Other Archives - Shrimp Sanctuary Aquatic

Learning through more tanks

What is the optimum number of tanks

10 50 100

In this blog post i would like to share my journey from a learning perspective over the years. I always have this question in my head, how can one learn and experience quicker. As shrimp breeding cycle from breeding to shrimplets to selective breeding takes years, can we accelerate the process with more tanks and can anybody from a hobbyist perspective upkeep this?

So i think we all started somewhere and i too started with 12 tanks and then as time goes on expanded to more than 100 tanks, does it mean that having more tanks equate to better shrimps?

The long and short of this is Not Necessary.

Time

One of the more influential factor is time, having more tanks means more time needed or a more complex process/infrastructure to ensure time isn’t been taken away too much for it is still a hobby; albeit very passionately.

Taking water change and reset for example, if we have 12 tanks weekly water change and reset once every 8-12 months all the time adds up.

This calculation is a very rough estimate of what could have happen, and if we first started off with 12 tanks the time taken in a year is 5 days. 5 Full Days doing nothing but water change for 12 tanks.

If we would to expand to 100 tanks with the same method and process it will then become1 month. This seems a bit unsustainable as out of the 12 months we have in a year, 1 month is doing nothing but water change.

Hence, when businesses or hobbyist decided to scale up, we try to save time by doing what takes the most time. Water change and reset, which lead to automation.

Automation, semi automation

This is where we can see hobbyist start with automation and yes even for us we started semi automation when i increase my tank count from 12 to 17 to 24 where i use gravity as discharge without having to drill holes in the tank. Yes slower but certainly a start.

In addition, we moved away from RODI to just DI. DI speeds up the process by filling the tanks up at the speed of 20 seconds per Litre. The draining process is 10.7 seconds per Litre.

Marine and RV pump, 5.6L per minute or 1L every 10seconds

DI System without RO.
2 Resin and 1 Carbon cartridge

In my YouTube and Blog post i have shared some of the methods we have used for water discharge and top up.

Tracking

When it comes to 12 tanks, we can still recall when was the last time a reset is done, a water change is done, a feeding is done.

When we multiply the number of tanks, the increase in complexity increases drastically.

At least for us tracking data is highly critical to ensure we know what is going on with one glance with some automation this excel sheet updates whenever we input in the raw data when the water change was done and a dashboard shows when we will need to do the next water change. The formula can be adjusted based on your water change intervals.

This gives a good overview of what needs to be done, when.

Let’s talk about money

Finances

It is important for us to discuss in depth what it means to progress to more tanks as the whole process from 12 to 100 to 200 tanks require a direction and a viable plan.

From a finance perspective on expansion, we are looking at almost 7x the initial cost setup for 10 tanks to 100. This exclude all livestock/shrimps which will exponentially increase the cost.

More tanks even a conservative calculation, shrimps cost increases exponentially.

So does it mean there are no benefits to expansion?

Learning

If you have read this far, it means that inside of you there is something that you’re looking for in terms of rationalizing. If we put this across a few years of progress it will certainly help to put this into perspective.

Learning by doing and experience is by far a great journey for many hobbyist including myself. Different shrimps different lines and even learning the difference between main line and secondary line takes time.

Learning

With more shrimps, you’re able to learn their behavior water parameters and breeding cycle better
With more tanks, it forces you to think through the infrastructure piece ensuring that you do not lose time because of an expansion plan
Helps convince yourself and make more mistakes as the more mistakes you make the better for own learning
Be able to discern between a claim vs observation experience
Able to create new shrimps
Able to improve current lines

There are many benefits to learning and to really put your knowledge to the test.

Selective breeding

With more tanks does not necessarily means better selective breeding. That is also the reason at the onset of this post i mentioned it is not necessary that expanding is beneficial. The direction and intent is important when expanding, and personally if we’re worst off than when we started, it will be detrimental to other parts of our life.

Selective breeding is a strict, discipline and consistent process where shrimps are move around with an intention in mind. The removal of shrimplets from one tank to another to grow up is part of the process and having more tanks allows you to do selective breeding more accurately. After talking to many global breeders, i do find there are certain characteristic and personality traits that breeders have in common if they’re willing to go the extra mile to selectively breed their shrimp and undergo the hard work to do so.

Selectively breeding are often loosely use and mentioned, but it entails a very strict process and a laser focus approach and not for everyone.

Personally, even with the many tanks that we run, we openly share that we do not do selective breeding for all shrimps types as we will easily run out of tanks if we do for every tank. However, what we do is to remove the shrimps with undesirable traits.

