The Opae ula shrimp Forum and online store

I'm currently about to set up a tank, and while getting hardscape and sorting out brackish water is relatively trivial, I'm somewhat stuck on sourcing all of the living components. In hindsight I should have checked before ordering the first parts, but I foolishly assumed that sourcing everything would be relatively easy!

I've been trying to find Opae Ula, MTS, a brackish strain of chaeto, some brackish seed shrimp, and Apocyclops panamensis copepods, and basically nowhere online seems to sell any of them in the UK, especially since none are on ebay anymore. The only thing I can find at all currently are MTS which I'll need to acclimate.

Is there some hidden supplier or way that these are making their way around to people? And is the shop on here likely to be reopened anytime soon? It's been quite a few years since I last had an 'aquarium' of any kind, and it wasn't brackish when I did, but I don't remember sourcing things being as difficult as it seems right now.

I'm not in any major rush, since I'm only just about to put the tank together and letting it start to cycle in a few days, but I'm wondering if it's worth putting that off until I can find an actual source for the inhabitants?

Welcome to the forum! I do intend to start selling again when the weather has warmed up. I wouldn’t bother with MTS as they breed like crazy and you will be removing them down the line.

We all had to stop selling in ebay as they banned the sales of animals on it

That's good to know! Thanks, is there any means to pre-order or reserve some? I'm worried I might miss when the store is open! Do you also sell any of the other stuff like the chaeto, copepods, and ostracods suited for brackish water?

That's interesting regarding MTS, I saw some things suggesting that with limited food they somewhat self-regulate? I'd rather not end up drowning in a mound of snails though, if they are just going to reproduce rapidly!

Would it be worth starting to cycle now, or hold off until later in the year?

I have same query - would love to buy some as soon as you’re selling!!

Still getting frost and ice here at the moment, sorry guys.

Oh that sucks, stupid British weather! It’s been quite nice here in Cornwall luckily. I haven’t even got the tank set up yet so I’ll get on that and start growing some lovely algae and it should be ready by time it’s warm enough to ship. Will you send out an email newsletter when the store is open?

Another frost this morning, it’s just not playing ball lol.

odin wrote:Another frost this morning, it’s just not playing ball lol.

Not sure exactly where you're located, but for most of England at least, it looks like the last frost for this year should be sometime in the next week or two!

I've acclimated some marine chaeto, and it seems to be surviving, although I think I'd like to swap it out for some actual brackish stuff, and I added some copepods that seem to be happy swimming around in the meantime