There are a lot of factors influencing the shrimp ability to breed from water parameter to food to shrimp genetics. However, today i would like to touch on a fairly common topic on Shrimp Food. The first question i get asked frequently is how often should i feed my shrimps? If you have a lot of shrimps like 20 or more, you might want to consider a daily staple feed fed twice daily and also a grazing material. Grazing material such as Lubao, Indian Almond leaves, Alder cone, cholla are some good examples.

The reason to feed them twice is so all your shrimps are fed and the female will ‘Think” that the tank have sufficient food to support their next generation. The whole idea is to feed lesser quantity but high frequency. So twice is good and if you can do 3 times it works as well.

If you feed in the morning and the shrimps are unable to finish it within 4 hours, then you’re not required to feed the second time in the evening Thats my general rule of thumb, Remove the food by then or if you have ramshorn snail, they will help with scavenging and foraging on the shrimp food. If the shrimps are not feeding, it could be there are still plenty of biofilm in the tank but do watch out if the shrimps are looking lethargic and not feeding.

A grazing material aids in building up biofilm for shrimps to consume between meals. Think of it like a snack and a good grazing material will be the food source between feeds.

There is a wide range of food in the market and i think we are spoiled for choice and which one is good for my shrimps? Personally i like using a good staple food and that is Hwa V1.

Staple Food

• Basically shrimps are not that fussy eater, most of the staple food sold in aquarium shops today are basically ok to feed your shrimp. I personally prefer keeping things simple and to feed only 1 type of staple food but a variety of grazing material is very crucial.
• I’m using Hwa Version 1 Shrimp food pad, this food is formulated with carefully selected ingredients to provide shrimp with all their requirements.
• if you are using some shrimp food which you think they’re good for your shrimp, good! There is really no need to change.
• Occasionally i feed Bacter AE and blanched spinach, they’re fairly good especially blanched spinach. if i’m feeling rich, i’ll order a pack of organic spinach and take out one serving for the shrimp while i consume the rest as a salad. For Bacter AE, i only dose them very minutely once a month to provide additional boost for creating biofilm.

Grazing material

Now here we get serious, grazing material in my opinion is equally important to daily feed. The amount of surface area for creating biofilm is important as it mimics the natural environment where Shrimps feed on biofilm.

Lubao, Indian Almond leaves and moss are three very popular and recommended grazing material. Alder cone and Cholla are not native to at least this part of the world, so i defer that information to those who have them. For Indian Almond leaves and Lubao we have very easy access to them hence we use them readily. I really like using Lubao because it is technically a microoganism food that produces food for cultivating microorganism for the shrimp to feed on and also biofilm. Indian almond leaves without going too deep into this topic has antibacteria properties, produces biofilm and are well liked by most shrimp. Grazing material is important because shrimp feed constantly and if there are not enough biofilm in the tank and daily feed is not consistent, the shrimps will not breed. They will start cannibalizing during molting. Hence, it is highly critical to have grazing material available.

A living grazing material that works very well is moss. Moss harbour a lot of microorganism which allow adults and shrimplets to graze on. Moss also provide cover for berried shrimp and shrimplets however it is also important not to over crowd the tank with moss because if it get too dense, some of the berried female may get stuck in there and die. Hence, always thin out the moss to a small bunch the size of your hand.

Summary

Taken together, it is vitally important for food to be readily present in the tank but this is also a fine balance between food availability and water parameters. As more food and grazing material is introduced into the tank, the water parameters changes so do choose a good staple food and grazing material into your shrimp breeding setup and it will go a long way. You will be rewarded with more berried shrimps and shrimplets in the months to come. In addition, as lubao is my favourite grazing material as it is easier to manage and control.

A breeder shared with me his analogy and i really like it as it matches to my other blog post Michelin Star. In other words, in the hands of a Chef/Painter they are able to create outstanding food/painting but not everyone given the same set of things will be able to deliver the same result. The eye for detail, the dash of salt, and so on is what make a great chef even better.

I have got quite a number of questions on how i use Lubao and i’ll share how i use them however again there is no definite way and i’ll share what i learn from Taiwan.

Before i use the lubao, i’ll soak them for 3-6 days to leech out the coloration and then kick start the biofilm process. While soaking, remember to change the water daily in the container that you are using it to soak. Please do not pour the water that you soak your lubao into the shrimp tank (there is a reason why we soak it outside the tank first). Lubao if kept dry can last a very long time since the high quality content are all dehydrated. The lubao that i pack are measured to a certain proportion and it has to be hardpacked individually to ensure every one are made correctly.

