All about shrimp keeping

Breeding and feeding…

I see this question many times on what kind of feed to use to get my shrimps to saddle and berry eventually.

Actually shrimps are not very fussy eater, as Long as we provide a diet of plant and animal diet that will be sufficient. The misconception about feeding X food or a series of food to encourage shrimp to saddle. This is not the only factor that helps saddling.

The list below will help in saddling:

  • Good water parameters (0,0 on ammonia and nitrite, <10 ppm of nitrate is ideal, pH, kH GH and tds
  • Temperature stability
  • Sufficient food
  • Sufficient tank space

So if the question is asked in another way if all my parameters are well, how do I ensure the chances to increase saddling continuously? What kind of food will help replenish the energy loss during berry.

Basically I would say a stable food source which is both daily feed of pellet and a constant food source lubao.

This is a Long term food source, I usually change it out every month. I presoak it for 3 days to dilute the potency for tanks where I have fewer than 50 shrimps.

This constant food source allow shrimps to graze when the pellet is consumed.

This is the complete food that I’m using, take note this is the 1st edition which is phased out but due to a special request, the breeder decide to help me make a batch.

The pellet is quite Long and I break it up to 2-3 pieces which means I can feed 2-3 tanks!

Due to my busy schedule I often only rely on stability to help shrimps feel more comfortable and hence also improve the breeding chances.

This proven method is widely used in Taiwan. Other then a few types of pellet I also feed organic spinach (blanched).

Hope this blog entry helps!

If you are interested in the food I use it is shipped worldwide.

You can contact me at : benetay@gmail.com or Facebook : https://m.facebook.com/Shrimp-Sanctuary-Aquatic-107768137328117/?ref=bookmarks

Shrimp sanctuary aquatic

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My feeding routine

I primarily like to keep things simple when it comes to food. Since there are a huge range of food products available in the market but what will be an ideal feed?

Shrimps unlike animal and fishes keeps feeding constantly due to their small stomach and straight intestine. My preference to this is to provide 2 macro feed, a shrimplet food and one Long term food.

The reason for a good feed is to Ensure the shrimp get their macro and micro nutrients and doesn’t foul the water. Any pellet that breaks down into powder after a few hours need to be removed by siphon.

For me I like using Hwa version 1 Pads. I cut all my shrimp pads into smaller sizes so the shrimp can feed and consume all of it within 24 hours.

  1. Pads are normally cut into 3 portion
  2. Feed in the morning and if food remains by evening I will not feed.
  3. If by evening there isn’t any food left I will feed another session.
  4. Repeat in the morning.
  5. Important to note is the portion size. Adjust according to shrimp feeding level.
  6. If shrimp feed doesn’t get consume by 24 hours it will be finish by nerite or ramshorn snail if not removal of it is important.
  7. I also use lubao (Long term food) which is basically sweet potato, soya starches that create biofilm.
  8. Soak lubao in water for 3 days if you have less than 50 shrimps in your tank before using.
  9. I generally exchange the lubao in a month time or when it floats up.

A constant food supply is required for good growth and shrimp breeding. There is no short cut to breeding shrimps like feeding a certain type of food will increase breeding. It only does it the shrimp have all the needs met.

Type of feed I use:

  1. Hwa version 1 pads (You can get through me or from the following people) –
  2. Robin Abraham in UK
  3. Kuzey Terzi in Germany

Currently Hwa pads have moved forward to version 3 but I still stick to the version 1 recipe. I’ have his blessing to do limited quantity version 1.

Those who have used really enjoy it.

There are also version 2 in the market but those are phased out and Hwa have moved to version 3.

On the top left there is a marking that denote it’s version.

一 is version 1

二 is version 2

三 is version 3

  1. Lubao
  2. Bacter ae

Hwa food

Lubao

If you would like to try any of these food please send me a note through my Facebook messenger either through Shrimp Sanctuary Aquatic or add me through my name direct @ benetay

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Shrimp trend in Singapore

Thank you for the recommendation avid readers! Please keep them coming so that I can keep writing topics that are of interest. For this blog post, I’ll be touching on the trends of Shrimp keeping in Singapore and you can be the judge on how that differs from your region and or similar. 

