Natalia’s reefbowl: 8 years old!

[ReefWeeds]

Looks awesome, Nat!!! Omg I now really really want a shrimp bowl

[natalia_la_loca]

do it do it do it do it!!!!!

 

Another curious little thing: the mossball is floating, and is slowly migrating clockwise around the tank. It appears the bubbler in the reefbowl (next to the shrimpbowl, which has no circulation) is creating just enough vibration to roll the mossball along. It's imperceptibly slow. And I love it.

 

They've settled down and are happily munching algae. This pic shows how very pale they are. Hopefully they'll color up fast.

[Polarcollision]

 

I believe they can be acclimated to ocean salinity, but i'm not sure how well they would do long term. They would also be sitting ducks for any predators in a marine tank. I don't think they have any predators at all in the brackish pools in Hawaii where they occur naturally.

I like the idea of vegetarian shrimp that won't eat dwarf seahorses. Also like the idea of natural source of shrimp eggs/fry for the seahorses to eat. Tankmates would be a mandarin dragonet and pom pom crabs. What do you think?

[natalia_la_loca]

I like the idea of vegetarian shrimp that won't eat dwarf seahorses. Also like the idea of natural source of shrimp eggs/fry for the seahorses to eat. Tankmates would be a mandarin dragonet and pom pom crabs. What do you think?

Somebody on the Plantedtank.net forum said they successfully kept opae'ula with DSH. So based on that sample of one, it could work.

 

They breed slowly, so the nauplii could only be considered an occasional supplement to the DSHs' regular diet, and I'm sure a pompom crab would be delighted to catch one, so you might have to replenish the population periodically. But they're not all that expensive, and shipping is cheap compared to what it costs to ship coral--they do fine with Priority Mail. Mine arrived after 3 days with no losses.

[GTi]

Awesome thread! I also have an opae ula jar. I bought a small set up from Fuku Bonsai and then bought a bigger container so they had more room to move around. It's just a candle jar (unused) and uses natural indirect light. I feed a little spirulina powder every 2 weeks or so. Small water change every 3 months and siphon out gunk from amongst the crushed lava rock substrate. I have 7 in there. I did have another container with some others from petshrimp.com (I think) but had a really bad hair algae outbreak; I treated substrate and dead sea fan with peroxide outside the tank, rinsed and returned it. The shrimp were dead the next day. Not sure if I needed to rinse better or if I killed off all the nitrifying bacteria. I still feel bad about that. Be careful with peroxide and shrimp!

 

Poor picture. I'll try to get a better one later.

 

[natalia_la_loca]

Sweet little jarquarium, thank you for sharing it

 

Yup, it seems peroxide is kryptonite to a lot of different crustaceans and I'm not at all surprised that opae'ula would be susceptible.

 

Another worry I have is Bayer insecticide, which kills crustaceans even in trace amounts. I'm going to use it to dip every coral that goes into my reefbowl, which is on the same table. I'm using different equipment for the two systems and plan extremely minimal intervention in my opae'ula bowl, so hopefully all will be okay.

[GTi]

Some more information.

 

I'm running at 1.013 salinity.

 

I bought a packet of 5 Marimo from Amazon.

 

I put one in with the shrimp and it has been doing fine for a couple of months now.

 

I love this site and the members - there are so many cool ideas!

[BulkRate]

Somebody on the Plantedtank.net forum said they successfully kept opae'ula with DSH. So based on that sample of one, it could work.

 

They breed slowly, so the nauplii could only be considered an occasional supplement to the DSHs' regular diet, and I'm sure a pompom crab would be delighted to catch one, so you might have to replenish the population periodically. But they're not all that expensive, and shipping is cheap compared to what it costs to ship coral--they do fine with Priority Mail. Mine arrived after 3 days with no losses.

 

No kidding on their shipping hardiness. The seller my coworker and I used said they'd had shipments get hung up in customs come back 3-4 weeks later with all the shrimp alive & well! Ours was only delayed a week due to a misrouting in our good ol' USPS with no losses and I'm sure it sat on a truck overnight at some point (this was in winter).

 

I'm switching salt mixes from IO (Reef Crystals) to Continuum Halcyon... it appears a good part of my problems keeping LPS stem from inducing alkalinity swings every water change and at least from the commonly available local salt options this one's pretty close to the parameters I try to keep my tank at. Although the Shrimp Pit never had an issue with IO I do notice that the opae don't blanch out (their "I'm stressed" reaction) nearly as long on a water change as they did previously.

 

Looking really good there... You may want to switch off the bubbler for a few hours and see if your shrimp color back up.

[natalia_la_loca]

No kidding on their shipping hardiness. The seller my coworker and I used said they'd had shipments get hung up in customs come back 3-4 weeks later with all the shrimp alive & well! Ours was only delayed a week due to a misrouting in our good ol' USPS with no losses and I'm sure it sat on a truck overnight at some point (this was in winter).

