Posts about Shrimp Breeding

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Staying the course even when you don’t see results

Movement and Progress


In the realms of breeding shrimp would require persistence and consistency as one would be hit by many obstacles along the way but should never give up. To progress in breeding requires persistence and keep believing when you don’t see results in a year or two.

On the other hand, i have heard some share with me that they’ve invested so much time and effort and also money on shrimps but after 6 months they don’t see results. Movement shouldn’t be confuse with progress. Movement is really about doing the things like water change, resetting tanks, feeding, and the day to day things all these are what i call the hygiene factor. The very fundamental or building block of shrimp breeding and does not equate to progress. We can change water whole day every day but at the end, if we do not progress in selective breeding than it’s just going with the flow.

Progress on the other hand is about taking risk and doing something different than what you are doing currently. It also involves failing but people are afraid of failure and fear of looking like a failure. I think failure should be an option. Without failing you are not even trying, to get something you never had, you have to do something you never did. Trying to see results with 1 tank is going to be difficult because if we would to discuss about selective breeding we should need about 2-3 tanks per type. So by taking risk to expand your setup, investing in good sourced shrimp are some examples of sowing the seeds to progress forward.





Believing when there are no results


This is a really difficult one because people need to see a cause and effect to believe. Hence the term Seeing is Believing. However, in shrimp breeding if you’re unable to see the results in the first cross back are you going to give up? How about selective breeding project not taking root? It’s easy to get discourage in shrimp breeding and not continue on the process of selective breeding. Going back to the drawing board to see where can be improve in the selective breeding process.

Keep working on it and failing and trying again. Getting more tanks, trying and keep trying. So while everyone knows selective breeding is the “Be All End All”, but it takes generation to get there and if you see the goal in front of you and keep trying and improve, i believe you’ll get there one day.

The successful breeders are not the ones that didn’t fail, they are the ones that fail the most, but they believe and keep believing and they are the ones that stood up every time they fall. That separates those that achieve their goals and those who don’t. It’s common to hear this “I don’t have this, i don’t have that, i can’t have this, it’s too difficult, it’s too much for me, it’s impossible, i don’t have the resources, i’m afraid,” Put all these away if you would like to progress because we are what we speak.

We can learn to believe like Shrimp does, they can’t see their egg develop unlike human where we can see our babies grow bigger in the mother’s tummy. However, shrimps believe that if she keeps fanning her egg, shrimplets will come and although she can’t physically see her clutch, nature made it in such a way that she knows even without seeing she will hatch the babies.





It’s hard


Well, there is a saying “if you do the difficult thing in life, life will be easy”. One example would be the honey bee story where they were part of a space experiment being sent up to space to see how 0 gravity affect their flight. When they reach outer space, the bees started to float. They must be thinking, life should be like this, easy floating around effortlessly. I don’t even need to flap my wings, i can float around in life, how wonderful that is. I just drift around and i’ll get to where i want to. Flapping my wings all these while has been tiring!

Eventually, the honey bee die. The bees were not born to float around, they get confuse, orientation got distorted. In other words, doing the difficult thing in life may be difficult but also rewarding.

So we can choose to take the easy route and float around (nothing against that) but do not complain that you don’t see progress on your shrimps. Taking the difficult route and persist on will get you there.

Hope this post would cheer you on to get to where you want to be and as such, it is those things you don’t see that brings you forward. Keep believing.



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How to keep the fire burning

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Tips on Selective breeding: What is required?

Tips on Selective breeding



Cross Back


If you like to try selective breeding using the cross back method this post is for you. There has been a lot on-going on my side but things will start settling down and i’ll be able to resume providing new blog post.

To recap what cross back is and does.

Cross back happens when the F1 female is use to cross back with the F0 Male. This way when the first shrimplet that comes out would be the Crossback 1 or CB1. Usually i will use the Female as the F1 cross with the F0 Male instead of the other way around. The reason for this so we have 1 fix variable to selectively breed.

As you continue to use CB1 female to cross back with F0 male again will result in CB2.

What it does with cross back in such a way is to increase the genetic similarity towards the male that was use to breed in this case F0.

This was the F0 male

After 2 back crosses this is the female that i have chosen to use for continuing the line. There is still a long way to go to improve the shell, the colors and such. The size is good at 2.5cm very big.