 

·          Black fancy tiger

·          Red fancy tiger

·          Boa

·          Golden eye tigers or King Kong

These 4 are predominately the trend in Singapore right now but given the small number of serious hobbyists there isn’t a lot being spread among the shrimp. Not forgetting that PRL and PBL continue to remain as a classic and a main stay among the shrimps, this is still very popular for beginners and serious shrimpers!

For the Neocaridina family, the Fire red, bloody Mary, Yellow Golden back are also very popular among the general hobbyist as they are less expensive and easy to take care without the need for a chiller, RODI water, so on and so forth. 

Coming back to the trend in Singapore, it follows quite closely with Taiwan. One of the reasons is because we are situated geographically quite near Taiwan. A 4.5 hour flight will bring us to the heart of Shrimp heaven. Count our blessing!

The trend in Taiwan from King Kong to Galaxy to Galaxy Fishbone has also brought waves of strong enthusiasm among hobbyist however it wasn’t quite long before the King Kong were mass produce. From Taiwan’s perspective anything that is easy to breed, easy to keep will not be able to hold their prices for long. For the hobbyist this is good news! 

On the flip side, any shrimp that requires crossing and selective breeding will continue to command a higher price. How do we determine if the prices of shrimp will maintain or drop and this is one of the most critical factor that drives market trend. 

 Innovators and Early adopters are willing to spend top dollar on premium shrimp to breed for own keep or for investment. The Early and Late Majority being the main bulk of hobbyist will generally be the next to adopt and the Laggards are the last to follow the trend. Taking Black fancy tiger for example, due to it’s difficulty in breeding and keeping, the barrier to entry for hobbyist to adopt gets later and later. One important aspect is due to the stability and price. Hence, there are many Taiwanese and even Singapore breeders who take short cut by mixing shrimp to make it look good for a generation and eventually breed undesirable traits. Like in many Taiwan Youtube broadcast, it is also mentioned the difficulty of stabilizing the shrimp is when the prices will continue to remain high. If it’s easy to stabilize within a year, the prices will plummet. For example any tiger stripe and pattern will be difficult to stabilize and hence continue to remain high. Any King Kong gene, galaxy, galaxy tiger, galaxy etc will be cheaper compare to Black Fancy Tiger for example.

On the next point I would like to touch on shrimp detractors and promotors.

Detractors of Shrimp keeping example:

· Hobbyist K purchase shrimp from Breeder X

· Hobbyist K breed a fair number of shrimp from Breeder X

·  Trader L purchases 10 bred shrimp from Hobbyist K. 

· Trader L in future claim that his 100 shrimps are F1/F2 of Breeder X.

· Hobbyist A purchase from Trader L 10 shrimps and sold as shrimps from Breeder X. 

Question: 

 

-What is the probability of Hobbyist K mixing other shrimp to breed?

-What is the probability of Trader L mixing shrimp to breed?

-What is the probability of Trader L telling Hobbyist A to get direct from Breeder X if Hobbyist A wants a top-grade shrimp?

-What is the probability of Hobbyist A getting a good shrimp? 

 

If there is even a 1% probability on the first question, the probability increases exponentially by the time it reaches Hobbyist A. This happens quite frequently in Singapore and it kills the trend and hobbyist of their interest. What could have been better?

 

Promotors of Shrimp keeping example:

 

· Hobbyist K purchase shrimp from Breeder X

· Hobbyist K encourages Hobbyist A to purchase direct from Breeder X and encourage Hobbyist A to visit breeder X.

· Hobbyist K being a promotor of Breeder X will cut away the Trader L resulting in Hobbyist A having access to breeder X Shrimp.

For us in Singapore, it is fairly accessible to Taiwan hence the promotor of shrimp keeping should be adopted, and I want to hear from those overseas what are some of the pain points you guys and gals experience! 

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The Magic Bullet in shrimp keeping…

Do you believe there is a magic bullet in shrimp keeping?

Apparently after much observation I haven’t found someone or any brand for that matter to have good products and competition grade shrimps. The reason is simple, line breeding requires precision and discipline in maintaining water quality and adding anything will alter the water parameters. This include black water extract, “fly solution”, amino acid, vitamins, anti chlorine (your water should be tds 0), bacteria powder, increase breeding enhancer, anything other than reminerizer.