 

I'm switching salt mixes from IO (Reef Crystals) to Continuum Halcyon... it appears a good part of my problems keeping LPS stem from inducing alkalinity swings every water change and at least from the commonly available local salt options this one's pretty close to the parameters I try to keep my tank at. Although the Shrimp Pit never had an issue with IO I do notice that the opae don't blanch out (their "I'm stressed" reaction) nearly as long on a water change as they did previously.

 

Looking really good there... You may want to switch off the bubbler for a few hours and see if your shrimp color back up.

Holy cow, that is a whole other level of hardiness!!! I'm not too surprised though, as opae'ula are capable of surviving in low oxygen environments.

 

Hope the change in salt mix works out well. I've always gone the easy route and bought premixed RODI saltwater at my LFS. I believe they use a mix of Aquavitro Salinity and Tropic Marin.

 

The bubbler is actually in my reefbowl, not the shrimpbowl. The hazards of having multiple bowls in one thread the opae'ula are already coloring up, they look fantastic.

[Polarcollision]

Somebody on the Plantedtank.net forum said they successfully kept opae'ula with DSH. So based on that sample of one, it could work.

 

They breed slowly, so the nauplii could only be considered an occasional supplement to the DSHs' regular diet, and I'm sure a pompom crab would be delighted to catch one, so you might have to replenish the population periodically. But they're not all that expensive, and shipping is cheap compared to what it costs to ship coral--they do fine with Priority Mail. Mine arrived after 3 days with no losses.

 

It's OK if they don't breed often. There's plenty of BBS. Always have an eye out for natural sources of a fatty acid to supplement what BBS lack. I believe the vegetarian diet supplies the fatty acid. Copepods are ideal but it's great to know these guys are a possibility. I've seen th pom poms clean up a seahorse that died, but they don't go after anything living. Thank god. Taking a risk there. So far it seems they eat mostly what they sop up from the nems and from filtering sand.

 

That's crazy. Weeks in a bag with no problems. Must have ridiculously efficient/slow metabolisms.

[natalia_la_loca]

It's OK if they don't breed often. There's plenty of BBS. Always have an eye out for natural sources of a fatty acid to supplement what BBS lack. I believe the vegetarian diet supplies the fatty acid. Copepods are ideal but it's great to know these guys are a possibility. I've seen th pom poms clean up a seahorse that died, but they don't go after anything living. Thank god. Taking a risk there. So far it seems they eat mostly what they sop up from the nems and from filtering sand.

 

That's crazy. Weeks in a bag with no problems. Must have ridiculously efficient/slow metabolisms.

The only other issue with opae'ula is they hate lots of flow, but that shouldn't be a problem with your DSH tank. I would say give it a try, I'm curious as to how it would work out.

[natalia_la_loca]

The shrimp are continuing to get their color back. They're keeping relatively still and are eating where they sit; according to the breeder I purchased from, they become less active when there is lots of food around (i.e. they don't have to move much to find their next meal). I'll hold off on feeding until they get more restless in searching for algae.

 

 

And moving next door to the reefbowl, I've added my first coral A local reefer was giving away free frags of pulsing xenia. It's a little too big for this bowl, so I'll have to give it a haircut in a few days. So far, it's doing great.

[Cencalfishguy56]

The shrimp are continuing to get their color back. They're keeping relatively still and are eating where they sit; according to the breeder I purchased from, they become less active when there is lots of food around (i.e. they don't have to move around much to find their next meal). I'll hold off on feeding until they get more restless in searching for algae.

 

 

And moving next door to the reefbowl, I've added my first coral A local reefer was giving away free frags of pulsing xenia. It's a little too big for this bowl, so I'll have to give it a haircut in a few days. So far, it's doing great.

Everything looks awesome! I bet if you added some green star polyps with that Xenia it would be be badass!

[natalia_la_loca]

Everything looks awesome! I bet if you added some green star polyps with that Xenia it would be be badass!

 

Nice idea, that would create some additional movement. Hopefully I'll have room I have ambitious stocking plans for this bowl!

[Cencalfishguy56]

 

Nice idea, that would create some additional movement. Hopefully I'll have room I have ambitious stocking plans for this bowl!

lol well I cant wait to see what you come up with

[natalia_la_loca]

Everything is still doing great. Temperature is perfect with the new controller, and I think I can declare success on the vinyl-tubing hack for the rim of the reefbowl. There is no salt creep at all. Which I think is a bit of an accomplishment, considering that the water is close to the top of the bowl and there is plenty of surface agitation (I have the airpump running at full strength to create lots of flow).

 

 

The opae'ula eat faster than I expected. The sandbed used to have some noticeable bacteria mats, and those are gone now. There is also less green algae on the glass. I really like these little guys.