During the soaking process, normally i’ll change water daily in the container to help speed up the process. Once the soaking is done, i’ll drop them into the tank and leave them 1 month for best result and than change out when either it floats up or after 1 month

Lubao are generally used for tanks that have more than 10-15 shrimp as personally anything lesser don’t quite benefit from it since the tank would be able to produce biofilm for them to graze. So from a tank size standpoint, even smaller tanks are able to use lubao just that the number of shrimp in that tank will still need to be of a certain number. In other words, if i have tanks with 5 shrimp, than i’ll not use it until they start throwing out shrimplets, i’ll then start introducing.

i generally use 40L tanks to do selective breeding 2M 6-10F and then transfer the shrimplets to grow up tank which are generally 80-100L. So in both those tanks i’ll use Lubao. As long as the tank is properly cycled, using Lubao will have no negative impact on water quality.

i have seen drastic difference when Lubao is use, females in general are more ready to saddle and berry. Cannibalism is greatly reduced which protects the female from getting eaten after molt. Taken together, i have seen a lot of advantage in using such a small yet important ball which helps breeders with a lot of tank and also those who are very busy with their daily work to be able to enjoy their hobby when they can.

Hope this helps!

The last 6 months was a total train wreaked with my work schedule however i still make it a point to have Google meet with overseas shrimp hobbyist! A shout out to those who we have met face to face on Google meet. Sharing has always been me, and has work thus far.

Diving straight into the topic on Lubao, i have got many questions from hobbyist asking why the name Lubao? What is it all about? Lubao is actually the Chinese word we say (滷包). What does it mean? if you google this, you will find that it is actually a Chinese method of combining different herbs or ingredients wrapped into a net wrap ball and boil over long period of time. The longer you boil the ‘ball’ the goodness will be absorbed by the food you are braising it with. This is how the origin of the word lubao came about. In English i think it does a better description of being a microorganism ball.

Microorganism ball like in all cooking, the secret lies in the preparation, ingredients, control of fire and many elements to cook up a delicious meal. Every lubao is hand packed myself with carefully selected ingredients which took many learning and failure before knowing how to use appropriately hence delivering exception benefits in terms of better water parameters and certainly more berried shrimp.

Lubao need to be soak 3-6 days in a small container separately and water change done on a daily basis before it is being placed into the tank. After it is being placed into the tank, the biofilm starts to form and this is where shrimp start feasting/grazing on them on top of their usual place/food that they graze on. In normal tank condition, if there are a lot of shrimp, apart from constantly feeding them it is important to have a dedicated grazing material such as lubao for them to graze upon. Other grazing material like leaves are also possible and beneficial.

biofilm occurs everywhere in the tank but grows very slowly which shrimp can strip them off very quickly (i’m sure you’ve seen how a school of shrimp strip a leaf down within hours), hence it is important to have a constant source of biofilm which has the ability to draw the shrimp to the grazing material to graze on. Another important factor is the lubao is able to remain in the tank for 1-2 months (depending on shrimp population).

When shrimp is able to know there are sufficient food available for the shrimplets to feed on, the female shrimps will start saddling with other conditions met. If you have a very busy schedule like me, lubao is God Send. It even beats having an automatic feeder which i have but eventually lubao beats the automatic feeder hands down.

Alright! i’ll keep this post short so i can get back to looking at my shrimps! Happy Easter! Enjoy the video too.

A shoutout to those out there who have given me very good feedback on the post and i’ll continue to pen down my thoughts.

Ben enjoys spending time browsing through online restaurant reviews and take down notes on which restaurant he like to visit. He called up a restaurant reserving a seat for himself on Friday for one. He told himself for this Christmas day, he will treat himself for once. As the day approaches, Ben was very excited as he knew that the quality will be top notch. The Christmas decoration of the restaurant and the table setting is immaculate. As he enters the restaurant he was greeted with finest and then the waiter came over and shared the menu.

Ben loves his steak so he browse through the selections and different cuts, all were very tempting. He narrowed down to two choices either a Wagyu beef from Japan or the same cut but from another country. However, the price difference is quite substantial at the higher grade. Eventually he went ahead with the Japan Wagyu selection. When he was done with dinner, he told the waiter to book him another seat next week as he wanted to try out another steak but from another country. A few good steak wrapped up his Christmas celebration!

so what am i driving at?

