All about shrimp keeping
This feels like the kid that goes into a candy shop or a toy store, the butterflies in the stomach. Due to Covid it has been some time where i can purchase Taiwan shrimp directly and ship it legally into Singapore. With all the help from friends who made this possible thank you!
Now i can’t wait to get my hand on the box to see how the shrimp look like. Should i do a vlog on unboxing? It really is exciting. For those who had chime in to make the Mass Order possible, thanks!
Now this is a big controversy when it comes to PRL with Crown or flowerhead pattern, it is undoubtedly being discussed for many years and at length.
Is flowerhead considered PRL?
Yes and No.What kind of an answer is this?
Maybe if we trace back the direction at which the breeder started and also the notion of what constitute as PRL will help give appreciation to the subject at hand.
From a very technical and strict selective methodology a crown head or flowerhead is considered to be cull out from a very pure line of PRL. These “PRL flowerhead” are then place into another tank to survive on their own and when market demands for these pretty looking “PRL Flowerhead” the notion of PRL Flowerhead become popular.
So from the above statement, can we classify these as PRL or the more acceptable term CRS? In various countries, the naming convention becomes misinterpreted and here is an example:
“I purchase a pair of high grade PRL with Mosura pattern from Japan or Taiwan and in the first 3 generation of breeding it is all very pure grade without crown or flowerhead pattern indication. By the 4th Generation i happen to see 1 PRL with the potential to become a flowerhead and i took it out to its own tank. Subsequent generation yield with more flowerhead potential and eventually i have a batch of flowerhead potential. After several generations of selection i manage to get some nice flowerhead. These are generally classified as “PRL flowerhead” for the general breeder. For very strict breeders, the Flower head pattern will be considered Cull hence the pair of high grade PRL will still need to be refined by myself to ensure purity of the line.”
A very strict line of PRL will not throw out anything other than PRL and the flowerhead pattern will not see the light of the day. The breeder in order to maintain that strict line will have to cull it to ensure the line maintains its purity.
Now with a little background on where the branch stems out when a flowerhead is being developed, than how about CRS flowerhead?
Now it gets hairy because CRS flowerhead due to export demands mass breeding need to happen. In general the CRS flowerhead is mixed with a range of shrimp to increase the likelihood of getting a CRS flowerhead. This could possibly mean, golden bee, wine red, PRL where massive number of females are used to help with the supply glut.
When hobbyist purchase from various sources, mixing them together and than claiming it is PRL flowerhead would probably be why the controversial started. First they purchase from breeder A and than breeder B and C and mix all together and claim it’s from breeder A (if it commands a higher price using breeder A name). Now the genes are very diluted, and when the hobbyist purchase it from the seller and started his own mix, nobody really know what it is.
When will someone know if the “PRL” becomes a CRS? Sometime recessive gene only appears after 10-11 generation that is a good 5-6 years at least… so it is difficult to trace back and hence my recommendation is always choose a good breeder to start with hence you have someone to check back upon. Stick to a good reputable breeder.
Businesses are setup with the intention of making profits. As businesses continue to meet with difficult economic situation, a reputable breeder must continue to share upfront the truth of the line. If you have already selected your breeder to purchase from just enjoy keeping the shrimp! But it is up to us to uphold the virtue of the breeders line.
Hence, to uphold the strict breeder’s line, it is important for me at least not to mix different breeder shrimps as it is a hit and miss and also dilute the years of hardwork the breeder has done. i will also not purchase from a consolidator because of different quality of shrimp and lineage. Personally, it is crystal clear to me in terms of the naming convention and i hope this post will shed some light in this often challenged topic.
p.s. this post wasn’t intended to show the difference of Flowerhead, but that could be our next post. For now enjoy shrimping!
Pure red line (PRL) are really good shrimp to start on your shrimp breeding journey. One of the reason is because they are really hardy and can take quite a wide range of water parameters.
