# Halocaridina rubra / Opae ula in Brackish water tank



## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

Not so good shot of the shrimp. But I could check that there is plenty of food in this tank


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## mpkee007 (Jan 23, 2013)

Those shrimp look awesome. After reading Rob in Pullyup's thread they seem like a cool shrimp to keep.


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## Julianzh (Jul 28, 2011)

Nice looking shrimp! Where can I buy those shrimps?


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## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

They seem to be easy to get from the US. I got mine from Italy.

Tonight, I discovered that one shrimp have molted.


Funny how complete this one is


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## KenP (Nov 8, 2012)

I really like the black lava rock. Wonderful molt picture. Good luck with your Opae.


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## Hmoobthor (Aug 15, 2011)

very nice...

i kept mine for over 5 months now..

i know i started out with 25 or so and down to 18.. did a major rescape and changes

late in the evening, i was shinning a light to see what will attract to it and i see small creature swimming up to it...not sure if it's shrimp or what...but it very small...


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## Julianzh (Jul 28, 2011)

What do you guys feed them with? Normal algae waffles or shrimp food like borneowild food?


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## Rob in Puyallup (Jul 2, 2009)

I feed mine the same foods that I feed my freshwater shrimp. 

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## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

Julianzh said:


> What do you guys feed them with? Normal algae waffles or shrimp food like borneowild food?


I don't really feed them :confused1:

I have put Spirulina powder about a month before the shrimps came in. I have dropped one JBL NovoPrawn pellet a few weeks ago. Yesterday I dropped a JBL Spirulina flake. The JBL stuff does not seem to please them as-is. I could see the pellet melting during days on the rock it fell on and no shrimps on it. But finally, that rock zone is clean again ; I expect the shrimps and/or the snail to have eaten it.

The glass gets green parts. I expect those to be eatable algae. And I don't think I'm that wrong because shrimps get more and more red. I only clean the front glass to actually be able to see what happens. Last time I check, a few days ago, they really looked like Neocaridina heteropoda var. Sakura.


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

Nice! The tank looks so matured, happy shrimp!


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## Rob in Puyallup (Jul 2, 2009)

PT... 

It could be that the opae ula don't recognize the food you're giving them. Once they've discovered it they'll flock to it, burying it under their red herd! 

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## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

Rob in Puyallup said:


> PT...
> 
> It could be that the opae ula don't recognize the food you're giving them. Once they've discovered it they'll flock to it, burying it under their red herd!


Yeah, maybe. At least, I checked this morning and the flake has disappeared.


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## Rob in Puyallup (Jul 2, 2009)

BTW... I'm still feeding my opae ula every other day. Once they get used to being fed they'll investigate anything that falls in the tank. 

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## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

Halocaridina rubra

I don't really feed them anymore at all. I think they had one Spirulina flake in a month. I think (and hope) they feed from those algae. In fact, I can see them harvesting the rock.


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## assasin6547 (Feb 6, 2013)

Do they _require_ brackish? I thought some folks kept them in fresh...


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## Rob in Puyallup (Jul 2, 2009)

These guys don't seem to recognize food at the beginning. If they haven't found the food within a couple hours take it out and try again a day or two later. 

The only opae ula that have berried for me are those in the fed tanks. 

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## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

assasin6547 said:


> Do they _require_ brackish? I thought some folks kept them in fresh...


I read the require brackish to reproduce but they can live fresh water.




Rob in Puyallup said:


> These guys don't seem to recognize food at the beginning. If they haven't found the food within a couple hours take it out and try again a day or two later.
> The only opae ula that have berried for me are those in the fed tanks.


OK. I'll see if they berry with only internal algae. If not, I'll try (again) to give them shrimp food


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## 52149 (Feb 26, 2012)

Aloha,

I love to come on to the invert page and read the threads. It's very interesting questions people have to ask and find out. 

Well after reading this thread I noticed all of you feed your Opae ulas pretty frequent. Let me say you don't have to try like once every 2 wks. The Opae ula live off bacteria the love the stuff. They are not shrimp they are micro lobsters. Big big difference. I specialize in the Opae ula. If there something I know it these little guys. The Opae ula live in brackish water lava pools, very slow moving waters, and lots of high temps and bacteria. I always start my tank with 20 opaes I usually end up with 200 by 6 months. 