Outcome

The quality of the shrimp will be a good indicator if the process should be tweaked to further optimize or major changes need to be made. The question here still remain if your lifestyle is able to keep up with the number of tanks?

At the end of the day, this is still a shrimp hobby, and you can decide where you would like to take this to. Doesn’t mean that you cannot have fun during all these and you probably should find fun doing this.

In this journey we believe if automation to water change is considered then it is certainly viable to expand. How many tanks? I would recommend anything below 100 as the diminishing returns starts at 100 and move where projects can easily be neglected. However, who am i to tell you this ? So go ahead and expand because only when you’re there, would you be able to look back and say ah….. yes…. this make sense. One thing we can be certain of is the learning curve through more tanks and shrimps does gives you a more holistic understanding of shrimp breeding.

Hope you all enjoy this post!

March 5, 2023/by benetay

Other, Shrimp

What happens when a tank crash

What do you expect if you are new to this

What to look out for

It is becoming difficult to ignore the fact that with rising prices of commodities and inflation, things get more and more expensive and what do we expect can happen in the shrimp industry.

Eventually the shrimp industry will also be hit by the rising cost of raw material and logistics, however as we know these are not beyond our control, it is important to note what is truly important. Additionally, it is also a good time to reflect on what is necessity.

This is the same as what we will try to look out for in a tank that may crash. I have been discussing with a few breeders local and overseas regarding their journey and one of the common reasons for them having dead shrimp is because the tank crash.

What led to a tank crash

Many factors can contribute to a tank crash, one of the more evident issue resulting in tank crash is by adding too many things into the tank. I have been discussing with one of the US breeder who had his tank crash overnight. To his horror when he woke up, most of his shrimp had die of ammonia poisoning.

What did he do differently?

Nothing.

Yes he did nothing differently before 2 of his tank crash, but why would something like this happen. This is the fallacy of the shrimp industry and i chalk this up to knowledge and experience. As more and more breeders continue on their breeding journey they’ll realized that what they’ve learn in the beginning may not apply to what they are experiencing or doing now.

So how can someone do everything the same he has always been doing and the tank just ‘miraculously’ crash over night? He did the same water change and added powder bacteria.

The prognosis:

From this, we understood that over time the bacteria powder have caused the accumulation of ammonia that resulted in a spike. Some of the shrimps couldn’t take the spike forces them to force molt, some got stuck, and die. This dead shrimp over a few hours released higher ammonia, together with all these created an Armageddon. This is not even coincidental, as 2 tanks with the same method done had the same cause and effect.

These are two pictures of his tank.

What it really meant is the water parameters have already been peaking to a point where the tipping point came when the water change was done and powder added. Is there a way to tell if the tank is breaking?

Like one of my topics on ammonia vs porosity, where we cannot measure the amount of beneficial bacteria we can however measure the porosity of filter media. In other words, if the filtration is unable to handle the added powder the tank has reached it’s tipping point.

Knowledge

When hobbyist encounter such incidences majority may quit the hobby and totally give up. Some persist on after finding out new found knowledge. Those who continue will then get afraid of doing what they normally do. I think while powder bacteria is not an issue, using in large dosage and frequently after water change have caused the tank to crash when the filtration/media no longer able to convert ammonia to nitrite and nitrate, robbing away oxygen during the bacteria bloom process.

So while we may be in this hobby being taught different things, there is no one best way and i guess there can only be one way that suit you better.

Recommendation:

While setting tank up, it is optional to add bacteria powder (it is the dormant state of nitrifying bacteria). If you don’t use it, it is perfectly fine.
There is no requirement to add bacteria powder after every water change, colonization of beneficial bacteria will not be entirely loss because of water change.
Clean your sponge filter to unclog it before they start jamming up

For me i treasure the simplicity of the hobby and to keep them as fuss free as possible, streamlining things, eliminating optional stuff whenever possible. This would then help to enjoy the hobby a lot more.

Hence, when there are issues such as tank crash, it is important to have a standby tank or emergency tank where you can immediately transfer the shrimp into the tank or hang breeder box to house the shrimps and hopefully you rescue them in time.

There isn’t much you can do at this point but to reset the tank and continue on the hobby with the new found knowledge.

I’m still in contact with him and i’m sure now he will now be able to breed back the number of shrimps he use to have.

April 20, 2022/by benetay

Other

4 Rules to successful shrimp journey

The 4 Golden Rules

Why do we need the rules?

One of the reason for having the 4 rules to successful shrimp breeding works for me and it doesn’t just work on the shrimp hobby, i think it can also be applied to your daily life.

