate when placed in brackish water. Do not use those species in your ** Ecosystem or for any type of brackish water aquarium.

A second species of algae is a type of brackish hair algae species endemic to the Hawaiian brackish water anchialine pools, the habitat of the opae ula (Halocaridina rubra) shrimp. We acquired this species some time ago from a vendor in Hawaii, and have been cultured this algae in our hatchery ever since. We have yet to scientifically identify this algae species."

I have never had any of my chaeto algae die. In fact, it must have only grown as I have usually always had a pretty heavy bio load in my tanks.
Last edited by grrayc on 20 Jan 2020 21:33, edited 3 times in total.