There are techniques to keeping the Opae ulas. Certain lights, time, food and water parameters. Very very easy to breed. Opae ulas love the spirulina power they also love dark places where bacteria grows. Any question on breeding and general keeping on these guys don't hesitate to ask 


Mahalo


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## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

Hi,



daboss808 said:


> (...) There are techniques to keeping the Opae ulas. Certain lights, time, food and water parameters. Very very easy to breed. Opae ulas love the spirulina power they also love dark places where bacteria grows. Any question on breeding and general keeping on these guys don't hesitate to ask


Well, can you tell us more about "Certain lights, time, food and water parameters"?

I use a "marine" lamp. Do you think it's useful or should I stick with fresh water "daylight" lamp?

I have build "dark places" (with stone piles) as I already read they liked it. But should I, for example, turn off artificial light once or twice a week?

Thanks!


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## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

Didn't know there were "var. Sakura" from those shrimps 


Halocaridina rubra, aka Opae ula


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## Destroyer551 (Dec 1, 2009)

ptijo said:


> Didn't know there were "var. Sakura" from those shrimps
> 
> 
> Halocaridina rubra, aka Opae ula


Oh man, someone needs to breed that out some more.

But knowing the breeding rate of these guys it may take several years, lol.


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## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

Destroyer551 said:


> Oh man, someone needs to breed that out some more.
> 
> But knowing the breeding rate of these guys it may take several years, lol.


hehe, time will tell ;-)


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## aluka (Feb 2, 2013)

Destroyer551 said:


> Oh man, someone needs to breed that out some more.
> 
> But knowing the breeding rate of these guys it may take several years, lol.


more like several decades, lol. Several years is breeding a line of neos. These will take forever!


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## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

Had to shut down the light for a bit less than 2 weeks. Algae are growing faster than what Opae ula eats 


Brackish water tank for Halocaridina rubra


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## Julianzh (Jul 28, 2011)

do you have any snails in your tank? and if do you, what kind of snails? because im planning to get some.


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## ProduceGuy (Mar 8, 2013)

I started with 30 in my 2.5 gallon tank. I've had about 8 months now. They are breeding like crazy. It took forever, but once they started breeding it exploded! I've had 8 berried females with 2 more still carrying their eggs. The other have dropped their eggs and I have at least 100 larvae floating about. Some have reached "shrimphood" and many others are about to. 

I just wish mine would color up. Many of them are still white. Only a few out of the original 30 are actually red. They do seem to be coloring up a bit now that they've been moved to a quieter area.

Oh.... and I only feed mine ONE FLAKE of Spiralina on the 1st and 15th


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## Rob in Puyallup (Jul 2, 2009)

Seems once white always white. 

Some Malaysian Trumpet Snails might be a good addition to your tank with algae. A partial water change will help with that as well. 

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## ProduceGuy (Mar 8, 2013)

Rob in Puyallup said:


> Seems once white always white.
> 
> Some Malaysian Trumpet Snails might be a good addition to your tank with algae. A partial water change will help with that as well.
> 
> Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S III using Tapatalk 2



Are you responding to me Rob?

I do have snails that I got from Mustafa. 10 of them.

A partial water change will help with what? The color of the shrimp?


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## 52149 (Feb 26, 2012)

Expansion of hawaiis Opae ulas has really spread through out the U.S. I breed and raise Opae ula for about 3 yes now. I have over 3000 Opae ula and still going strong. Very little care and breeding is readily in the summer. Any questions pertaining to the Opae ula feel free to ask..... Nice looking pictures


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## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

Julianzh said:


> do you have any snails in your tank? and if do you, what kind of snails? because im planning to get some.


Yep, I did drop 2 (ou 3) Melanoides tuberculata. Now, there seem to be 3 or 4 babies more


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## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

Rob in Puyallup said:


> (...)A partial water change will help with that as well.(...)


Yep. I'll probably do a bit change when summer ends. Until then, In such a small tank (3L I think), evaporation "helps" a lot for water change. Nearly 1/4 or 1/2 L to fill up every week-end


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## P.flava_Sava (Aug 2, 2013)

*Evaporation Station*



ptijo said:


> Yep. I'll probably do a bit change when summer ends. Until then, In such a small tank (3L I think), evaporation "helps" a lot for water change. Nearly 1/4 or 1/2 L to fill up every week-end


 I'm not sure what you meant by evaporation helping with water changes, but just in case you are only topping off the water levels rather than removing water, I'd like to suggest that topping off will not remove any nutrients from the system. If this is not what you meant, ignore this post.
Even with evaporation, you'll want to remove the same proportion of the existing water. For example, if you have 3L when topped off and it evaporates to 2L and you want to do a 30% water change, you should remove about 666ml (2L * 30%) since the nutrients and dissolved organics don't evaporate and need to be removed.
I have an opae'ula tank (2.5g, 9.5L) that has been going for about 6 months with 12 shrimp and I have 2 berried females currently. I only do 20% water changes about once every six months, but I top off with distilled water weekly. I feed them pure spirulina powder once or twice a month but there is a healthy layer of microalgae and biofilm on the rocks and glass for them to feed on.


