# Opae Ula Freshwater Life Span



## shrimpo (Aug 2, 2009)

It is better to keep them in conditions as close as possible to their natural habitat, I have mine at 1.012sg, when the salinity increases due to evaporation I just add some distilled water, I rarely do water change.
I heard that they can live more than 20 years in the wild.


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## Freyr (Feb 17, 2013)

Opae are pretty much extremophiles, so Im sure they can handle freshwater for extended periods of time. I've never read anything about how it affects their lifespan however. Regardless, they won't breed for you in fresh.


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## Rob in Puyallup (Jul 2, 2009)

A LFS used to sell opae ula for mini reef aquaria. Full salt. 

Mine are kept in water that measures no less than 1.012, frequently a bit more due to evaporation. 

I would think if you try the freshwater idea you switch gradually over days instead of hours. 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S III using Tapatalk 2


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## Koi Kameon (Apr 25, 2010)

*Don't do it*

I had had my HRS for several years in varying salinities. Happy, molting, eating so much short green algae they ignored their "treats" after a while and then I decided to try them in freshwater since it is repeated over and over on the Internet this is possible.

I spent two months getting them down to 1.0025 spec. gravity from I believe 1.008 or 1.010 and then went all fresh, keeping a container with the brackish water handy for two days in case of stress. They seemed fine. Day 3 they were fine in the morning, I had a busier day and did not look in again until night time and got to watch the last one die. 

On some other forum, someone from HI mentions buying some from a LFS that were in brackish, bringing them home, tossing them in fresh, and having them die in hours.

There is so much info. repeated on this species on the Internet that seems to originate from only a few sources that is almost like an echo chamber. I really wonder if they even live to be 20 years old. Until someone slaps a microchip on a juvie and tracks it for 20 years, I am betting on closer to 5-8 years. The 20 years seems to be a twisting of words from a few people saying they have a large colony that has been going strong for twenty years. Note: The _colony_ is still going, not every original shrimp.

So much "knowledge" is anecdotal compared to the freshwater shrimp info. you can get. So-and-so forgot a jar in his garage for years and they are still alive. Are they or did they breed a few times and a few of them are descendants, etc? I know mine were several years old as I got them as juvies and had a small colony where I could keep track of who was who. How do you do that with 90 shrimp?


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## dhavoc (May 4, 2006)

I know they live at least 16 years probably longer. Got one of those sealed death trap jars from a customer back in 1996, it was only maybe a pint of water at the most and they NEVER bred. I broke open the top right away so i could feed and top off water with distilled. they remained on my parents dining room shelf for the next 16 years. my dad would top off water and feed once a week if he remembered to. The last one died according to my dad last year, and only because he basically forgot about it and it dried up, not old age. I keep a colony of these myself at work and if you treat them with at least a little care, you got a very long lived shrimp species.


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## 52149 (Feb 26, 2012)

http://www.fukubonsai.com/M-L2e.html

Look at this page local braddah here in the 808 state. One of the top breeders for the Opae ula. All his methods are successful and his page is resourceful. Happy shrimp keeping


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## Koi Kameon (Apr 25, 2010)

*thanks for the personal experience quote*



dhavoc said:


> I know they live at least 16 years probably longer. Got one of those sealed death trap jars from a customer back in 1996, it was only maybe a pint of water at the most and they NEVER bred. I broke open the top right away so i could feed and top off water with distilled. they remained on my parents dining room shelf for the next 16 years. my dad would top off water and feed once a week if he remembered to. The last one died according to my dad last year, and only because he basically forgot about it and it dried up, not old age. I keep a colony of these myself at work and if you treat them with at least a little care, you got a very long lived shrimp species.


as i said previously, the twenty years was usually large colonies and the person in HI putting out a lot of the long-lived info. was very vested in selling them, so good to hear from someone on this forum.
Agreed. they require a little care and thrive. just please don't try to make them freshwater. after caring for them for years, it will break your heart when they drop dead on you when you do it.


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## Freegt (Jun 26, 2016)

*Cross-breeding CRS + Opae Ula = SUPER RED KING KONG CRS*

FYI, someone once told me, "I threw so many HSS (i.e. opae ula) into my crystal red shrimp (CRS) until eventually a few bred with my CRS - in fresh water! So here, this is our new Super Red King-Kong!" 

Yes. All I can say is that, there is a way to do it. I know. There are some very smart genetic scientists who also happened to be CRS shrimp fanatics/breeders out there. It worked. These super CRS or the original "Super CRS King-Kong" picked up the gene of Supershrimp without losing their original beautiful physical appearance but instead, intensified its colors through unique inexplicable mutation (i.e. super red and white: maybe from the latent volcanic ashes residue in Supershrimp's gene - thousand of years ago?). 

All I can say is that there are also some very powerful and unscrupulous businessmen/shareholders out there. Basically, 'they' financed the research, and only want super red/white beautiful CRS but WITHOUT all that Supershrimp's genes (i.e. can live up to 20 years, resistant and immune to germs and nasty bacterias, able to breed and survive in any and or different water conditions and temperatures; fresh and salt-water, hot and cold water' and EAT ALL SORTS OF ALGAES just like SAE but better even the blue dot algae - scrapping over your tank's glass walls for hours and days until they dissolved into the water and disappear! Plus, it is smaller that your average CRS! And WILL NOT HUNT OR EAT ITS YOUNGS - all that good staffs etc.). Now, do you understand why it was originally called 'King-Kong' (i.e. super strong and powerful like King-Kong)? 