When we are in this stage, the F0 Male x BC1 Female will result in a higher % of trait similarity genetically to the F0 male.

F1 50 50
BC1 75 25
BC2 87.5 12.5
BC3 93.75 6.25
BC4 96.875 3.125


To prevent deform shrimps and also to keep a good line of shrimp require diligence in ensuring the shrimp do not over in breed. When you do see any of the above effects, the shrimp had already reached a very late stage of inbreeding. You can use that as a gauge if not you can consider injecting new blood/genetics whenever you can and the method of doing so is call outcrossing.

Outcrossing: The idea for outcrossing on the other hand is to inject new genome to the current shrimp which has been line bred for some time. The reason this need to be done is because when line breeding get too excessive, deform start showing, shrimps stop breeding, growth stagnant, etc hence it is important for the health of the line to occasionally introduce new blood. There is no hard and fast rule when to introduce the new genetic into the pool because different people get the shrimp at different generation. If the shrimp i have gotten is already line bred for 5-6 generations it will reach the deform point faster if the shrimp has been already outcross before. A reputable breeder will be able to provide high quality new generation of shrimps when they have a large number of tanks to prevent too frequent inbreeding.

Not all selective breeding projects are successful sometimes after a couple of years (Yes it takes this long), so having a few project running at the same time is recommended. In other words, you’ll need to have a few more tanks to select and try to see if it works.

I hope this post provided you some insights into breeding high quality shrimp.


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Step by Step: Lubao and Kallax ball


Why use it?


There must be sufficient grazing material for the shrimp to consume when you are away. Shrimps graze 24/7 and if you have a small tank without much surface area for biofilm to grow fast enough, it is risky. In addition if you have a lot of shrimp they can strip the biofilm in your tank in a day or 2. When shrimps start to go without sufficient biofilm it triggers cannibalisms, which means they will start preying on each other. This is detrimental if you are doing a selection process as your stock shrimp will be at risk. Hence, having a good source of grazing material not only is critical for a small tank, it enhances the probability of breeding as well.





How to use it?


Directions before using:

  • Soak the ball 3-6 days in RO Water and change the water daily
  • Pour the water used for soaking away, do not pour the soaking water back into the tank
  • place it in the tank, preferably in a feeding dish
  • use 1 ball per tank
    • General rule:
      • 30L and above can use Lubao
      • 30L and below can use Kallax ball
      • 30L and below with a lot of shrimps i.e more than 20, can use lubao too (Soak 5-6 days)
    • If you have a big tank with less than 20 shrimps, there is really no need to use, but if you would like to use, the Kallax ball is more appropriate
    • if you have a heavily planted tank, there is actually no requirement of using the ball
    • if you are traveling on vacation, lubao or kallax ball is used to help provide additional grazing material on top of other grazing material such as leaves, moss etc. The ball do not replace food, when you come back from vacation/work, you’ll need to resume feeding regime.

Directions during using:

  • If you have a lot of shrimps, you will not see massive biofilm growth as shrimp has eaten them, means it’s good.
  • if you have lesser shrimp, you will see a lot of biofilm. If there is too much biofilm growth, you should consider using the Kallax ball than the lubao.

Directions during exchanging:

  • During replacement, use a net to take the ball out and quickly bag, seal and throw away the ball. When the ball is outside of the water, it will smell so quickly seal it and throw.
  • put in a new ball that has been soaked for 3-6 days.

Signs on removing:

  • When you experience cloudy water, remove the ball
  • Let the tank undergo a mini cycle as there isn’t sufficient beneficial bacteria
  • During the fermenting process to create biofilm, ammonia is release, hence a good cycled tank with beneficial bacteria will be able to convert the ammonia into nitrite and nitrate. Hence, if cloudy water is experience, remove the ball. A bacteria bloom is happening as there is now more food for the beneficial bacteria to feed and multiply. once clear, soak another new ball and put it in. this time it will be ok or use the kallax ball if you’re using the lubao initially.


Support


In doubt, always ask. I can be contacted via facebook messenger benetay or email which can be found in the contact section.

I believe in this “Each one, Teach one” so don’t be shy and contact me on how to use it.




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The All New: Kallax Ball

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Being successful: Decision making and Risk Taking

Are you confuse at times?



