Aspire to make a difference

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.

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.

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!