If we want to be successful and truly enjoy the hobby, i think these 4 rules are for you.

Have a vision and goals
Working Hard
Ignore the naysayers
Give something back

When i use these 4 rules in the shrimp breeding hobby, it helps me navigate to where i would like to be. While all the rules are important, the very last one is actually one of the most important of all.

I’ll take this opportunity to share how i structure and why i do it that way so that we can continue this hobby for a long long time.

Have a Vision and Goals

Having a vision is important because it charts the course to where you would like to be. Having the goals is going to help you get to where you want to be. This is important because while we do enjoy the shrimp hobby, we share our experiences, we build that friendship but at some point without a goal/vision you just float by. There is nothing wrong about that, however if you would like to be successful you will need to have a direction.

The best ship without a Captain to chart the course is still a ship aimlessly sailing in the sea.

When i first started the aquarium hobby, i had very good friends who taught me and answer my constant questions. I am very grateful and even in the shrimp hobby, i have met very good breeders who share with me, took time to cultivate and grow me into the hobby.

With all that, my vision became very clear it is to share information and experiences so that people will benefit from it. Hence, my goals yearly is to achieve that sets the direction to keep sharing information with the rest. Also to uplift and encourage more breeders to sieve through the large amount of information available.

Isn’t this a hobby? Why do we need to set goals?

I think one of the biggest difference is if you would like to enjoy the hobby even further, over time as we improve ourselves through newer racks and adding more tanks and optimizing the space, every new change is a new improvement.

For example if the goal is to reduce water change time without affecting quality. Then this will help reduce time needed for water change yet achieving the same results. Now you have more time to do more things on the ones that you want to.

Hence, goal setting is very important and it can be big or even as small as goal to breed better Boa this year.

Working hard

When you have set your goals, than comes the hard work. To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did. This quote is certainly true as to reach where you would like to be you got to put the hard work in. You cannot climb the mountain of success with your hands in the pocket.

Hence every year i set goals and i work towards them, i have to allocate time for the work of sharing information, be it blog or youtube. This takes time and to keep improving myself i can constantly and consistently share information with the rest.

There are days where i have trouble writing, i can’t allocate time because of schedule however i always remind myself that i need to continue to be consistent to achieve my goals.

Hard work, works. Doing the water change, resetting the tank and learning how to improve the process of your hobby.

I know many hobbyist and breeders dislike tank reset because it takes time to do so. Some even gave themselves reasons not to reset. However, we all know that at some point of time the optimum breeding time has past and while they may still be alive, they may not be breeding as optimally as before.

Hence, this is why i told some breeders i can’t wait to reset my tank, the more i do it, the closer i am to my goals. i keep improving the process so i can be more efficient and all these are hard work and certainly back breaking.

While during this process, sometimes your shrimp die, but don’t even take it as a setback but a setup for better things to come. Reason being is it is the best time for you to learn what was the cause of it.

Ignore the naysayers

Ignore the naysayers. I think this is one very critical piece in the 4 rules to successful shrimp breeding hobby. There are many that will tell you that you cannot succeed with the shrimps you have. You will never going to have great looking shrimps. You cannot be as good as the Taiwanese.

If i would have listen to the naysayers, i would have gone out of the shrimp hobby long ago.

There are yet again many ‘online professional’ dishing out advise on 1, 2 or maybe 3 tries of the product. Have the product been tried on really high grade shrimps on their own shrimp before sharing? When i’m referring to high grade these are shrimp that are of at least 1k per piece. Yes! i have heard some tell me, Ben you are absolutely crazy to risk it all.

i didn’t listen to them.

I tested on the most expensive shrimp tank because i wouldn’t put my name on a product that doesn’t have the best in me. Tested proven over many years before even sharing it.

Then information sharing, i think this should be shared freely and of cause there are good breeders who have gave me good suggestion to earn more when i’m sharing. i appreciate that thought and yes have thought about it, however, i would like to share the information freely so people can do the same.

Taking an example:

The Lubao ball, there have been hobbyist trying to pull me down or even down play the importance of it citing reasons to prove their stance. Some even try to make videos and skew the test, some tried and didn’t work out.

If i would have listen to the naysayers, i wouldn’t have great looking shrimps today.

I think the easiest way to differentiate and cut through all these noise is simply look at the shrimp. The quality of the shrimp is a non-bias measure of information authenticity.

Another Example:

How would you be able to manage so many things in life with work, kids, racks and racks of tank, i don’t think you can make it. Doing youtube, blog, kids, shrimps, work.

i took it as a good feedback so i can improve.