Shrimps are Shrimps


Yes, Shrimps are Shrimps and i believe everyone agrees with that. Why did i bring this up? One of the important elements during the setting up phase of shrimp keeping is the tank setup, introduction of shrimp, feeding and water change. As we go deeper into the biology of shrimp, we tend to think what is best for keeping our shrimps in the most ideal condition.

So what really am i driving at? Shrimps are by nature scavenges and they have a fairly straight digestive system unlike human. In general the food takes a very short time from consumption to passing out and there are 2 important factors here.

Firstly, shrimps would need to have sufficient nutrients such as staple food, vitamin and trace minerals for healthy growth. In addition, because shrimps feed and digest quickly it is necessary for shrimps to have a comprehensive food to provide the majority of the nutrients and also feed frequently. It is better to feed lesser but higher frequency vs feeding more but lesser frequency. However, i think it is difficult for many to feed 4 times a day including myself. If we can feed them once or twice a day, i think it is considered a luxury. The science behind this is so that excess food does not foul the water and hence i use snails to clean up the rest of the food.

Secondly, between feeds, shrimp need to graze continuously and it is important here to have a few natural biofilm producers such as mosses and lubao. Mosses are great for cover and biofilm for shrimplets to survive as they need those food in the first couple of weeks before they can consume larger food item. I have received feedback from Netherlands breeders that the shrimplets are always on the lubao that they got from me. This is great for the growth and development of the shrimplet as they get their first food which helps increase survival of shrimplets. I have written it here in detail :

https://www.shrimpsanctuary.com/tips-on-increasing-shrimplet-survival/

Lastly, it is important to note that there are a variety of staple food and i have been using Hwa v1 pads for a long time and it is really have a strong pull/draw factor (written here: https://www.shrimpsanctuary.com/hwa-food-lubao/) with comprehensive ingredients. In addition, i also recommend having a couple of biofilm producers such as plants, mosses and lubao. While lubao is a natural producer of biofilm, it need some learning to use it well. It took me two years at least of trial and error to learn how to control using it.






Maintaining water quality


Other than feeding the shrimps and reminerize after water change, i don’t add other elements into the tank. The reason is because the lesser you add into your tank, the more stable the water parameters will be. Not all shrimps are kept the same and the higher the grade the shrimp, the purer it is and a slight change in water parameters they get uncomfortable and that had taught me to be discipline in breeding high grade shrimps. Keeping the water as consistent as possible with little fluctuation.

Good water filtration is still at the fundamental of shrimp breeding and while there are a range of filtration available, choose one that you be able to stick to. i have tried a range of filtration, box, perm ugf, etc and i stuck to the Totto filtration due to space constraint. Sponge filter will work too i think a large sponge across the tank will also be a good method.






Deciding your method and Taking Risk


I often remind myself, If i want to achieve something i never had, i need to do something i never did.

Taking risk is not just about breeding shrimps but it’s about knowing what you know and what you don’t know. There will be people who will encourage you and people who pull you down. Embrace both.

As Sarah Ban Breathnach mentioned “Consider the track record of your naysayers. How many dreams have they successfully brought into this world?“

Keep trying and never give up. Fall down 9 times, get up 10. Taking risk is also about accepting new views and new opinions. It  may be frightening at times but is also rewarding, the changes you take, the people you meet, the faith that you have, that is what going to define you. People who keep trying after the first attempt generally start to see results. Brushing teeth for one day doesn’t do anything, going to the gym or running once a month doesn’t do much. It is doing it consistently day in day out and keeping at it that makes a difference. T

Time can be invested or wasted, and all the failures are time invested to be even better. With all the setbacks you have experience, do not be discourage or disappointed, it is simply a setup for better things to come.

So never be discourage, never hold back, give everything you got and while you fall down along the way, remember to always stand up and keep trying and moving forward. End of the day if you are better than yesterday, you have made progress.

Hope you guys have a good weekend!


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How to be Successful in shrimp breeding

You are successful



A different perspective


I often get this including myself. Am i a failure if i have dead shrimp? Frankly you are successful and the long and short of it is that if you don’t fail, you are not even trying. Only through failure we learn what was the fundamental knowledge behind why we fail. We dust it off stand up and keep moving forward. I have some tell me that they feel disappointed when their beloved shrimp die and all the time and money that goes into it is gone.

