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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:
pH 5.8
Total dissolved solids : 85-90
kH : 0
GH : 4
Nitrate, nitrite, Ammonia 0
Temp 24-26 degrees Celsius
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:
Color
Red: is bright red to a brick red coloration without much fading in the front region.
some have pinkish hue to it – as they age some have it pink but doesn’t cover the entire shrimp
White: The white coloration sometimes have a yellowish tinge to it but predominately white. Yellow tinge does not mean it is of mix lineage, on the other hand if it’s all white and sparkling, it’s good you trace that lineage.
Legs: Are they red, white or a mix? Or are there spider legs (if you see spider legs something isn’t right and I will classify them as CRS, it does happen in PRL but what i learn is a very very rare occurrence and doesn’t breed through to the next gen.
Swimmerets : Are they yellow, white or red?
Size
Shrimp is of good large size 2-3cm at adulthood
Head to body ratio: 1:3. It is important that it doesn’t look too distorted due to inbreeding. Many times the shrimp doesn’t have a good form where the head and body are 40:60 and some 20:80.
Legs: proportionate not stringly due to poor diet, genetics and water condition
Shell
shell have few blemishes and are of certain thickness. Aggressive feeding can sometimes cause shrimp to have some “war marks” but they generally can recover after the next molt. This goes the same to the feelers of male.
2nd Abdomen shell segment(of Male Shrimp) the biggest one in the middle is round and big resembling a female, which would show a much more robust characteristic
Thick, regularly spaced
Thick Carapace
colored Scaphocerite
Visible – colored rostrum
Age
Age of shrimp can sometimes be determine by the hunched back of shrimp when the shrimp grows bigger
another telltale sign is the Antennule curving down and backwards vs forward or upwards
https://shrimpsanctuary.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/shrimp2-1-300x300.png00benetayhttps://shrimpsanctuary.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/shrimp2-1-300x300.pngbenetay2020-05-16 09:04:532020-05-16 09:04:53Pure red line (PRL) shrimp
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?
Water Parameters
This is the first reason that your shrimps are dying by the numbers – 1-2 per day or weekly. Why is water parameters the number 1 reason for shrimp death? The old adage goes like this, if you want to keep good quality shrimp, first learn how to keep good water parameters. If your tanks have good water parameters, everything else will fall in place.
I have in my other post talk about water parameters and my water parameters recommendation.
If my water parameters are fine – (like many of us) then why are they still dying?
Source of shrimp
This means that the source of where the shrimp came from be it from source, at source or during transit might have already weaken the shrimp.
Ammonia poisoning, poor genetics, too much in-breeding
Pick your source wisely and don’t mix sources! (Please refer to the 4 main criteria of shrimp breeding – under choose your breeder)
Genetics of shrimp
The genetics of shrimp from the start is already weak
when a cross of two individually line bred shrimp comes together the difficulty level just increased many folds
for example a PRL vs a BFT – the PRL have better and more stable genetics compared to a BFT but that doesn’t mean the BFT will die easier, they just don’t breed as quickly/as easy as the PRL. (Pure line)
Too little or too much water change
i usually recommend at least 10% water change and if the tank volume is large (100L) and a few shrimp, a 5% water change will do.
On a very stable tank and shrimp, even changing 50% at once hasn’t proven to be an issue (Remember point 1 and point 2)
Stirring too much soil up during water change, creating a sudden spike and then returning back to normal
Itchy hand syndrome
There is no need to add bone meal, Cutterbone, decorative item, tons of plants, feeding excessively, adding wood, adding rock, adding any other thing other than reminerizer during WC
Mixing source A,B,C,D shrimp in 1 tank – stick to your trusted source
Putting your hand in there every few hours to move decorative item around.
Feeding more than twice a day – if you have a lot of shrimp
Your feed should be altered to the number of shrimps and should consume all of the feed within 2-3 hours. If not, cut the feed to a smaller portion and feed. if not, consider adding more shrimp.
Adding new soil in large quantity inside an established tank, tried that – adult shrimps does ok, shrimplets die.
Shrimp like all living things die
All living things die – we like it or not. There is no way we can keep all 100% of our shrimp alive and this is esp. true if they’re genetically weak. For example i haven’t experience a PRL die for a long time but occasionally i still get a selectively line bred shrimp dead (it’s part and parcel of shrimp keeping)
With the above, please note that if you’re doing selective breeding – have backup shrimp ready – That means if you have a tank ratio of 2M and 6F please have more Males and Females ready to go because if the 2M dies off, basically you have nothing to breed with.
Plan your purchases carefully and if your budget permits have a good breeding ratio – 2M – 20F x 2 sets with additional 1-2 males as backup in other tanks
For more in depth information – please read other post on breeding tanks.
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:
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.
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.
https://shrimpsanctuary.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/shrimp2-1-300x300.png00benetayhttps://shrimpsanctuary.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/shrimp2-1-300x300.pngbenetay2020-03-04 20:20:582020-03-04 20:20:58What is really necessary for shrimp breeding?