The 'red CRS King-Kong' that we see in the market right now are specially bred to achieve such coloration using the normal "weak" CRS, and has almost nothing to do with Supershrimp. However, 'they' got the ideas about breeding a "new" and more "profitable" Red CRS King-Kong (i.e. basically the type that is weak and die easily just like CRS) using CRS or shrimps with more full-body redness, from their experiences with the original "Super CRS King-Kong" as mentioned above.

Basically, 'they' want to make sure breeders and lovers of CRS in certain countries, in fact, all over the world, will continue to purchase all those expensive CRS products and CHILLERS in order to 'maintain' their precious expensive beautiful but "weak" CRS. Now, you will also understand why keepers of Supershrimps are "advised" NEVER to place them with any other shrimps (i.e. CRS) because 'they' are afraid of that 5% - 10% which may survive and or breed with your CRS - and if or when that happened, you may just get the real original King-Kongs; and 'they' will lose lots of monies. 

I am kind of leaking confidential insider shrimp-breeding info here...thing is, I don't care, I never signed anything with them and I am pissed off. Last I heard, all the original Super CRS King-Kongs (i.e. the very pretty, beautiful and super strong ones) were made into expensive CRS feeds. 'They' (i.e. the f**king decision-makers) even self-righteously debated and argued by relying on Monsanto GMO's lawsuit (i.e. something so irrelevant as that has to do with lowering nutrition and minerals in foods for mass productions) to justify killing these shrimps (i.e. 'they' do not want to corrupt the natural genetic make-up of Opae Ula). How "noble". Making a species (e.g. CRS) more beautiful and SUPER STRONG is "immoral"?! But crossing among CRSs to produce 'beautiful but weak' Red King-Kong is "okay". It is very twisted. Our world is quite f**ked up. 

Why am I revealing this information? Well, I hope and pray someone will use this information to try and breed Super 'CRS King-Kong' - using Supershrimp's gene. Although I believe most of you don't have state-of-the-art laboratories or technologies and monies (i.e. 'they' used like thousands of opae ula to get only just a few surviving and even among the few, not all could breed, it was like a number game), but no harm trying.

P.S. Anyone who succeed could be very rich - only for a while until almost every Super CRS keepers managed to also massively produce and breed themselves 'cause it will be so easy just like with Supershrimp (i.e. Opae Ula) - that is when the value of all and such Super CRS will drop so much so that they could end up becoming eye candies feeds for fishes. This is also another reason what "they" (i.e. apparently also CRS fanatics) were afraid of, and so self-righteously decided against breeding super CRS (i.e. basically more beautiful CRS with every attributes of Supershrimp). Crazy huh? Think we can even make a movie about this. Hollywood? CIA?! You reading this thread?!

G


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## Lonestarbandit (Feb 7, 2013)

Freegt said:


> FYI, someone once told me, "I threw so many HSS (i.e. opae ula) into my crystal red shrimp (CRS) until eventually a few bred with my CRS - in fresh water! So here, this is our new Super Red King-Kong!"
> 
> Yes. All I can say is that, there is a way to do it. I know. There are some very smart genetic scientists who also happened to be CRS shrimp fanatics/breeders out there. It worked. These super CRS or the original "Super CRS King-Kong" picked up the gene of Supershrimp without losing their original beautiful physical appearance but instead, intensified its colors through unique inexplicable mutation (i.e. super red and white: maybe from the latent volcanic ashes residue in Supershrimp's gene - thousand of years ago?).
> 
> ...


I call complete BS on this entire post. Period. Different species entirely.

Also, this entire diatribe is completely filled with false information, imagination and possibly hallucinations.


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## Lonestarbandit (Feb 7, 2013)

RedBlue said:


> I know opae ula shrimps live in brackish water, but I want to throw them in a full freshwater tank.
> 
> In doing so, how long would they survive in freshwater?


I at one time wanted to do this also.
I contacted two breeders who both informed me independently while it can be done it shouldn't be.
Yes, they would live. Probably.
Their lifespan would be dramatically shortened and they would live an uncomfortable life well out of their comfort zone.
I think most of us don't set out to cause any harm to our livestock.
So technically the answer is yes.
But it is not recommended.


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## Yukiharu (May 3, 2014)

Lonestarbandit said:


> I call complete BS on this entire post. Period. Different species entirely.
> 
> Also, this entire diatribe is completely filled with false information, imagination and possibly hallucinations.


Completely agree. As a bioengineer I don't even know where to start correcting.

Reminder that this is a 3-year-old thread someone resurrected with a long rant that made absolutely no sense.


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## alcimedes (Dec 7, 2014)

Long rant poster posted the same thing to start a thread the other day and got basically the same answer. Think they were looking for another answer somewhere.


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## Lonestarbandit (Feb 7, 2013)

Given the post count it was clearly a troll.


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