# Ecospheres (with Opae Ula aka Volcano Shrimp)



## akpoly (Aug 23, 2011)

There are several companies that make them with varying degrees of cost.

Some people say they are shrimp from Hawaii and they even buy them to set them "free". But its a marine environment from what I've read.


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## xenxes (Dec 22, 2011)

Yeah.. vastly overpriced but does seem like cool paperweight.


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## zachary908 (Feb 12, 2011)

Make your own! I don't the gorgonian would live long though, those things generally need good flow.


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## Noahma (Oct 18, 2009)

I could see one or two kicking the bucket in there and fouling the water taking out the whole thing.


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## Ozydego (Aug 29, 2011)

I just read a lot about these and they do have a 6 month warranty on the smalls and a year on the big ones.... From reading it looks like as long as you regulate the temp and light level, everything else does its own thing... They even stated that the shrimp will eat the dead and the bacteria will absorb it in a "day or two"... dunno about the timeframe there, but really cool... expensive, but cool


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## xenxes (Dec 22, 2011)

I'm going to try to make my own (don't know about these instructions though). 

I just saw this, one of their new cheaper products http://www.byoes.com/. Here is the kit (lol @ the Nestle bottle spring water):









So all I need is a container with a closeable/sealable semi-seamless lid. And I figured out what shrimp they use -- Halocaridina rubra. They look like tiny RCS 

Also, the up-to-9 year claim seems to be real:

Recent popularity of ʻōpaeʻula as a low-maintenance pet in Hawaiʻi and elsewhere has brought this otherwise obscure decapod crustacean into popular consciousness. A long-lived species, ʻōpaeʻula have been known to live for *as long as 20 years in captivity*. Sexes are difficult to distinguish, but gravid females carry clusters of red/maroon eggs under their pleopods, and early larvae are planktonic filter-feeders.​
Balancing the nitrogen/oxygen cycle might be tough. I'll probably do something much larger to give them space & sustain a colony. Expensive online.

Here's an article on the shrimp, and another on how the shrimp (who can live up to 20 years) suffocate to death in 1-2 years in these tiny spheres. 

I'd buy them to set them free too if they weren't $500 for a 9". But then they'll just recapture it and resell it to me for $500. Best we just boycott.

Pictures of natural environment. Wish I lived in Hawaii.


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## junko (Sep 9, 2011)

I've seen these for sale around here in the higher end souvenir shops in Newport. They are pretty cool. Except that the shrimp may eventually suffocate.


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## Eldachleich (Jul 9, 2011)

I've actually bought these.. This brand used to be sold by brookestone at a much cheaper price. Theres still a store around here that sells them.

They are quite nice and as long as everything is stable can last for a year or two. But thats it. My husband had one that lasted for 4 years. Cool little things but not really worth the price. If you can find a different brand they run much cheaper.
Not the nicest things to the animals but I never bought one to be nice to them. I bought one for it to look good on my desk. In have a hard time garnering emotions for 3 tiny shrimp...
Perhaps if they had been more personable like my other shrimp I would care more...


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## Monster Fish (Mar 15, 2011)

I've seen these for sale. I'd avoid them since I heard the shrimp die a slow death within the closed system due to ammonia poisoning and a lack of food. The shrimp actually get smaller after molts.

http://www.petshrimp.com/hawaiianredshrimp.php

I'd rather buy a bunch of the Halocaridina rubra and set up a small brackish 2.5 gallon with filtration, more algae, food, and water changes.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Yea, xenxes don't keep them in a closed, air tight container, without any filtration. They deserve their own tank!


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## Ozydego (Aug 29, 2011)

I would think if you can keep the algae at the right size, the ammonia and the oxygen would not be a problem... algae uses ammonia, produces O2, shrimp give ammonia and CO2... hence the sustainable... I think its cool that this balance can be kept for months, let alone years, when we have unbalanced ecosystems that kill our fauna all the time... sealed or not... how many of us can keep shrimp alive for 2 years?


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## RandomMan (May 31, 2011)

Its very easy to make your own (just top off with distilled/RODI water), and its much more humane for the shrimp.

Also, the shrimp will only live for about 2 years in the Ecosphere before they starve to death.


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## Obakemono (Dec 23, 2011)

I had about 20 of these guys but I made the mistake of getting live sand and rock from the bay (when I lived in Hawaii). Ended up with some not-so-nice critters in the tank and the algae took over big time. I did a massive water change and did not get the salt content right and they all croaked. They are very nice shrimp to keep but they are small and vary from clear to bright red. They do like the Hikari algae wafers though.

Edit:
http://www.hawaii-opaeula.com/opae-aquahomes.html

1.00 each plus live rock and water. Hmmmmmmmm.......


