My smallest Opae tank, thriving for three years

[Corucia]

I wanted to share the smallest Opae tank that I’ve set up, which uses a diminutive lab reactor (5000ml / ~1.3 gallon). It’s been running for about three years and I originally established the ecosystem using water, algae, snails, amphipods, copepods and larval-stage Opae Ula from my other tanks, so it’s 100% homegrown. The population has bred a couple of generations of new Opae since it was set up, and I just noticed a new berried female so more babies are on the way!

[Aquarimax]

It is fun to see so much variety in an obviously successful, yet diminutive, setup.

[John]

Hi Corucia! Awesome tank! Thanks for sharing! Where did you get those amphipods? Are they a marine or brackish water species? Did you notice that the amphipods compete with the shrimp for food?

[Corucia]

Hey John. I picked them up from Aquarium depot (see https://aquariumdepot.com/amphipods-cop ... =Amphipods). It was an assortment of amphipods and copepods. While not specifically oriented towards brackish water, I’ve found a substantial portion of the amphipods survived and established a breeding population. My most productive tank has many of them that live in the substrate and they haven’t at all impacted the Opae population nor their breeding.