For me it is clear that if i want to get something i never had, i need to do something i never did. For example, if i want to do selective breeding, i need to try, i need spend time, effort and money to have a setup and than go for it. I rather fail trying than not try at all because at least i had some learnings. Shrimp breeding especially high grade shrimps are not straight forward but the learning from it will be beneficial.

There cannot be success without trying. If you don’t start, you will never have a chance of being successful. Not everyone succeed, but those who keep pushing forward, does.

Many don’t even start, some give up after the first fail attempt, the rare few keep persisting on and tweak their process and than stuck to it. Keep trying, keep moving, keep pushing forward.

Knowledge is key to understand and having the will to keep trying is as critical. Many aspire to have the best shrimp but don’t have goals and plans to reach there, all the excuses started to come in, oh i don’t have this, i don’t have that. There are thousands of reasons for not starting, but it only take one to begin.




Now, if not when?


Start now. There is no better time than now, set a goal and then move towards it. Shrimp life cycle is very short, 2 years or lesser so we need to ensure that we provide the best opportunity and probability for the shrimp to breed out their next generation. While we human may have a longer life span compared to a shrimp but the idea is the same.

Don’t count the days, Make the days count. Get your female shrimp ready by ensuring the water parameters are spot on, the male:female ratio is good, have sufficient food, grazing material and hiding space. Get the female shrimp ready before they molt. Make the days count.

Like most things in life, we often delay, wait another day, think too much and eventually life takes control. Days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months and then look back and say i should have done something back then.

There isn’t a day call “Some day”, there is Monday to Sunday and Some Day isn’t in there. So instead of telling some day i will do it, make a plan and make it happen.

So start now, if not when?

if not you, who?





If not you, who?


Keeping $5 shrimp and $1000 shrimp doesn’t define if you are successful or not at least to me. I love my $5 shrimp as much as the high end ones. I have seen some breeders who are truly good and understand the fundamental of shrimp breeding and selection. Even normal $5 shrimp are being selective bred for excellence.

Don’t listen to your inner voice and say oh no, i’ don’t have the time, and it’s not me, i can only dream because i don’t have good stock shrimp. Again you beat yourself to it because whether you can or cannot, you are right. If there is a will, there is a way. Probably it doesn’t happen now, but do you have the faith to keep trying?

Maybe now you may not have good stock shrimp but you can start off the selection process and see if you get successful results from that, once you are more confident over the years you can than move on to higher grade shrimp. So why not take a chance and believe in yourself that you can do it. Learn, unlearn, relearn.

Don’t be afraid to try because you get one chance in life because if not you who?

I trust you have benefited from this post and keep trying!



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Tips on setting up a new shrimp tank

Keeping things simple



A list of things needed


Setting up a shrimp tank is fast and easy provided you keep it simple. I have tried many methods of setting up a shrimp tank from sponge filter, permanent UGF, box UGF, overflow etc. In my opinion, choose one that will suit your availability of time and effort when you need to reset the tank later on.

Things you need:

  • Aquarium Tank
  • Active Soil
  • Filtration
  • RO water
  • Reminerizer

Optional items (added after cycling or during) :

  • Moss
  • some plants
  • quick start bacteria (liquid or powder)
  • Microorganism ball (Lubao)


Setting up


The steps are fairly simple and if you have everything ready, setting up the tank would probably take 15 minutes.

There are different methods and my method is to ensure during reset it also takes a much quicker time. Reason being is that if you have to use 45 mins or 1 hour to reset your tank, multiply that with the number of tanks will determine the total time required. Also resetting tanks require some form of effort and if you have a lot of tanks, it will also take a lot of effort physically.

People ask why do we need to reset a tank? When breeding slows down and the soil has slowed down in it’s buffering than changing it will help kick start the breeding too.

Coming back to the method of setting up:

  1. Pour active soil into the tank until it reaches 1cm
    1. 45 cm x 30 cm x 30 cm tank will use about 1L of soil
  2. Add water into the tank and reminerize to TDS of 85-90 with GH of 3
  3. Setup filter (i use Totto hang on and powerhouse S size Soft water filter media)
  4. Wait 40 days.

This method of cycling is the traditional method and it works as active soil release ammonia which then kick start the nitrogen process.