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## Ozydego (Aug 29, 2011)

xenxes, have you looked at any of the walstad style shrimp bowls?? Thats the closest I have come to a sustainable ecosystem, no filtration, no heat, just plants and shrimp in organic potting soil capped with sand... could be right up your alley, here is a link to my bowl and Newmans

Ozy's Walstad bowl for the office

Newmans Shrimp bowl


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## xenxes (Dec 22, 2011)

Obakemono said:


> I had about 20 of these guys but I made the mistake of getting live sand and rock from the bay (when I lived in Hawaii). Ended up with some not-so-nice critters in the tank and the algae took over big time. I did a massive water change and did not get the salt content right and they all croaked. They are very nice shrimp to keep but they are small and vary from clear to bright red. They do like the Hikari algae wafers though.
> 
> Edit:
> http://www.hawaii-opaeula.com/opae-aquahomes.html
> ...


Sorry to hear about that Hawaiin sand  that's the site where I saw them too, $50+shipping for 50. Really don't need to 50 though. Maybe I can find some locals to do a group order.



Ozydego said:


> xenxes, have you looked at any of the walstad style shrimp bowls?? Thats the closest I have come to a sustainable ecosystem, no filtration, no heat, just plants and shrimp in organic potting soil capped with sand... could be right up your alley, here is a link to my bowl and Newmans
> 
> Ozy's Walstad bowl for the office
> 
> Newmans Shrimp bowl


I'm a newbie so all these "types" are Latin to me  I read bad things about soil (muddies the water, that they cause problems later on, or eventually become inert, etc), do you guys bake to sterilize first? I would really like to start one, or two.

I saw Tom's Bucket of Dirt here on the forums, and was amazed by it. Are these bowls basically a smaller version?


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## Obakemono (Dec 23, 2011)

I'm seriously thinking of doing a Opae Ula setup. I have a 5gal glass tank, spare heater, bubble filter. All I need is a small bag of sea salt, a hydrometer and the shrimp. 13watts of 6500K light should grow algae just fine for these guys.


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## xenxes (Dec 22, 2011)

Think a 0.8 gallon with a tiny filter is big enough for.. 10? They're 0.5" when fully grown, compared to RCS at 1.5".


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## Ozydego (Aug 29, 2011)

pretty close, the walstad method is basically using potting soil as the nutrients for the plants, the plants are the filter for the nitrates that the beneficial bacteria (BB) produce and the shrimp provide the very small bioload that the BB use. 

The sand keeps the potting soil down, and as long as you plant first, and then pour in the sand, you wont have any issues... if you do plant after the sand, make sure the water level is low and then you can suck out any soil that may have come up. 

The way I started mine, My wife had tomatoes outside over the summer and I stole some of the miracle grow organic potting soil (MGOPS) and some sand from my daughters sandbox. I sifted the still wet soil through a screen mesh and placed it in the bowl. I ten placed a layer of playsand over the soil. Planted some stems and jungle val and I was done.. the bowl came from Michaels, but you can get them lots of places. There are a lot of these bowls creeping up lately and Newman is the resident expert. 

I never boiled the MGOPS and newman has had a bowl growing for at least a year or two now, so the nutrients dont "run out" quickly. 

I found the process to be extremely easy and pretty fun... no extra steps besides rinsing the sand first so that it itself does not cloud the water, by covering the soil and "capping" it, you never see a cloud from that. I think you would find it very rewarding, I started my 2nd in December and am about ready to add some shrimp... I would wait at least a month for the bowl to "mature" before adding shrimp, ask some questions because the info on this little method has grown quite large...


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## Mxx (Dec 29, 2010)

Aww... so little faith in the power of plants for a planted tank forum...

By the way, do a search for Ecospheres here and you'll turn up half a dozen threads discussing this. Mine was here - http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/planted-nano-tanks/133639-crystal-red-shrimp-biosphere.html

I believe the Ecospheres are nutrient (probably nitrogen) limited, for otherwise they may rapidly be covered in algae and would not be a very attractive sight. Algae growth will be limited as well by the amount of CO2 the shrimp and bacteria can produce. And shouldn't have a problem keeping up with the amount a few shrimp produce, unless... the shrimp manage to eat all the algae. But being invertebrates, the shrimp may be able to then slow down their metabolism until the algae can recover. In any case, I suspect it's the limited amount of food they contain which eventually spells the demise for the shrimp. And I suspect the spheres must contain primarily fresh water instead of salt water, in order to prevent the shrimp from being able to reproduce and overpopulate the vessel. The shells contained are key as well, as they'll prevent the hardness and pH from crashing as they slowly dissolve. 