That is where i made the change to switch all the tanks to semi-automatic draining system without drilling holes in the tank. Helped me reduce time in water changes and such.

Hence, it is important to keep trying until you succeed. You are not a failure if you keep trying. Down 5 times up 6 and keep pushing forward. There are many people in life that will tell you what you cannot achieve, don’t listen to those naysayers (some even call themselves realist).

If you keep the 2nd rule always on the back of your mind it will help you to get where you want. If someone tells you, no it cannot happen, don’t listen to that. Look at different ways to approach it.

As long as you have set your mind to where you would like to be, then keep trying and trying and trying until you get there.

Give something back

Instead of just taking, it is important to give something back to the society or even the hobby. When you are successful in breeding good shrimps, teach the next person who wishes to be as good as you. Each one teach one.

Giving back to the hobby is at the cornerstone of why Shrimp Sanctuary existed because i was personally at the receiving end of being scam because of a lack of information and knowledge.

With that, that is the reason why i have made it a point to share and give back to the hobby. In life, we are not measured by how much we take and achieve but at how much we give back.

Hence, remember when you have started to learn and understand how to breed great shrimps, it will be beneficial to the hobby as a whole to share the information so everyone benefits from it.

Summary

Hope you guys like this post which i use it as my guiding star to ensure having that 4 rules will help with the shrimp breeding journey.

To always remember to have a vision and goals, hard work, ignore the naysayers and giving back to the hobby.

When you use the 4 rules you will have a truly meaningful journey and i’m sure there are some of you out there who have already a few of the rules that you are using and certainly a great way to enjoy the hobby as a whole.

February 23, 2022/by benetay

Other

Change is the new constant

Why change can bring improvements

Process improvements

While it may be difficult for change as it requires work and action, but change by itself if for the better helps in the long term.

Tank reset:

While we know we have to reset our tanks sooner or later, eventually some even put off the tank reset and convince themselves it will last another month or 6 months or a year. I think there are no best way to shrimp keeping, as long as the breeding continues i think it will be great. However, many a times soil depletes it’s buffering capacity if using the thin soil method at a rather quick time frame. A reset between 8-12 months is something to consider.

It will also help clear up all the debris, filters and re-create a better place for the shrimps again.

Infrastructure:

While we progress on with the hobby it’s always good to learn new things, new method to improve the current process, this will help save you time and energy. For example, water change process and also keeping things simple on the air system.

The more time it is to create that new infrastructure in the beginning will certainly help with saving more time in future.

De-cluttering:

Have you wonder why some breeder’s setup is so neat and tidy and very pleasing to the eye? Yes they have make it simple by decluttering their space and also the tank setup.

Hobbyist vs Commercial and what’s the inbetween?

In general a telltale sign between a hobbyist and a commercial breeder is the tank setup. In general, a hobbyist would have more resources to allocate for a few tanks vs a commercial breeder.

The in between is like me where i have both hobbyist setup and commercial setup for the sole purpose of bringing in good shrimps and of cause to share it with friends in the hobby.

During this process i have also learn more about the differences on the shrimp adaptability, while the more hardy ones can take more ‘beating’ the more sensitive ones still require special attention.

Keep growing

I think when we stop growing and learning, we stop progressing, be it for shrimp hobby or life, it’s quite the same. Hence, i ask myself, when do people stop growing and learning? Esp. When we are going through the rat race, the mindless repetition of spending hours and than go back home and not pursue your dreams. A quote

“Do not go to work for 8-10 hours a day and go back home and not work on your dreams. You are not tired, you uninspired”

Even small steps towards your goal would be great if we keep doing it everyday for 1 hour, in a year we are better than we are before with 365 hours put in.

I have seen many procrastinating about change and the work they have to do, putting it off to tomorrow, and tomorrow didn’t come. For me it is straight forward, there is no one day, it is because there is only Monday to Sunday. One day doesn’t come in, some day doesn’t come in.

Also the fear of failing is too great for some, but without failing you are not even learning. Some don’t and never will learn because they are too afraid to take that first step. When they fall, they forgot how to stand up. Like a child, when they’re learning how to walk, they fall very often until they are able to walk on their own.

The older we get, the more we forgot the basic in life to always stand up when we fall if not we will never walk. We started ‘rationalizing’ about things but ultimately anything that prevents you from being greater isn’t rationalizing.

Live fully, die empty.

January 26, 2022/by benetay

Other

Shrimp tank Bacteria: Bacillus subtilis var. Natto

Introduction of the Hwa Bacter

Why use bacteria?