For example, there are many breeders who proclaim their magic powder/solution but have you realised that they generally do not have very nice show or comp grade shrimps? They are good in selling products that they claim will help shrimp breed better etc but why ain’t their shrimp any better than top renowned breeders?

It is an unspoken rule in the Taiwan shrimp industry that such truth are only shared within the inner circle. If someone proclaim that their magic solution or powder is superior and is required every water change or during setup, then just ask yourself what if I don’t use them?

Frankly nothing happens if you don’t use them but I can guarantee that using those magic potion will not make keeping or breeding easier especially comp grade shrimps.

Only the best

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Black fancy tiger grading part 2

Made a video to share

[wpvideo ZdPr2x9s ]

Selectively bred outcome of this Black fancy tiger is superior in terms of Color and grading.

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A learning perspective…

Recently there has been a discussion around learning and how do we determine if we have learn and progress?

To many learning is all about trying different setup, powder, food, water etc but with their current shrimp.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that but that only means you are refining your knowledge around your current shrimp.

Take for example breeder A breeds CRS or normal PRL that is fairly easy to breed. Crystal red shrimp are tolerant to a wide range of water parameters.

Breeder B on the other hand had experience with CRS and decided to take the plunge to breed BFT.

Which breeder do you think will learn more in depth about shrimp keeping?

You are right! breeder B. The reason is very simple, learning how to breed a far more difficult shrimp will allow you to breed easier shrimp with ease. The knowledge of breeding a difficult shrimp goes into very fine details about shrimp breeding that isn’t required for easier shrimp. Please keep in mind that this is an example, we do know there are very high grade Crystal shrimp that could cost on par with BFT at a few thousand dollars. These are championship shrimp.

Another point to note is that difficult shrimp is due to stringent line breeding causing the gene to be weaken but gives the desire trait pattern and or Color. The shrimp generally become more sensitive to water parameters, doesn’t saddle as frequently, doesn’t hold eggs more than 10 days, doesn’t adapt well to new environment.

Whereas on the other hand a easy shrimp is normally easy to breed and tolerate a wide range of water parameters.

So the next time you purchase your shrimp, ask the breeder if they have any difficult shrimp, because if they can’t tell you what difficult shrimp they are keeping, then you are better off purchasing from another breeder who have far more experience.

So far on the market the most difficult shrimp is from Hwa taiwan shrimp – graded Black fancy tiger. Skyfish – graded Boa. So have you got your BFT and Boa yet?

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Shrimp tank setup part 2

On the first part of shrimp tank setup there wasn’t a step by step on how to do the setup. With the recent expansion a fellow hobbyist suggested that I share how it was done.

Siesta UGF

UGF cut to size and add in black foam above the UGF. This is to increase surface area of bacteria growth and also prevent soil from going too far into the UGF.

RODI Water tube and air tube are being placed into the setup

Add in the chiller pipes and install the UGF front plate to form a ‘removal’ UGF system during reset. This allow me to reset much faster compared to permanent UGF however both ways are fine and i have both as well.

Water in, board cut to size to shield from glaring light

Lights on!

All is done. Remember if you need the specification of the soil/water/ etc please visit the shrimp tank setup part one!

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Revisiting Taiwan Shrimp Master – Hwa

If you haven’t heard of his name in the shrimp industry then you got to trace back his accomplishments and history. I held back this post for the longest time because I wanted to validate and be sure if he is what others claim he is. Apparently he is the real deal and that he is also the Pioneer of shrimp breeding.

He started this way back in 2003 when the CRS shrimp was selectively bred in Japan. He took the plunge to bring back some and breed. It took him many try and error to even get it right. It was painstakingly difficult in the beginning. Through that he vouch he will guide people who are really keen in shrimp breeding. He is also the first judge for the first shrimp competition and to get there during the beginning stage is really an uphill challenge. To setup the criteria for grading etc.

After a year of interaction and multiple visits to his shrimp farm i decided it is time where I share this article to others who are interested to learn and breed shrimp. The no nonsense character is what defines Hwa. Like many Bankers say, the best answer is a Yes and the second best answer is a fast No.

For him he has taught me how to breed shrimp right from the start and his setup is really neat and clean with minimum additive to the formula. He doesn’t believe in complicating the setup by adding this and that, which I think is why many shrimp breeders are unable to get from good to great.