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## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

P.flava_Sava said:


> I'm not sure what you meant by evaporation helping with water changes, but just in case you are only topping off the water levels rather than removing water, I'd like to suggest that topping off will not remove any nutrients from the system. If this is not what you meant, ignore this post.
> Even with evaporation, you'll want to remove the same proportion of the existing water. For example, if you have 3L when topped off and it evaporates to 2L and you want to do a 30% water change, you should remove about 666ml (2L * 30%) since the nutrients and dissolved organics don't evaporate and need to be removed.
> I have an opae'ula tank (2.5g, 9.5L) that has been going for about 6 months with 12 shrimp and I have 2 berried females currently. I only do 20% water changes about once every six months, but I top off with distilled water weekly. I feed them pure spirulina powder once or twice a month but there is a healthy layer of microalgae and biofilm on the rocks and glass for them to feed on.


Yep, I know that toping the tank leaves the unused nutriments in. So far, the shrimps seem to like this and algae seem to use the nutriments to grow. The "problem" with distilled water is that you have to guess when there are no more nutriments for the algae to grow (and feed the shrimps).

I'll probably end with topping the tank 3 times with distilled water and 1 time with tap water.

Until then, here's a little movie of the critters 

Halocaridina rubra / Opae ula


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## Rob in Puyallup (Jul 2, 2009)

Why tap water? 

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## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

Rob in Puyallup said:


> Why tap water?


Hum... because that's what easiest to get


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## Rob in Puyallup (Jul 2, 2009)

OK 

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## Aplomado (Feb 20, 2013)

What temperature is ideal for these guys?


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## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

Aplomado said:


> What temperature is ideal for these guys?


No idea about the ideal. Mine were at 19-20°C this winter. The tank went up to 29°C this summer. It is now about 23/24°C.


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## aluka (Feb 2, 2013)

How long do they stay berried? Mine has been berried for about 2-3 weeks?


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## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

aluka said:


> How long do they stay berried? Mine has been berried for about 2-3 weeks?


Don't know. Mine don't seem to already be.


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## Julianzh (Jul 28, 2011)

aluka said:


> How long do they stay berried? Mine has been berried for about 2-3 weeks?


So jealous of your berried opae.


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## Rob in Puyallup (Jul 2, 2009)

If I remember correctly, five weeks. 

You'll be awed when the larvae are finally released, they swim head down, and move a bit like alien helicopters or hummingbirds in slow motion. 

Do your water change and/or top offs (RO or distilled water) while the moms are still berried, the freshly hatched shrimp seem sensitive to parameter changes. Don't do another wc or top off until after they settle and take on the appearance of miniature adults several weeks later. 

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## Julianzh (Jul 28, 2011)

Rob in Puyallup said:


> If I remember correctly, five weeks.
> 
> You'll be awed when the larvae are finally released, they swim head down, and move a bit like alien helicopters or hummingbirds in slow motion.
> 
> ...


But if don't top off for that long, wouldn't the salinity increase by a lot?


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## aluka (Feb 2, 2013)

i'm terrible at topping off now that the tank is on the top shelf... i top off once every 2 weeks... if i remeber...

I should do a water change now while they are still berried, its been a while.

Should i put a sponge filter in once they hatch?


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## Rob in Puyallup (Jul 2, 2009)

My tanks are covered with glass to reduce evaporation. It still happens, but not as quickly. The slow increase in salinity doesn't seem to bother the shrimp, a decrease in salinity , caused by a top off, can be quicker. I replace up to half a gallon of water in my 8 gallon tank over a period of an hour or so with no problems. 

I have very small hang on back filters on my tanks. The water just trickles out. The intakes have sponge prefilters on them. The HOB filters have been on the tanks since I first set them up. 