Appreciate all the feedback and comments on the content i have created and shared so far, it is certainly awesome to get great feedback on it. While rare to share openly information, i think there should be a depositary where all the information are gathered together to educate the shrimp hobby.

coming back to today’s post on Hwa Bacter, and it took me a good 4 years before i actually share this information because i didn’t had sufficient data to back them up and also haven’t been a religious user of bacteria products.

The only reason why i share this information is because i wanted to give a different perspective of bacteria product and when can and should be use.

Basically why we need to use bacteria such as Hwa bacter and what it actually contain?

Like most of the bacteria product on the market i think we need to differentiate the different type of bacteria and usage.

These are some of the questions i get and i would take this opportunity to share the information.

Nitrifying Bacteria:

This bacteria is essentially to convert Ammonia to Nitrite and then to Nitrate. That is the purpose of this bacteria and they do not mulitply fast under low pH which is normal in Caridina tank. Hence, it takes time for this bacteria to multiply and go through the entire cycling process.

Probiotics (bacillus subtilis)

This bacteria shouldn’t be confuse with the nitrifying bacteria as they have a different purpose. Bacillus subtilis can be understood as probiotics like in human however the ones from Hwa are extracted from the Japanese Fermented Soya Bean also known as Natto. Hence there is a variant of Bacillus subtilis var. natto. In other words the plant base probiotics has a great potential to improve nutritional value to shrimps.

This has long been used for aquaculture with those against the use of antibiotics. There has been many articles regarding shrimp farm (for consumption) where they’re fed with doses of antibiotics to prevent bacteria infection. However, in recent time antibiotic usage has been frown upon and the rise of more natural products to help the long term farming of shrimps. This also help reduce reliance of antibiotic to get a better harvest.

This now being used under the aquarium hobby for some time and being sold in many different name and brands. The Hwa Bacillus subtilis var. natto has undergone quite a lot of refinement over the last few years while we are at it. It is important to note the history of progress on this as the powder used to be gray in color and some were dark brown which is natural since the original color of the Natto is light brown. The extraction process using a normal method which is less costly derived gray powder however over time as we continue to refine the powder it is now white.

Lubao/Kallax ball

This is again a totally different purpose, and shouldn’t be confuse with bacteria powder production of biofilm. The fermentation of the plant base lubao is to extract the best of the properties to form the biofilm for shrimps to feed on.

How to use it

Using the Natto bacteria is certainly more an art than a science because depending on the tank size and number of shrimps, i would always error on the side of conservative. However, before we go into the usage, it is also good to note that in some of the articles regarding Bacillus subtilis in general will prohibit diseases from formation through inhibiting the environment.

For the Natto bacteria, we can consider using them when you have a mature tank after cycling and because there are a lot of ‘food’ or biofilm available, the use of bacteria Natto may not be as efficient. An approach you can consider is when they start feeding pads and once they are able to do so, you can consider feeding them after every water change once a week. Weakly weekly. A small spoon, stirrer plastic spoon or half a stirrer plastic spoon for 20L and a full one with 40L and above. Like i have mentioned, this should be highly depending on the tank volume and number of shrimp. Giving a bit mix into the water after water change for them to consume and then shortly after (an hour or 2) you can resume normal feeding.

Can i use this during tank setup and cycling? Yes you certainly can too and add about 2-3 of the stirrer spoon to startup. I personally haven’t use it to start a tank as i always like to cycle for a long time and only then when the shrimps are in i’ll start it but in general, it’s always weakly weekly.

What if i overdose?

Like all products, overdosing is harmful as your filter may not have the capability to remove them and the sudden surge of powder will clog filters and thus increasing ammonia spike. Hence, if you accidentally put a lot of them into the tank, it is generally best if you remove the shrimp to another tank. Hence, please use all product carefully and as per direction.

I hope this article shed some light on the properties of bacillus subtilis var. natto.

Cheers!

January 19, 2022/by benetay

Other, Tips

The Why’s of Shrimp Sanctuary

Sharing and Supporting

This is a less in-depth shrimp post and taking this time to share some of the background of the Why’s of Shrimp Sanctuary and why it exist.

As the title says sharing and supporting has created Shrimp Sanctuary with the sole purpose of educating the hobby. This to me is one of the cornerstone of why it exists. In my home page, i did share the high level reasons for the existence of Shrimp Sanctuary and would take this opportunity to share more.

I get the opportunity to communicate to a lot of shrimp breeders all over the world and have forge strong friendship from it. From Russia to Malta to Poland to most of Europe countries and to Africa, Brazil, USA and not forgetting Asia. This has given me a very broad perspective of what is happening in each of these countries.