During this period some will add liquid bacteria (can be any brand) to ‘kick start’ the beneficial bacteria colonization. More importantly is these beneficial bacteria will then convert ammonia to nitrite and then the less harmful Nitrate.

Source:http://theaquariumwiki.com/w/images/1/1f/Cycling_graph.png

Once it reaches 40 days it is then where the Nitrate is the highest and Ammonia and Nitrite becomes 0.

Few methods to Seed the tank:

  • Use existing mature shrimp tank water
  • Use existing filter media
  • Add Lubao

The first 2 directly place beneficial bacteria colony into the new tank but an ammonia source is needed to keep them going. Active soil and lubao emits sources of ammonia to allow beneficial bacteria to feed on and multiply.

The difference over here is lubao whilst a grazing material will also help condition the water.




Using Microorganism ball


Using microorganism ball to seed the tank can have multiple layers of benefit while it creates biofilm for shrimp to consume, the biofilm creation is due to the fermenting of material in the ball which invariably also feed beneficial bacteria thus in return increase beneficial bacteria numbers.

While the creation of biofilm cannot be controlled as there are no shrimps in it to feed on, what i do is to scoop out excess biofilm that i think the shrimp will not be able to feed upon when they’re release into the tank after cycling. Incorporating microorganism ball as part of tank reset or setting up new tank what i’ll do is to soak the ball for a day in RO water to leech out the tannin and then let the process begin.



After 40 days


After 40 days i’ll then measure the water parameters and if the parameters are fine, i’ll do a 20% water change, reminerize and wait for another 2-3 days and re measure the water parameters. Once everything is fine, i’ll add mosses, a claypot of plants and frogbits. By day 47 the tank will be more or less ready.

However, there is this unspoken feeling, gut feeling based on experience that if the tank doesn’t appear to be ready, i’ll continue to keep cycling till day 50-60. Once that is done, i’ll re-measure the parameters before adding the shrimp.

The shrimps will have sufficient food in the tank and i’ll hold off feeding for a few days. If you’re adding new shrimp in hundreds, they’ll strip off biofilm very quickly so you can then start feeding after 3-4 days in the new tank.

Thanks for reading and i hope you have learn something from this post.



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Aspire to make a difference

What is your aspiration and why does it matter?



The purpose



People often ask me why i am so passionate about the aquarium hobby and why am i doing what i do? Providing information, wasting time typing away and then share all these information. Worst part some people even use my information for their benefits. Why i do that?

They tell me i think you should not spend time to benefit others and even if i do choose to keep sharing and writing you should make your articles worth the while. Make it paid articles.

i say no, i think in life we are all measured too much by KPI and matrix cause and effect. If i do this i should get that. I find since there is no structured school or syllabus to study on this hobby, i think sharing proven data is the next best thing. Make everyone have equal chance to learn in this hobby. I was fortunate to have learn from a great Taiwan breeder and i want to reach out to as many as i can with my post.

To me i don’t think i’m wasting my time typing away, i see this as time invested so shrimp hobbyist can benefit. If i can reach 10 people great if i can reach 100 superb! I do what i can in my own time to help spread the joy of this hobby.

That is the purpose and why i keep this going.




Aspiration


Have aspiration! It is good regardless it’s life or this hobby where you aspire to have a championship boa or 20 tanks or something. Have aspiration and to share my aspiration apart from the shrimp goals i have, i have one particularly close to my heart.

I aspire to make a difference.

Like my purpose i would like to reach out and hear from you and learn from you about your shrimp breeding journey. This is by no means that i don’t have setbacks. I actually do. When i start sharing too much some people will take advantage of the situation and benefit out of it by either using my information and then telling others it’s theirs and sell a product.

Certainly i always believe there are black sheep among the white ones and i have met countless of good people. One example is that i know of someone from Europe whom i have chat with and because they have been to Singapore and so we chat even outside of shrimp breeding and talking about the Satay (a local skewered and grilled meat, served with a sauce). Another whom i have shared many of my family worries with had in return shared his grandfather secret of curing common cold. Some have shared with me their life long journey and advise me what i can do and should do.

People asked me why are you wrapping lubao yourself, don’t they have a machine to do that? yes, there are. However, what i’m doing is wrapping them individually myself, each ball with love, pouring seeds of happiness and so all your shrimps are happy. Irreplaceable by machines. Like a craft, a chef cooking his food all done manually.