Thanks for all the support to the blog and as I continue to pen down my experience and thoughts, please keep those replies coming. For those who have supported me through “virtual coffee” really appreciate it. So in this entry, I will touch on what I focus and why. when I was scooping shrimps and shifting them in preparation for reset it kind of daunt in me, what’s worth the time?
What’s worth the time? I stood back and kind of think through as I update the whiteboard on shrimp placement.
I must keep what I like, and I can’t be keeping something that I don’t like. That is because I’m a hobbyist and not a seller who’s sole purpose is to sell and make a profit regardless if they like it or not.
As we grow over the course of shrimp keeping, our focus change and shrimp liking change but there will be a shrimp that holds a strong value in your heart and that is important. The reason is because this will drive what is needed to be done in terms of shrimp selection resetting etc. When it all comes down to that I will still select black fancy tiger as the main stay. I do have other high grade shrimp but the main focus for me is still BFT. For those who have followed my blog you can tell I have spend considerable time on the BFT topic. So when I was spending time on other shrimp I realize I should be focusing more time on the BFT and the reason is every hobbyist has a set given amount of time. Nobody have 25hours in their day so given the hectic pace of life and the short duration you can spend in your shrimp room, what will you think is worth your time.
It can be PRL, RFT, DBB or any other shrimp that you really like to keep and then focus on that shrimp. If you see I did not put a value over what is worth my time as I treat all shrimps equal. The only difference is how much value it holds dear in your heart. This will help in your shrimp keeping direction and continue to do well it it. Time to select out the males from females in the grow up tank can take an hour or two, if you don’t do that then you are literally going back 2-3 generation. Breeding shrimps can be fun but I guess the direction of where you are heading is important as well.
For those who know me, I have now 2 children, a day job that consist of 50% travel and a total of 17 tanks with empty space for more. I have over the years consolidated the smaller tanks to bigger tanks. So with the shear time away from home and the responsibility as a father, i really hope even those who are really busy to have a setup that you can let it run naturally and still enjoy the hobby of shrimp breeding. Once the setup is done right, most of the things fall in place, all is needed really is water change and feeding.
So today while you are looking at your shrimps, spend some time to see what is worth your time and what you are looking to change to make the excellent shrimp breeding hobby even better.
https://shrimpsanctuary.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/shrimp2-1-300x300.png00benetayhttps://shrimpsanctuary.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/shrimp2-1-300x300.pngbenetay2020-03-03 16:08:582020-03-03 16:08:58What I focus and why…
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:
pH 5.8
Total dissolved solids : 85-90
kH : 0
GH : 4
Nitrate, nitrite, Ammonia 0
Temp 24-26 degrees Celsius
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:
Color
Red: is bright red to a brick red coloration without much fading in the front region.
some have pinkish hue to it – as they age some have it pink but doesn’t cover the entire shrimp
White: The white coloration sometimes have a yellowish tinge to it but predominately white. Yellow tinge does not mean it is of mix lineage, on the other hand if it’s all white and sparkling, it’s good you trace that lineage.
Legs: Are they red, white or a mix? Or are there spider legs (if you see spider legs something isn’t right and I will classify them as CRS, it does happen in PRL but what i learn is a very very rare occurrence and doesn’t breed through to the next gen.
Swimmerets : Are they yellow, white or red?
Size
Shrimp is of good large size 2-3cm at adulthood
Head to body ratio: 1:3. It is important that it doesn’t look too distorted due to inbreeding. Many times the shrimp doesn’t have a good form where the head and body are 40:60 and some 20:80.
Legs: proportionate not stringly due to poor diet, genetics and water condition
Shell
shell have few blemishes and are of certain thickness. Aggressive feeding can sometimes cause shrimp to have some “war marks” but they generally can recover after the next molt. This goes the same to the feelers of male.
2nd Abdomen shell segment(of Male Shrimp) the biggest one in the middle is round and big resembling a female, which would show a much more robust characteristic
Thick, regularly spaced
Thick Carapace
colored Scaphocerite
Visible – colored rostrum
Age
Age of shrimp can sometimes be determine by the hunched back of shrimp when the shrimp grows bigger
another telltale sign is the Antennule curving down and backwards vs forward or upwards
https://shrimpsanctuary.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/shrimp2-1-300x300.png00benetayhttps://shrimpsanctuary.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/shrimp2-1-300x300.pngbenetay2020-05-16 09:04:532020-05-16 09:04:53Pure red line (PRL) shrimp
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?
Water Parameters
This is the first reason that your shrimps are dying by the numbers – 1-2 per day or weekly. Why is water parameters the number 1 reason for shrimp death? The old adage goes like this, if you want to keep good quality shrimp, first learn how to keep good water parameters. If your tanks have good water parameters, everything else will fall in place.
I have in my other post talk about water parameters and my water parameters recommendation.
If my water parameters are fine – (like many of us) then why are they still dying?
Source of shrimp
This means that the source of where the shrimp came from be it from source, at source or during transit might have already weaken the shrimp.