I have friends who kept them up to 800 tds almost liquid rock type of water but they are still alive. Of cause when he found out that he quickly change water and slowly bring it down.
Water parameters I like to keep PRL in.
Breeding PRL is fairly straight forward once you provide them with the above water parameters, some hiding space, a higher female to male ratio, chances are you will get them to breed about 1-2 months after you first introduce them into your tank.
When the number of PRL increases, so does food requirement. Like in all my shrimp feed, I feed them Hwa version 1 pad. It is necessary to feed them daily to have healthy growth and prevent cannibalization. When the females are fed well with abundance of food source, they will start to saddle and berry.
One important part of the food cycle is preferably some grazing material like the lubao will be good for long term breeding projects. It allow female shrimp to have a consistent source of food available.
hope this post will benefit those who are venturing into PRL breeding. If you have questions please do not hesitate to contact me.
What is my preference in terms look for PRL?
for example if i am going to keep 2 or 3 distinct line of PRL these are my criteria:
Another shot of another PRL in the main breeding tank where the red ends at the start of the body. 
That is my first criteria for that tank of PRL, if it doesn’t meet the criteria, it will be transferred to another tank.
2nd Criteria onward:
The bottom pic shows that the maru spot is missing or is converging with the white, I will transfer this out to other tanks.
There are quite a lot to transfer around and usually for this particular line i’ll start to notice the very good ones start off with already good colouration around 0.8cm. I got this line from Hwa Taiwan and he has named it M Series PRL. Those in the know knows that Hwa PRL are world class and the M series PRL is in a class of it’s own.
Continuation of selection process will begin at F1 where the F1 females will be then cross back to the F0 male. This will result in BC1 (backcross 1) and then continue to do the selection process. After a couple of generation, i’ll then back cross again to maintain the genetics of the F0 male as long as possible. BC1 is the nearest in terms of genetic as F0.
Hope you enjoy reading this post!
One of the more commonly seen and easier to keep shrimp are the Pure Red Line. There has been a lot of documentation on this shrimp with a history of how they come about. However, I will be touching on more about keeping and breeding this shrimps.
One of the things about this shrimp is that it really like good water condition to thrive with robust coloration and continuous breeding. These PRL are able to take a range of water parameters. However, my preference for water parameters is shown below.
Water parameters:
Building on all the content that is already posted in this blog, I wanted to mention the process of selective breeding can still be applied. Most of the processes and methodology can be applied as well. In other words, it is important to get that fundamental right.
One of the key difference in so many PRL from my perspective can be broken down into a few broad categories.
For example:
With so many different type of shrimp food available in the market, they are in all kinds of shapes and sizes.
In my opinion most of the food size do not cater to our shrimp size and a good method will be to feed An amount that they are able to complete within an hour. Any left over food will eventually break down and pollute the tank water.
These pads are snip to smaller sizes so I can easily feed most of the tank and would be better to have 2 or more “piles” of shrimp feeding than 1 big ball because aggression during feeding doesn’t do any good.
I have tried this pad food for sometime and i have specially ordered this version 1 food because of its potency. The food is a staple complete food that can be fed daily or even mix with other food such as spinach etc.
In addition to this, the pad are also very good for neos and have great success with them. This can be fed to shrimplets as well as it breaks down into small powder on the outer edge giving the opportunity for shrimplets to consume.
This is as simple as it get, why are my shrimp dying? What are the main causes of shrimp death?
The above is with the assumption you’re using RODI water as your primary water source during water change.
If you understand and fully grasp the concept, you’ll enjoy your shrimp breeding journey a lot better!
During this period of unknown certainly where businesses are slowing down and some come to a grinding halt. It is unfortunate some of the Companies globally fall short of their required revenue to keep them afloat. An increase in bankruptcy in most countries, also an increase in unemployment wade through this dire time.