To be open and vulnerable and aspiring to make a difference can be rough at times when taken advantage but we keep pushing on and focus on the journey ahead.

So have aspiration in your hobby, keeps you more engage and share them with others, if nobody wants to hear you, send a note to me, i’ want to hear what your aspiration is for shrimp breeding.





Do what matters


Life is short.

Don’t count the days, make the days count. This is the same for breeding, if you would like to have a nice boa or excellent black fancy, go for it. Set it as a goal for the year and strive towards it. Make every day count, because shrimp life cycle is very short, at best 2-2.5 years pushing it. So every molt, every water change matters.

It’s a race against time when we are talking about selective breeding, how much can we extract the gene out of the male into the female. The reason why we have a 2-4M to 20F ratio is to shorten the time required to achieve the goal and also reduce the probability when both the male and female molt and the male will not be able to mate so other males will help in this case. The shrimps wouldn’t last forever to breed, the older it gets the lesser it will breed and even if they do, risk dying of complications. The life cycle is very short hence plan out what it is, select 2-4 best Males and use all available female that you can get. If you do this right, you will have hundreds of shrimplet and then the selection begins.

Do what matters. Make the days count.

Hope you have learn something from this post and have a great weekend!


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Believe in your Passion and Dream!

Follow your Dream



Shrimp Breeding


Shrimp breeding for some can be a daunting task and have met many problems and setback along the way. Tank crash, mass death due to some error that has happen.

It is easy to be disappointed and discourage and tell yourself this is as good as it gets, i’ll just learn to live with it. We all go through setbacks, disappointment and pain. However, this pain that we go through is part of the shrimp breeding process. It is what we do in this situation that will determine the outcome. This will change us, we re-evaluate our processes and technique, we refine our skills to shrimp breeding. Every painful time even if you don’t like it, it’s developing something in you.

Eventually if you decide to go through it, you will emerge with more knowledge of how to deal with it, a total change in your breeding setup. How you want to deal with the situation is up to you.

You can come out bitter or come out better?

You can come out defeated and giving up your dream or you can come out passionate with a new fire, remembering your dream of what you truly want to do. The new opportunities in getting where you want to be and a revitalization of your breeding setup are some of the things you can change to be better.

we all know sometimes we make poor choices, we were led by people who i was too a victim and i had to deal with the consequences. All of us experience some form of challenges, don’t go through it, grow through it. Gain new knowledge, talk to people who have succeed. By not quitting, you will eventually come out better.

if you encounter setbacks during shrimp breeding such as they are not breeding, lots of shrimp death, etc, don’t take it as a setback but a setup for better things to come. Re-look and plan again how your setup is done, look at ways of improving. Eventually you will grow through it and be successful.




Selective breeding


It takes a long time to see results in selective breeding as it requires time and patience. It’s easy to get discourage and be cover under disappointment, setbacks, failures that let us lose our dream.

Easy to settled for mediocrity, at one time you were all fired up and passionate about breeding really good shrimp, you believe you have the right setup to do it but over time, some setbacks, had some bad breaks that weigh you down. You can settle where you are and nobody will fault you. The naysayers will be happy that your dreams are dash, encouraging you to let it go, it’s impossible they say. However, don’t believe those lies. It’s not too late to dust it off and forge towards your dream.

There are plenty of naysayers who are looking at what you are doing, making side remarks and telling you that you couldn’t make it. Deep down thinking you will fail. Hoping you will fail. A true mark of a Champion is when the naysayers throw dirt on you, you keep shaking it off. Keep moving forward. If you don’t have a dream that is alive and well, you wouldn’t have those naysayers going against you. If your dream of selective breeding has been toss aside, it is time to re-live it again. Setup a plan again to select and move towards your goal and dream. Share your goals and dream with like minded people.







Dream Simply


I have a goal and dream. That is to help and reach out to others in need and i know i can only reach out to so many people, but i hope those people whom i have reached out will help reach out to more. Only then will the community be better, and i fully understand the balance there will always be naysayers, but don’t let those pull you down.

This is the reason i write in the blog to share as much information as i can, to help those in need; hence the name Shrimp Sanctuary. For breeders to breeders.




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