While we all have different languages, the common language we talk about is shrimp. However, what i also observed is that the politics we have in common in this hobby is fairly similar across the countries and the many sub groups within groups.

In Singapore there is no difference, however i believe that this can be change a person at a time with the notion of Sharing and Supporting. Sharing information that allow breeders or even beginners to kick start their hobby. In this day and age, information is widely available however we need to discern between accurate data and not so accurate data.

Why Share?

Like all new hobby, there is a learning curve and many prefer talking to someone to get up to speed as quickly as possible. So usually platform like YouTube and Facebook are great ways to obtain information if they couldn’t find someone to guide them. However, one must also be weary on what information is beneficial. A litmus test is to see if they are truly a shrimp breeder who have high quality shrimps. This will differentiate between noise and voice because great ideas cut through all the noise.

Why do i take hours and hours every week just to share something which i feel passionate about.

One of it is to debunk the fallacies in the hobby is we are drowning in information but starved for knowledge. A lack of knowledge creates fear, seeking knowledge creates courage. So when one is able to gain knowledge and put it to use, it dispel fear.

The secret to having good shrimp breeding is actually knowledge. The knowledge of breeding, knowledge of food, knowledge of setting it up. when we have all these have success, share them because knowledge gain is wisdom, sharing knowledge is humanity.

Why Shrimp Sanctuary

As the name denotes, a sanctuary for breeders and new hobbyist to come and learn more about the shrimp hobby. Information is free and can be use for learning but putting these information together and then trying it will give you knowledge over time. Experience does it.

At Shrimp Sanctuary we value free sharing of information which would otherwise have been kept a secret as i understand that good information is really lacking and hence learn from Taiwan and share it here. This journey continues as i continue to provide more information about shrimp breeding and sharing what works for us here in Singapore.

Wouldn’t we offend sellers by revealing all these information? I have been asked about this why invest time in things without benefit? At the end of the day we need to stand up for something we believe. Yes there will certainly be people for and against us.

Everyone have a finite time on this earth, time can either be invested or wasted, so i choose to stick to investing my time and energy to the top two quadrant, which accounts for 50% of the breeders. A special shout out to those who continue to read my blog following closely every week and encouraging me to continue writing. Thanks for that and for those who have sent me a token for “Virtual Coffee” greatly appreciate it.

For those in the last square, i simply do not invest any time to even try, and i’m sure many of you have them in your life. They will tell you what you can, what you cannot. Just Ignore the naysayers, because they may temporarily bring you down, but they will not be able to write your story. It is your story and it is your life, they don’t run it.

Hence, i continue to forge on creating blog entries to share as much as i can, which i learn from Taiwan. Do let me know what would you like to see in the next blog entry and i can write them for you while sharing with the rest.

October 27, 2021/by benetay

Other, Tips

The “Why” of Optimizing Shrimp Setup

Meeting your needs

Everyone has 24 hours, nobody have more of it or less of it. It is how we fully utilize and the willingness to allocate time for things that matter. This is because i believe that let us strive to improve continuously; for we cannot remain stationary. One either progresses or retrogrades.

This post helps to conceptualize the Why of things and streamline the processes to gain back time.

We all have busy life with work and family that we need to take care. We have jobs that need us to be there majority of time and we still need to spend time with our love ones. However, without giving up any of those we can stream line our processes and optimize our setup so we can spend more time with things that matter. At least for me, i would want to spend as much time as i can with my family, so this the “Why” i invest in the initial setup. Time and Resources during the setup.

There are two things that takes up majority of time (excluding seeing them), water change and reset of tanks. There is no escaping that water change is necessary and resetting of tanks is necessary but both takes up a lot of time if you have a lot of tanks.

Hence, this is the why of things that i do what i do and still progress on the hobby, which in retrospect helps me a lot more in visualizing what i want to do with the next project and such.

I’m going to share with you how i do it in the following paragraph.

Setting up the infrastructure

During the course of my journey and as i learn how to better optimize the infrastructure such as the tank setup and location, it becomes important to me. For example there are 2 main important things which i really look for :

water source
drainage
Sink

Though very basic for shrimp keeping, i needed these two important things due to ease of water change. Water change is a large part for shrimp breeding. This small yet essential change to the infrastructure helps reduce time taken to drain water and fill it up.

There are a few ways to do so, either we drill a hole in the tank and make it an outlet for draining or we can use gravity with another hose to drain the water.

since filling the water up is fairly quick, i have opt for using gravity to drain the water in the tank.

