Ideas for shrimp breeding hideout wanted

I want to make the best environment for shrimps (Opae Ula) to breed. One thing I read is dark caves/crevices for them to hide. I've a tank of large lava rocks, which have minimal hiding spots. I have seen things like a stack of ceramic tubes for sale, or homemade PVC pipes.

Anyone have any ideas to share? Something which you know shrimps absolutely love? DIY with homemade stuff would be best, trying to save some coin.

 

Cholla wood is a good idea, and in a brackish setup you may be able to keep some mosses growing.

PVC pipes would work, and they're super cheap from the hardware store. Look into spawning mops too - they're cheap and easy to make.

 

Wow, thanks. first time i'm hearing about spawning mops. fascinating, this might be very useful given nothing really useful grows in brackish water. doesn't seem like many moss like 1.012-1.015 water.

does cholla lower ph with tannins? I think they like higher ph.

 

I don't know if it'll lower it significantly. Spawning mops should be fine though, and they won't mess with your pH, GH, or KH (they're just yarn!).

 

Once I get my tank setup, will setup some mops to see how the shrimpies like them. I read they like dark caves live areas to breed.

 

You could also get cheap terra cotta pots from Lowe's or the like. They're around $1.

 

didn't have space for those, maybe the minI ones. but now I do because I had to remove all my lava rocks. they were loaded with silica and my tank had massive unending brown algae explosion. not sure if I should change my water now because it's towards the end of the cycle. the removal of the 3 big lava rocks probably means I'll have to wait a bit longer for my cycle to complete.

 

didn't have space for those, maybe the minI ones. but now I do because I had to remove all my lava rocks. they were loaded with silica and my tank had massive unending brown algae explosion. not sure if I should change my water now because it's towards the end of the cycle. the removal of the 3 big lava rocks probably means I'll have to wait a bit longer for my cycle to complete.

Most of the beneficial bacteria will be in your filter on the media. You'd probably be fine to remove the lava rocks from the tank itself.

Did you use TSS+ to cycle your tank with? What are the water parameters?