It is unfortunate that i took the short end of the straw for one of the transaction with an Australian guy. With his refusal to pay for his package and shipping fee he too blocked me on messenger to cut off communication. I like to use this post as a warning to all that there are those few black sheep in the shrimp community that made it a better place. Many breeders refusal to share information openly unless you are a customer is the very reason why. However, i took on another approach with sharing information freely on the blog with all the information learnt first hand from Taiwan.
I have many avid followers in this blog and appreciative words to keep sharing. The reason i have slow down my writing is because i couldn’t get over the betrayal of trust – I have reached out to multiple people in the local community in Australia for help but i personally know it’s only hopeful; least i tried. I appreciate those who have tried knock some sense on him and have also agreed to boycott that person in future till the issue is resolved. However, i too know this is only temporary but this will not deter me to continue writing nor have an impact on my shrimp hobby.
The purpose of my blog in the very beginning and even till today is all about sharing and debunking myth from breeders who are out there trying to earn a fast one. From the feedback that i get locally and overseas; i know i have helped countless number of shrimp hobbyist from overpaying or even spending more than they actually need. It is a hard world out there and it is becoming difficult to ignore the fact that many are trying their best to sell their wares esp. during this dire times. While the white sheep outnumbered the black sheep in the community, i’ll continue to reach out to those who are keen to learn about the hobby.
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to learn from the masters directly in Taiwan with multiple trips to Taiwan in 2018/19 i took all the learning and translated it into what is written in the blog post. The investment to gather that knowledge, (remember that breeders only teach you when you are a customer) I wanted everyone to have that same level of knowledge not because they’re disadvantaged by language or otherwise. I still have information that i wish to share and i’ will continue to write when all this is said and done.
With that, i wish you and your families great health!
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:
A short post! Hope you guys like it.
Cheers!
I get this question quite a bit, can we have both planted tank and shrimps together? Sure why not. Anyway if the objective is a planted tank, then by all means go ahead and do a planted tank, paludarium, terrarium or any type and then add shrimps in.
If I want to breed shrimps like a breeder, can I put in a lot of plants? Yes, just that you will make your life a lot more difficult as the shrimps will not be easy to be selected out. If you would just want to breed them and not select them, yes I think keeping plants and shrimp together are fine too.
As a breeder myself, what would I recommend for plants? Frankly there is a lot of plants to choose from as long as you like them and they do not require frequent pruning and maintenance I think they all qualify. I like using Echinodorus as they are relatively inexpensive and they don’t propagate by runners and grow fairly slowly without CO2 injection. I also like using mosses; all kinds and then frog bits.
I grow my plants in a ceramic pot filled with ADA soil, you can use any other soil. The reason i keep them within ceramic pot is so the root ball do not get out of the pot disturbing the rest of the tank. It helps contain the plant and the pot is fairly shallow. I haven’t had any issues over the years using this method as long as the plant is growing well and the root is healthy.
For mosses I weigh them down using big ceramic filter media by putting the moss through the hole which then allow the moss to grow in various direction, I often put the moss near to a filter outlet so that the moss will help disperse the direct flow from the filter. This is also fairly beneficial for the moss as well as they like a gentle flow of water through them to help bring nutrients to them.
Lastly are some frogbits, I thin these out very regularly as they start growing too quickly over a few weeks. It helps with control of excess nitrate during my travel days or busy weeks where I have to go without a water change for 2 weeks.
With all addition of plants, it is important to note that plants that come from unknown sources have the chance of bringing pest that is unwelcome in shrimp tanks. Hence, it is important to quarantine your plants before adding into your tank. I do so by isolating the plants in a glass container for a few weeks and changing water till I don’t see any pest or you can purchase tissue cultured plants to be sure.
This is a low tech tank where plants and aqua scaping takes the primary focus. Shrimp kept are some Neocaridina and Caridina. As you can see selective breeder become almost a daunting task in such a setup. Hence, personally it will be much easier if i separate breeding tanks and planted tanks.
Hope all of you enjoyed this installment!