I have four Ecovessels going myself right now as a trial, which were cheap plastic 1 gallon jars. They're sitting in my home office and get direct sunlight in the morning. I added a fair bit of java moss, some elodea, and salvinia, and a bit of water milfoil. One has Christmas moss instead of java, but that is growing very slowly. And one has just Pellia and Salvinia. The Pellia is quite impressive as that one has stayed sparklingly clean, while the others have suffered slightly from algae and blue-green algae. I have them stocked with a few cherry red shrimp and a Nerite Snail each. I was temporarily housing a pair of Endlers in one as well for a few weeks, to see if I'd get any fry. And although I had a lid on, and monitored the situation carefully throughout each day, (they're on my work desk), I never saw any signs of oxygen shortages from the Endlers so the java moss was able to keep up with their respiration. 

I might redo them slightly though. I'd perhaps use medium sized black marbles for the substrate, which are large enough to allow any detritus to drop through to the bottom, and which I could bury a little heater in while still allowing for sufficient water circulation around it. And then pick up some java ferns and more red shrimp as I only have one or two in each right now. The moss got out of control while I was feeding the shrimp when I got impatient for them to reach adult size, so I've had to trim that back to reset the situation. 

I'm not sure what you can do about the blue-green algae though. One of mine seemed to go through a cycle with it, and then it disappeared. Another got it and I cleaned it out myself. One has some right now and I'm trying to resist cleaning it. I'd also considered dropping a dose of Erythromycin in it and then resealing it, (but not before cleaning off what blue-green algae I could). That should kill the cyano and not allow it to reappear, but would kill the nitrogen consuming bacteria as well, leaving only the algae and moss to consume ammonia/nitrites/nitrates. I'm not sure if that would work or not, but I may try it once I get the vessels sorted out and if I get more cyano in one of them. 

I'd eventually like to order some Hawaiian Volcano Shrimp, Fairy Shrimp, and Triops as well to try it with some different things.


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## Ozydego (Aug 29, 2011)

I forgot to mention, I would go with RCS over the volcano shrimp because they too are hardy and you do have the option of them breeding... like rabbits... and they will self limit to the ecosystem as well... also, keeping the saline content steady in such a small place is a terribly hard job compared to freshwater.....


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## Mxx (Dec 29, 2010)

Ozydego said:


> I forgot to mention, I would go with RCS over the volcano shrimp because they too are hardy and you do have the option of them breeding... like rabbits... and they will self limit to the ecosystem as well... also, keeping the saline content steady in such a small place is a terribly hard job compared to freshwater.....


But if your shrimp are breeding you run the risk of them overpopulating the vessel in which case you may need to intervene. 

And in a sealed vessel you needn't worry at all about keeping the salinity stable, as there is no place for the salt or the water to go!


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## xenxes (Dec 22, 2011)

Mxx said:


> I have four Ecovessels going myself right now as a trial, which were cheap plastic 1 gallon jars.


Pics please!


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## Mxx (Dec 29, 2010)

xenxes said:


> Pics please!


Suppose I should take some... one reason I hadn't mentioned anything about them before here though! They're more of an experiment than meant as a showpiece, and considering the jars I wasn't sure how well they'll photograph. Will try to though, despite considering them very much still an unfinished work-in-progress. I should perhaps eventually do a thread on them as well here...


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## Ozydego (Aug 29, 2011)

Sealed, you are right, with the walstad bowls, the population self limits itself... These sealed ecosystems do intrigue me, please share yours


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## madness (Jul 31, 2011)

Opae Ula will breed but they just take a long time (and the proper conditions).


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## Mxx (Dec 29, 2010)

madness said:


> Opae Ula will breed but they just take a long time (and the proper conditions).


Proper conditions being?


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## joejoe123 (Aug 22, 2006)

I like these myself http://www.fukubonsai.com/micro-lobster.html


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## Mxx (Dec 29, 2010)

joejoe123 said:


> I like these myself http://www.fukubonsai.com/micro-lobster.html


Nice link, and this page had some interesting info - http://www.fukubonsai.com/M-L1e.html 
I just wish they had slightly more complete of explanations though...


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## madness (Jul 31, 2011)

Mxx said:


> Proper conditions being?


That is the million dollar question.

They have been reported to breed in a wide range of conditions but there is no gauranteed set-up that results in breeding success that I know of.

Most likely the lack of breeding (and the often reported cases of them spontaneously taking off and breeding out of the blue) is due to age (they seem to take a while to get to breeding age) but it could also be that they require a very mature tank (not only cycled but also with a mature and developed crop of algae and bio-film) in order to feel comfortable enough to breed.

Pretty much everything that I have read from hobbyists who got them to breed indicates that they just waited and waited and then eventually they started breeding and kept on breeding. 

I don't think that anyone has figured out the perfect parameters for encouraging breeding (though they seem to breed in a pretty wide range of parameters) or has found a way to 'force' breeding yet.


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