Why did I say that? Reason being is simple, if you keep easy to breed shrimp, how would one improve their understanding of shrimp keeping? The only reason why an expensive shrimp 8 years ago remain expensive today is because it is difficult and not through marketing efforts. We know that King Kong shrimp used to be very expensive when they appear on the market which created a hype but that was short lived because it was easy to breed. The prices plummeted 10 folds. Will that happen to black fancy tiger? Maybe! But so far it hasn’t been that easy and like mentioned earlier it’s not so easy. Is this due to breeders only releasing it slowly keeping lots of stock? well, the matter of fact is that “white fancy” or the not so dark ones are massively bred and breeders are telling them they will turn darker if mix with this and that. I wanted to refute this notion because many breeders lie in this industry or they don’t tell the full truth. Of all shrimp, Hwa specifically told me that this shrimp is difficult because like all selectively bred shrimp it only get more difficult by time.

Coming back to the main topic of this post is he doesn’t advertise much or reach out to overseas customer. His main spoken language is mandarin and local dialect. I was lucky to learn a lot from him as I was able to converse in his language.

Hwa has been a judge, a mentor and a contributor to the shrimp industry for more than a decade and will continue to serve the community by guiding hobbyist on how to go from good to great. The only caveat is if you are English speaking, you can contact me and I will share what he teaches or look at my other blog post.

Hence, in this shrimp industry many want to ride on the bandwagon to keep selling shrimp but fail to provide proper guidance which is also why the shrimp scene in Singapore has slowly disappear. Those who remain are those who are really keen in breeding because of the fundamental they have learn. I had the opportunity to share what I learn to a few and I hope that this continue.

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Water stability

Water stability

What constitute to water stability? Every time I get a question asking why would my shrimp die?

There are a range of possibilities to that question but we can be sure for one we will need water stability. First off, the bigger the water volume the better the water stability is the general rule. Think of it this way, since the tank is a close loop system the smaller the water volume, any changes will be drastically amplified. Here is an example:

A tank with 100 litres and a tank with 40 litres. Both have 200 shrimps in there, what do you think the nitrate levels will be if all else are equal? It is safe to say that the level of nitrate in the 100 litre tank is lower than that of the 40 litres. Why is this so?

Nitrate is a by product of the nitrification process and cannot be remove without either having plants or water change (there are some filter media that temporary remove nitrates but need to be change). With that does it mean that everyone need to start a big tank? Not really.

Keep in mind if you have a 40 litres tank and the tank is already cycled, keeping a right number <100 shrimp will technically still be able to get by. However, water change and lots of plants to remove the nitrate on a weekly basis will keep them happy.

When you get busy and you forgot to look at your tank for a few days to weeks or when you go on vacation. What happens if during the course of time when you are away, 1-2 shrimp die ? In the best case scenario the rest of the shrimp will consume it the natural way but what if you don’t have that sheer number of shrimps to do so? The dead shrimp will release ammonia which is a deadly. if your nitrifying bacteria isn’t able to handle the process well, your water will foul quickly causing death to your shrimps. There is also a high chance that you will probably have ammonia burn on your moss as well since the decomposing body emits ammonia and other substances. Given the above, will a bigger tank help prolong such a catastrophic event? Yes but not exponentially.

Water stability is a balancing act of feeding proper amount and type of food, do your water change, measure your tds and nitrate and certainly remove any dead shrimp as soon as possible.

My regular routine when I get back from a busy schedule is to first test for tds. 99% of the time the tds would have gone up a few points but doesn’t cause for an alarm. I will then feed the shrimps some pellets and look if there are any dead shrimp. After which I will allocate a time to do water change and since it is fairly quick with about 10-12 tanks i usually get it completed by 30 mins which include a bacter ae feed(for baby shrimp)after reminerizing the water. Once a month I will test for all parameters on a few important tanks using a test strip which I know isn’t the most accurate but the fastest way to get an indication of the water. Most of the time nothing change month to month if everything is kept in order.

It’s all about control and discipline without adding too much of this and that.

Hope you guys enjoy the post!

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For the weekend hobbyist

Personally I always wanted to look for a methodology that will help busy people not to lose faith in shrimp keeping hobby.