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## Lornek8 (Jul 3, 2013)

To illustrate the hardiness of opae ula I have an almost embarrasing story (would have been embarrasing had it not turned out well). A few years back I set up a 2.5 gallon tank with about 20 or so opae ula. I had a layer of sand, a pile of lava rocks and a small HOB filter. The intent was to make a nice display tank out of it. Well, I purchased a home and in the course of the move, the tank was placed on a shelf in my carport. The filter was removed and a layer of saran wrap was placed on the tank to reduce splashing. I thought I'd give them something to eat and went to pour in some fish food I had around. Too much fell in but as I was in the middle of something I scooped out as much as I easily could and left the rest, meaning to return and do a better job. As things go, weeks later the tank was pea green. Giving up on the tank I just left it there figuring it'd simply dry up. About 18 months later the water level had gone down a bit but there was still a lot of water and algae covered the glass. Over the course of a couple of months the algae started reducing to the point where I caould actually see in the tank again. Low and behold I was surprised, to say the least, that I had literally hundreds of shrimp in that tank now. I added some tap water to top of the tank but apart from that was afraid to do much more. I am intending to setup another display type tank for the opae ula but am afraid to touch the original tank as its done so well for itself for the past few years. To say that these are hardy shrimp isn't doing the shrimp justice.


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## Rob in Puyallup (Jul 2, 2009)

Love that, Lorne... 

Reminds me of an article I read years ago about African Grey Parrots that were abandoned in a barn, their only food raw cattle scraps. That the only human interaction they received. 

Bred like flies! 

Lol 

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## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

Great story Lornek8! ;-)


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## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

There are two of them ; quite white rather than red.

Halocaridina rubra par Joel Carnat, sur Flickr

Looking at them closely, one can see spots of red ; like freckles 
Those 2 were get from an ecosphere. The person who sold them told me there were born in the ecosphere. Well, the ecosphere was broken and everything was transferred into a bowl tank.

Not sure wether they are white because they're young or if they just have a different "layout". Time'll tell.


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## Rob in Puyallup (Jul 2, 2009)

Opae Ula colors vary from white to scarlet red. Chances are this one will stay the color it is. 

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## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

OK, funny


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## Koi Kameon (Apr 25, 2010)

*So much more interest in HRS than when I joined several years ago!*

Glad to see it.

Koi


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## Green_Flash (Apr 15, 2012)

ptijo said:


> Didn't know there were "var. Sakura" from those shrimps
> 
> 
> Halocaridina rubra, aka Opae ula


"Coming soon: PRL Opae ula by ptijo" :biggrin:


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## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

Green_Flash said:


> "Coming soon: PRL Opae ula by ptijo" :biggrin:


hehehe


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## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

Halocaridina rubra are still there, still moving, still red.

I recently saw a bunch of small, white critters. Not sure, but this may be great news. It's strange how they can hide even in (only) 7L...


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## Rob in Puyallup (Jul 2, 2009)

Copepods of some sort, probably. 

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## randyl (Feb 1, 2012)

I have a tank with hundreds of opae ula in there, would love to get some white ones. Thanks for sharing.


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## Rob in Puyallup (Jul 2, 2009)

I have gobs of white ones. 

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## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

Rob in Puyallup said:


> Copepods of some sort, probably.


no no, I meant white opae shrimps 
there's not much, if any at all, cyclops, copepods and such things.

there're a few melanoids yet. I also recently added 3 clithons ; 'cause they're supposed to reproduce in brackish water. I'll see.


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## alibird (Jan 8, 2014)

ptijo said:


> Not so good shot of the shrimp. But I could check that there is plenty of food in this tank


Ptijo, where did you get your beautiful Opa Ulas?! I am setting up a tank and would love to get some like yours or even some of yours if you have any spares! Many thanks!


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## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

alibird said:


> Ptijo, where did you get your beautiful Opa Ulas?! I am setting up a tank and would love to get some like yours or even some of yours if you have any spares! Many thanks!


No spare, sorry. I did a massive cleanup of the tank and discover the "white" ones are not shrimplets. They must be the one I first got from some contact in France. The red one come from Italy. Send a PM if you want me to give you the contact information.


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## ptijo (Jan 4, 2013)

Still no shrimplets but they do well.


Halocaridina rubra


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## Rob in Puyallup (Jul 2, 2009)

My opae ula larvae a couple weeks ago. Many are settling, crawling on the tank walls instead of head down swimming now. 










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## Julianzh (Jul 28, 2011)

I just had my first batch of baby opae. Finally after a year of waiting haha


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