Took me sometime to think of a title for this and this is one of the more commonly asked question and also one interesting fact about this. In this post, I’m going to share with you something that is usually not known to many and would probably be a good information for those venturing into either Black or Red fancy. As we all know that there are different grades of shrimp and likewise for Black or Red fancy, but to make things simpler I’ll just touch on BFT.

Is there a chance for my Ugly Duckling BFT Juv to be nicer when they grow up?

Possible!

We have seen on many occasions that a ‘not fully covered’ BFT will have the potential of having a full dark base (if it’s of dark base lineage) when it grows up. So, when do we know that the changes are still possible? Usually when it passes 1.2cm there is not much left for the shrimp to change in appearance, for example a very transparent BFT at 1cm, there is no chance this will become a dark base. Small adjustment are possible not major ones.

However, a very nice looking Juv will only become nicer as it grows up. Usually by 1cm one can actually tell the current grade of the shrimp, for example at 0.8cm, if it’s at Grade 3, there is still potential of going to Grade 2. If the shrimp is already Grade 3 at young adult, then its grading is kind of fix till it ages. Please note that there is almost absolutely no chance for a gene shrimp to become Graded ones, so please do not get ‘con’ by breeders who tries to pull a fast one. Getting Juv is really a draw of luck but a very good breeder is able to split out the gene from the graded before 0.8cm so there isn’t much chance to get a graded BFT from a pool of gene BFT. For BFT grading, please look at my earlier posting.

For example the above it is highly unlikely the belly area will have any advancement in future to cover up the transparent area. However, not all is lost, with this we can easily cross it with black ninja to “patch” them up. So if you’re a breeder and have these, you don’t necessary need to cull them away, as there are still ways to still make use of it. You can however start a new tank with it to fully utilize the gene in it. The face pattern does have potential, the lines/stripes are decent as well. It will take at least 2-3 generations before some results can be seen, so all roads lead to Rome, it only depends how much time you’re willing to invest in it.

You can also consider crossing it with earlier generations of 4 line to introduce the BFT genetics into them in a new tank. Many possibilities!

However, if the BFT Juv has lots of undesirable trait then it need to be cull away. Some of the undesirable trait that i look out for:

• Color:
  • base is white
  • more than 30% of shrimp is transparent
  • brownish
• Shape
  • Head to body ratio uneven (ideal 1:3)
  • legs too thin
• Pattern:
  • few lines
  • no lines

A short post! Hope you guys like it.

Cheers!

Have you wondered with a myriad of products in the market what do you really need to purchase to breed successfully ?frankly the lesser you use the better, in this case the necessary items is needed.

What is necessary? From all my blog post I have given a list of items I generally use for example:

• Tank 100 litres
• Ada soil (you can use 2 litres I know my recommendation is about 1litre of soil to 16 litres of water but 2 litres of soil for most is more achievable)
• Filtration ( I use ugf and hang on back)
• Hwa version 1 food
• Lights (I now use chihiros)
• Reminerizer

Is that really all that is needed ? Yes basically my setup is fairly straight forward with no bells and whistles because keeping it simple means I can control every element and pinpoint where the issue may come from. If you have a tank with a lot of gadgets and used a wide range of food product and this and that, when something happens there are too many variables. Could it be my plants or new filter or powder food etc etc. There is no way you will be able to know what is happening.

How many times have you look at products and description and said, maybe I need this. But do you really need it? Technically most products are either good to have or it requires some knowledge to use it. Those who know me Knows that I am not someone who use bacteria powder and do we really need it? Let’s break it down, what actually is bacteria powder or liquid or magic powder? They are nothing more than a product that makes you think you need it. The message put across as a fear to customers is there isn’t any harm using it but if you don’t use it your shrimps might not do well. This fear instilled many even today, where people purchase product because they follow the trend and realise after many years that such product will not turn your cull shrimp into graded or competition shrimp; selective breeding does.

Everything else is inexpensive except for high quality shrimp and while there are trends where prices peak and fall some of the shrimps today still maintain a very high price. Even pure red line of certain standard continues to command a high price and this is due to its lineage. What we are really paying is time, the time that the breeder does his line breeding. A higher grade shrimp will have a higher probability of producing high grade shrimps. It does not mean all the shrimplets will be high grade but the probability is definitely higher.

Why are some people more successful than others? Is there a trick in it? There isn’t. It really boils down to the fundamental notion of shrimp keeping, the more you add the less you know what went wrong. The less you add, the more you will know what goes in the tank. While I reach out to hobbyist and breeders alike to stand firm and ask the hard questions on shrimp breeding instead of selling “magic powder” to generate profit, I think everyone deserve the right to know the truth behind this hobby. It is a very simple straight forward hobby and you too can breed fantastic shrimps.

Everyone can keep and breed shrimps well and really deserve to have information readily available. This will help the whole hobby up the next level, why do some hobbyist stop and stagnate after awhile? Because they realise it has become a chore to even do what is necessary, does adding powder every water change, feeding powder food every 3 days, putting in plants, adding fertiliser, rotate 20 shrimp food, add different decorations etc sound like itchy finger syndrome ?

Keep it simple; the hobby in my opinion should be more rewarding if one can spend most of your time watching your high quality shrimp do their things in the open. Please do not get me wrong and I know there are breeders who enjoy the DIY part of the hobby which is cool. What I’m trying to put across is many times people ask why are my shrimps dying etc etc, I realise they needed information; true information. However it is very difficult to search through a ton of information and not knowing which is right. Hence, i wanted to share my breeding setup etc to everyone as a reference to what I do, how I do and why I do this or that. I’m also continuously learning about the hobby and certainly keep and open mind about methods on successful shrimp breeding.

Taken together what is necessary for shrimp breeding is really only the setup (you can read the other breeding tank setup if you haven’t) and once the setup and process is completed, it really becomes easy because all is required is feeding and water change while you let nature take its course.