It is difficult to ignore the fact that shrimp hobby in itself requires some form of engagement to keep it running. Feeding, cleaning your front glass, changing water, so on and so forth for a single tank is do-able. How about multiplying that 10x,100x or even with a very busy schedule, working 2 shifts, 2 kids and the likes of life?

How would you manage having to balance all that and still keep tanks of shrimp ?

There is no silver bullet,magic powder or ward but what I’m going to share with you is still work in progress. It is a continuous learning process of refinement to better adjust to different shrimp requirements.

A background on why this blog post started is because of the busy schedule I’m experiencing and how it impacted my shrimp keeping journey and how I bounce back. On a typical work week, I probably have about 1 hour staggered in a week to really maintain 10+ tanks, which doesn’t really give me a lot of time per tank. When I didn’t get enough time for my tanks, my shrimp didn’t appear to breed well because the common ideology is that shrimp just need algae to survive. That statement is probably true, but I didn’t just settled for survival. I wanted my shrimp to thrive.

I have 2 Neo tanks that are heavily planted (Low tech) but they didn’t thrive the first time I kept them. Now they are booming.

What about my other shrimp tank? As you may have already known, I keep predominantly black fancy tiger and they are very sensitive shrimp compared to others I have kept. They needed very stable water parameters and is very sensitive to any changes. Coming back to getting shrimp to thrive I realise a constant food source and stable water parameters are required.

1. Stable water parameters

  • Do not add anything except food to the water during the course of the week. That includes no vitamin, no black water extract, no magic powder, nothing.
  • During weekly water change, measure TDS to see if there are any spike, I keep mine between 80-90.
  • Weekly measure of nitrate levels.
  • Weekly water change 5-10% and reminerize if it falls below 80 TDS. if it maintains around 80-90 TDS i will not reminerize but continue to do weekly water change to remove nitrates.
  • Adding floating plants is a personal choice and for someone who want a bigger buffer for errors, adding frogbits or any floating plant will remove nitrates. This will help lengthen your next water change without having raise the nitrate levels too high.

2. Long term food source

Feed a Long term food source for female shrimp to prepare for saddle and berry. The reason for that statement is without sufficient food source, egg production is greatly reduced and female are not receptive to breed.

When there isn’t sufficient food source, issue can arise during molting especially for female shrimp. Males Shrimp will attack the female as a potential food source and has happened to my shrimp over many occasion.

My Long term food is actually from Taiwan and it helps with my travel schedule (travel schedule of 50-75%). They call this lubao which essentially is a mix of natural powder food that helps promote biofilm. Normally in Taiwan food mix they will use a mix of soy bean, sweet potato and egg white among others.

Repack to smaller sizes and add biorings or any filter media as weight since they do float up.

I use Geilee lubao once I’m out traveling and only remove a month later or when the biofilm gets overwhelming. This product is not without any dangers. Like all food product if left unchecked, it can ruin the water parameters as ammonia will spike cause all your shrimp to be in distress. I soak them in tap water for 3 days before I use them as this will prevent an overwhelming biofilm creation. It will be fine if there are more than 30 shrimps in your tank but if you have fewer than that it is highly recommended to soak it for 3 days. This will help reduce the potency of the biofilm. As you can see I re package then to smaller more manageable sizes as I don’t have that many shrimp per tank. Even with 100s of shrimp there is no requirement for the whole lubao to be included. It can be split into half a bag or 3-4 bags depend on your shrimp number.

Another product that i use in conjunction with Lubao is barley straw, it is all natural and doesn’t foul the water as it is used as a natural filter media for koi ponds. However, the barley straw need to be either fed on a food dish or a net as it will decompose if left unchecked. Feed only when they finish the previous batch.

In addition to the lubao I will feed bacter ae when i’m not traveling, this will help create more spread out biofilm within the tank, it is to increase the survival rate of shrimplet. I feed bacter ae lightly daily and also pellet food whenever I’m around.

So with all these finer adjustment, i’m happy to say that shrimps are happier when left alone given them the basic necessity to thrive (not just survive) in our tanks. This helped me regain my confidence in terms of doing lesser but understanding the fundamental for a longer mileage.

Cheers!

 

 

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