 

Xenia is looking good too. This is a shot of it this morning, before the reefbowl light came on. Can't wait to add more coral!

 

Is it too early to start thinking about setting up a freshwater planted bowl?

[gena]

Wow....way cool collection you've got here .

 

I had some of those shrimp in my FW planted pico. They are pretty neat!!!!! They reproduced like bunnies for me .

 

I think a FW planted bowl is a must for your collection .

[natalia_la_loca]

Wow....way cool collection you've got here .

 

I had some of those shrimp in my FW planted pico. They are pretty neat!!!!! They reproduced like bunnies for me .

 

I think a FW planted bowl is a must for your collection .

 

Thank you Gena Did you have opae'ula shrimp, or cherry shrimp? I was under the impression that opae'ula don't do all that well in freshwater.

 

If I set up a planted bowl, it will definitely have some kind of shrimp. Would love to see pix of your planted pico!

[gena]

Thank you Gena Did you have opae'ula shrimp, or cherry shrimp? I was under the impression that opae'ula don't do all that well in freshwater.

 

If I set up a planted bowl, it will definitely have some kind of shrimp. Would love to see pix of your planted pico!

I guess they were probably cherry shrimp????

 

 

 

The mossy plants got a little crazy in this tank but I enjoyed the tank a lot .

Then I set up a macro saltwater tank next to the FW planted .

 

 

Until I realized what a bad idea it is to have a fish tank on my kitchen counter. It was fun for awhile though .

[natalia_la_loca]

I guess they were probably cherry shrimp????

The mossy plants got a little crazy in this tank but I enjoyed the tank a lot .

Then I set up a macro saltwater tank next to the FW planted .

Until I realized what a bad idea it is to have a fish tank on my kitchen counter. It was fun for awhile though .

 

Beautiful :wub: Yup, those are cherry shrimp.

[natalia_la_loca]

So I made a lot of additions to the reefbowl over the weekend

 

I added a big zoa rock from my old tank with a bunch of rastas, rings of fire, CC glitches, and two varieties of no-name zoas that I ordered from Glenn ages ago. I was very mean and nasty to that rock: in addition to a Bayer dip, I took it out of the water for about 20 minutes to crush every vermetid snail in sight. In spite of these insults, the zoas were open by evening.

 

I was also able to salvage some UC fire hornets and emeralds on fire from another one of my rocks that was badly infested with colonial hydroids. I have them isolated on a frag rack and will gradually smother all hydroids with superglue before I add the frags to the scape. By the way, the Bayer dip seems to have done a number on the hydroids: they are barely visible.

 

And last but not least, I added frags of red digitata, purple-tipped green euphyllia, neon green sinularia, a beautiful bright orange leptoseris, and a tiny acan. I'm not too sure I want to keep the digi--it's a rusty brownish red. After seeing the bubblegum digi at POTO, I'm hoping I can find one of those eventually and rehome the red one.

 

The zoa rock is way too big for this bowl, so I'll probably frag off a few zoas and then sell the rest of the colony. I also need to frag the xenia. It's already expanded from its chunk of rubble to begin attaching itself to the scape.

 

 

So far, all the newcomers are doing fine. Yesterday I gave them their first meal of Coral Frenzy and did a 100% water change a few hours later.

[ReefWeeds]

NO, not too early to start thinking about the freshwater planted bowl I like that idea! A trifecta of bowls. Looking awesome, Nat! I love following these.

[natalia_la_loca]

NO, not too early to start thinking about the freshwater planted bowl I like that idea! A trifecta of bowls. Looking awesome, Nat! I love following these.

 

haha, we'll see Maybe after I get the reefbowl pretty well underway! I still have a lot of decisions to make about stocking and placement, as well as being vigilant to stamp out the last hydroids and vermetids. But even with all that effort, I love how little time it takes to work on this bowl. It's incredibly simple compared to my old tanks.

[gena]

The reef bowl inhabitants look really happy and gorgeous too .

[natalia_la_loca]

I've glued down a few of the frags to get them in an optimal lighting position, although I'll probably move them again after I sell the big zoa rock. Now you can see the orange(ish) digitata. I'm not wild about the color, but it has great polyp extension and I like the shape. Maybe it will color up after a while. It will hopefully also be complemented by the green sinularia, which I have placed on the sandbed behind it. The sinularia is still grumpy and closed up, but all the rest of the corals look fantastic.

 

The $25 par38 lamp from ABI gets a thumbs up thus far. It brings out the colors nicely without an overwhelming Windex effect.

 

 

This is the original rasta/ring of fire frag I bought over two years ago, from which most of the rastas and rings of fire on the big zoa rock are descended. Several of the zoas shrank and lost color because they were shaded by a big toadstool while at the LFS, but they are open and recovering now.

 

Meanwhile, back at the shrimpbowl, the opae'ula are doing great with no intervention from me. Two have molted, this is one of their molted exoskeletons.