Lastly is a small sink which allows me to wash and disinfect tools, unpacking of shrimps and so on. A sink provides a lot of flexibility when dealing with the aquatic hobby. With the opportunity to re-do everything again, what i did was to have a sink, a drainage and water outlet all in one place. This helps contain and reduce movements in and out of the facility.

Drainage and Inflow

Draining using gravity requires some calibration to the hose use to fill the tank up. It uses the same inlet into the tank but with an additional valve to drain the water out.

This method if done correctly will help save a lot of time in draining the water. However, this doesn’t remove the need to siphon or clean your soil once in 3-6 months.

From the picture below the first 4 tap is for the inflow of water into the 4 tanks after draining and the last tap (5th) is the drainage valve. What this does is if the “main water in tap” is shut off and the “water out tap” is turn on, than the draining process will begin. If multiple tiers are connected, it is important to note the draining hoses connected at the next tier below for draining need to be lower than the draining height. A safe method is the connecting valve on the next tier be at the level of the bottom of the tank.

Alternatively, individual tiers can have it’s own drainage outlet but all connected to the main drainage outlet.

Thin layer of soil but more frequent reset

The reason why i use thin layer of soil is because it is easier to manage from a 3-6 months siphoning (cleaning of soil) perspective and it is also faster to reset the tanks when needed.

These two elements help reduce time spent in resetting and siphoning. With thinner layer of soil yes we do need to increase frequency of tank reset but resetting tanks frequently also helps boost the shrimp to breed.

During reset, what i do is to vacuum out the soil and water together and i can now reset tanks very quickly. The entire end to end process takes 15 mins per tank but does not exponentially increase with more tanks because now i can reset 4 tanks in an hour. In the past when i have UGF setup and box UGF i couldn’t reset as fast.

Now it is a breeze.

Increasing grazing material

Daily feed is still a routine for me and it is something i do so the inspection of the shrimps are done that way, looking at how the shrimps are doing. While i feed once or twice daily, i have opt for using lubao as a grazing material. This helps and allow me to go on vacation or days without feeding if needed. Increasing the grazing material helps with extending the time between feeds.

Enjoying Shrimp Breeding

Personally i would like to achieve minimizing time spent in the various necessary task essential to shrimp breeding, and with the above steps taken i was able to truly enjoy the shrimp hobby as it doesn’t steal away a lot of time yet able to achieve good results in breeding. Over time i was able to keep improving through the years and consistently do what i believe is great work.

Life is short to live in regrets because tomorrow is no guarantee. We can’t become fit if we go to the gym once a year, it is through small steps, small changes, small adjustment and doing it consistently that will eventually adds up to the goal.

i’ll close with this quote which i like from Roy Bennett “Maturity is when you stop complaining and making excuses in your life; you realize that everything that happens in life is a result of a previous choice you’ve made and start making new choices to change your life.

Hope this post is beneficial for those who are rethinking their setup and or going towards a different phase of shrimp breeding.

August 18, 2021/3 Comments/by benetay

Other, Tips

How you do anything is how you do everything

Looking for the right information

It is difficult to ignore the fact that the shrimp breeding journey can be quite daunting. Why so? Reason being is because there are many different methodology and processes to keep and breed shrimps. My opinion is that there isn’t one best way, there is only a better way.

Adding to the complexity of shrimps breeding are the external environment where knowledge are often seek, information gathered via the internet. With so many information, which one suit me the best? I do use one personal gauge to help me filter out the noises.

Look at the quality of shrimps by the person.

Yes a very simple with flaws definitely but effective way, because i believe how you do anything is how you do everything. The quality of shrimp continues on year after year, because ‘We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” ~ Aristotle

That will help cut through the clutter of information and onto where better information is found.

Why are some breeders more successful?

Have we wondered why some breeders are more successful than others?

I will share my perspective on this and we can relate that some breeders shrimp are often a league above the rest, why? Is there a special methodology or anything? No. There isn’t. There is no dark secret on getting better shrimps.

Again i’m going to repeat the above sentence from the paragraph, “How you do anything, is how you do everything”.

An example:

Breeder A and Breeder B get similar shrimps from the same batch. Breeder A breeds them and didn’t really select, complains about quality of shrimp and poorness of genetics and after 2 years have not much results to show. Blames the seller for poor genetic shrimp, unable to achieve good results and stopped trying.

Breeder B on the other hand, started selecting and after 2 years, though couldn’t improve the line but had at least maintain the quality of the line, still don’t have much results to show. Feedback to the seller that he will buy another batch to try again. Seller was very touch by the determination of the breeder decided to net something better for the breeder to breed. He keeps on trying and journey was positive.