Ammonia poisoning, poor genetics, too much in-breeding
Pick your source wisely and don’t mix sources! (Please refer to the 4 main criteria of shrimp breeding – under choose your breeder)
Genetics of shrimp
The genetics of shrimp from the start is already weak
when a cross of two individually line bred shrimp comes together the difficulty level just increased many folds
for example a PRL vs a BFT – the PRL have better and more stable genetics compared to a BFT but that doesn’t mean the BFT will die easier, they just don’t breed as quickly/as easy as the PRL. (Pure line)
Too little or too much water change
i usually recommend at least 10% water change and if the tank volume is large (100L) and a few shrimp, a 5% water change will do.
On a very stable tank and shrimp, even changing 50% at once hasn’t proven to be an issue (Remember point 1 and point 2)
Stirring too much soil up during water change, creating a sudden spike and then returning back to normal
Itchy hand syndrome
There is no need to add bone meal, Cutterbone, decorative item, tons of plants, feeding excessively, adding wood, adding rock, adding any other thing other than reminerizer during WC
Mixing source A,B,C,D shrimp in 1 tank – stick to your trusted source
Putting your hand in there every few hours to move decorative item around.
Feeding more than twice a day – if you have a lot of shrimp
Your feed should be altered to the number of shrimps and should consume all of the feed within 2-3 hours. If not, cut the feed to a smaller portion and feed. if not, consider adding more shrimp.
Adding new soil in large quantity inside an established tank, tried that – adult shrimps does ok, shrimplets die.
Shrimp like all living things die
All living things die – we like it or not. There is no way we can keep all 100% of our shrimp alive and this is esp. true if they’re genetically weak. For example i haven’t experience a PRL die for a long time but occasionally i still get a selectively line bred shrimp dead (it’s part and parcel of shrimp keeping)
With the above, please note that if you’re doing selective breeding – have backup shrimp ready – That means if you have a tank ratio of 2M and 6F please have more Males and Females ready to go because if the 2M dies off, basically you have nothing to breed with.
Plan your purchases carefully and if your budget permits have a good breeding ratio – 2M – 20F x 2 sets with additional 1-2 males as backup in other tanks
For more in depth information – please read other post on breeding tanks.
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:
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.
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.
https://shrimpsanctuary.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/shrimp2-1-300x300.png00benetayhttps://shrimpsanctuary.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/shrimp2-1-300x300.pngbenetay2020-03-04 20:20:582020-03-04 20:20:58What is really necessary for shrimp breeding?
Thanks for all the support to the blog and as I continue to pen down my experience and thoughts, please keep those replies coming. For those who have supported me through “virtual coffee” really appreciate it. So in this entry, I will touch on what I focus and why. when I was scooping shrimps and shifting them in preparation for reset it kind of daunt in me, what’s worth the time?
What’s worth the time? I stood back and kind of think through as I update the whiteboard on shrimp placement.
I must keep what I like, and I can’t be keeping something that I don’t like. That is because I’m a hobbyist and not a seller who’s sole purpose is to sell and make a profit regardless if they like it or not.
As we grow over the course of shrimp keeping, our focus change and shrimp liking change but there will be a shrimp that holds a strong value in your heart and that is important. The reason is because this will drive what is needed to be done in terms of shrimp selection resetting etc. When it all comes down to that I will still select black fancy tiger as the main stay. I do have other high grade shrimp but the main focus for me is still BFT. For those who have followed my blog you can tell I have spend considerable time on the BFT topic. So when I was spending time on other shrimp I realize I should be focusing more time on the BFT and the reason is every hobbyist has a set given amount of time. Nobody have 25hours in their day so given the hectic pace of life and the short duration you can spend in your shrimp room, what will you think is worth your time.
It can be PRL, RFT, DBB or any other shrimp that you really like to keep and then focus on that shrimp. If you see I did not put a value over what is worth my time as I treat all shrimps equal. The only difference is how much value it holds dear in your heart. This will help in your shrimp keeping direction and continue to do well it it. Time to select out the males from females in the grow up tank can take an hour or two, if you don’t do that then you are literally going back 2-3 generation. Breeding shrimps can be fun but I guess the direction of where you are heading is important as well.
For those who know me, I have now 2 children, a day job that consist of 50% travel and a total of 17 tanks with empty space for more. I have over the years consolidated the smaller tanks to bigger tanks. So with the shear time away from home and the responsibility as a father, i really hope even those who are really busy to have a setup that you can let it run naturally and still enjoy the hobby of shrimp breeding. Once the setup is done right, most of the things fall in place, all is needed really is water change and feeding.
So today while you are looking at your shrimps, spend some time to see what is worth your time and what you are looking to change to make the excellent shrimp breeding hobby even better.
https://shrimpsanctuary.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/shrimp2-1-300x300.png00benetayhttps://shrimpsanctuary.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/shrimp2-1-300x300.pngbenetay2020-03-03 16:08:582020-03-03 16:08:58What I focus and why…