The outlook of two different breeders given the same circumstances makes a huge difference in the outcome. Breeder B didn’t quit and that is where the success is.

I have seen this time and time again, and it is also very interesting because over the years, breeder A don’t last quite long as breeder B in the hobby. The negativity and poor information shared by breeder A could have already spread like Covid.

– Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity – Dr. Rick Ridley

You can or you can’t, you are right

Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right – Henry Ford.

I have seen breeders who had set a goal for themselves and focusing solely on something that they would want to achieve and being successful. There are many good examples of breeders who don’t have very good stock shrimp to start with, but end up with excellent looking ones. Selective breeding is the end all be all. while the environment to get there has many ways, this is where the complexity/confusion comes about because if breeder A from the above example was sharing his information, while breeder B share his, there is a clash of notion.

Hence, it is very important and critical when gathering information, do ask questions and certainly look at the quality of the shrimp.

Hope you have enjoyed this post.

August 11, 2021/by benetay

Other

I failed but i didn’t quit

Special edition

The Journey

My journey in this shrimp hobby hasn’t always been smooth sailing, and that is the reason i failed time and time again. Many times in the course of it, i have invested time, resources, thoughts, learning but still i have failed. If you ever had learn early on in your shrimp hobby that if there is something that you could have done better, that learning would be priceless. If someone would be able to share with you or guide you along the way, you wouldn’t have so many heartaches.

I think more often than not, failing is not what is stopping us. It is not trying again and again. The fear of failing and looking bad is often frown upon. It is untrue that everyone need to be successful from day one. I think if you haven’t fail, you haven’t learn. There are people who learn from other failure so they don’t fall into it and i think that is another way of learning. As i’m passionate about learning a better way hence i’m not afraid to fail as i know each time if i fail and stand up, i inch myself towards the goal.

To achieve these goal we need to apply discipline and consistency, we have to work at it. The basic fundamental about water parameters, selective breeding, food, shrimp source are all part of the process. Don’t confuse doing more as progression in shrimp keeping. Sometimes doing less is more.

To all shrimp breeders out there, keep pushing forward towards your own goal. While everyone spending capacity is different, it is more important to find an area that is within your means. It is not what you have, but what you do with what you have. When you learn something that works, share it freely a thought an idea and help another breeder in need. This will in my opinion encourage a better community moving forward. The age of the forum is diminishing or has already long gone, there are rarely any discussion and open ideas to learn and contemplate. While we embrace technology and the move from one platform to the next, i always believe the faintest ink will outlast the strongest memory. Hence, it got me to keep writing after so many years and also to make a difference.

Early on in the shrimp journye i have failed with tank crashes, water parameter swing and all kinds of failure but it didn’t stop me. I was misguided and it was my fallacy that i wasn’t smart enough to know it wasn’t right (even with fish-keeping experience, thinking shrimp is different so i believed what was said). I started asking questions and to challenge the norm but it was really difficult to get credible information. If you followed my blog in the beginning, i have learn and change the methodology and fail and learn again. While there isn’t a best way of shrimp keeping, there is always a better way.

I have tried lubao and failed many times but over these years i kept trying and now i can share it with others the technique less the heart pain that i have gone through. Cycling process, food, water change, reminerizer and all i have tested and tried, fail and learn and gain more knowledge. I didn’t quit. Along the way, i met with scammers and jealous people that push me down, still i didn’t quit. Because each time i get up, i got stronger.

So can you.

Never be discourage, never hold back, give everything you got in this journey.

-Only the Best-

May 13, 2021/by benetay

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Singapore can be an excellent post covid vacation spot

Hello this may be unrelated but those who are following my articles have sent me request to actually see how Singapore is like since traveling isn’t possible at this point of time. Hence, i think this a fabulous idea to share what a tiny nation call Singapore looks like. Understand that some of you are keen in visiting Singapore to see the shrimp scene locally and at the same time take a break and spend your winter months here in hot and sunny Singapore!

When you arrive in Singapore, you will be greeted by our very own Singapore Airport, due to the covid situation, the entire airport is very quiet.

Historically Singapore had it’s independence Since 1965 so we have progress from a quiet small fishing island into a metropolitan country over the course of 50+ years. It is remarkable how such development was implemented thanks to the forefather who have build Singapore to what they are today.

Alright! fast forward to this post, i’ll like to share instead of Shrimp pictures i’ll be sharing some pictures about Singapore. Enjoy!