There are plenty of restaurant in the world like there are plenty of shrimp breeder globally. There are some breeders who does very well for a certain type of shrimp as they created the shrimp whereas for some they take on others to create their own line. If we take an example of the Japan Wagyu, the prices could be 3-4x higher compared to other country beef but does the price difference justify the quality? if you ask me personally, it does. Anybody who have tried it will understand. However, everyone have their own budget and it is perfectly fine to work within it. What is more important is you enjoy the hobby and when you see that prize shrimp collection that feel good feeling is like a foodie having a ‘mouth-gasm’. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mouthgasm

There is really no short cut to success, even given a colony of high grade shrimps does not guarantee success. Ignorance and short cut only result in the demise of the shrimp hobby. The root cause in my opinion is the sharing of knowledge and information where truth become twisted. If every breeder and hobbyist are on the up and up with each other, i believe this great hobby will be even greater. I have personally experience hobbyist dumping poor grade shrimp to enthusiastic hobbyist who have just entered the hobby and eventually calling it quits when they found out the truth. This also stems from unethical shops where shrimps advertise were not actually from the source they claim they are from. Hence, the source (a detailed explanation in another post) of where the shrimp comes from far outweigh the benefit of low prices. The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.

Boa shrimp

As i sink in deeper to further understand this the more i learn about where misconception can arise. Boa in itself is a selective bred shrimp and while anybody can ‘copy’ or create Boa from Stardust it is however important to note the selection process, starting shrimp used, culling process, tank parameters, food, etc far differs from breeder to breeder. The original shrimp to create Boa is already different and any slight deviation would result in strikingly different outcome. Hence, it is safe to say that i wouldn’t be receiving a mouth watering Japan Wagyu A5 steak if i order another country Wagyu A5, they may look the same (at least to me) but the grading, keeping, etc are all different. Even at grade A5, there are a wide band to the quality of wagyu.

While everyone has the right to deem how their grading is based on their shrimp, relying on a reputable grading system based out of a renowned lineage is my preference. Taking guidance from a reputable breeder is far better than spreading rumors of how grading should be done just because you want to sell your shrimp. For example, if i’m going to keep Boa from a reputable breeder than certainly I’ll use their grading as a benchmark to determine the different grade. Grading is tricky as it take time and experience to learn how to grade and a point system will help with it. For example a Grade 2 or Grade 3 shrimp would mean a certain criteria to be met and if it falls within the band it will be graded as is.

However, within a grade, there is a continuum which allow the breeder to grade two different shrimp that may look slightly different but having the same grade. This can either be done through descriptive or point system or both. If descriptive, it can mean that a check box of criteria once met will be assigned to the grade.

S Grade for Golden Boa. Thin facial lines, very few to no body spots, slightly transparent at certain parts. Spider legs.

SS Female Boa. Colors on this may have bluish hue to it however in this grade there is a possibility that the colors are not fully display yet. These are young female and will grow up stunning (note the body pattern) it is important that the body have some spots in this grade. Having a lot of spots on the body are usually more desirable compared to fewer spots. Facial spots and pattern are big instead of thin lines and rather numerous. Spider legs coloration. This will generalize the grading for SS especially having heavier weightage on body spots.

SS Male Boa on the other hand due to the smaller body area results in fewer of the criteria being met at a given grade. Within the same grading methodology a SS male will not look as nice as a SS female. Reason being is the lower part of the male body doesn’t have sufficient area to have a lot of spots. A nice male is very difficult to come by and people are willing to shell out top dollars to get their hands on them.

A SSS Female Boa. The blue coloration resides ontop of the base color fishbone pattern with the blue tracing around the patterns on the body and face. Body spots are more obvious with abundant sprays of spot throughout the belly area. The facial pattern on this is modest with distinctive differentiation between the base color and face pattern. Spider legs with bluish tinge, swimmerets are colored as well.

A SSS (Competition grade) Female Boa. Color on this is uncontested where the colors illuminate the pattern on the shrimp. The golden hue mix with the metallic blue accentuate the overall shrimp coloration. The numerous body spots sprays across the mid section of the shrimp with high intense coverage. The facial pattern large but not overpowering giving it a sense of contrast between the black base color and face pattern. Here the facial pattern has to balance between big patterns but not covering the entire face. The legs are fully colored in the spider leg fashion. The back black line helps trace the shrimp framing itself into a beauty of it’s own.

Here is a picture where the Boa are grazing on the Lubao (Microorganism ball). It is vital to have a grazing material to help support the breeding program (Please read microorganism ball post here).

Color changes occur throughout the life of a Boa, when they’re happy through good water parameters without excessive feeding and grazing material than they will keep breeding and continue to look nicer with each molt. Here is one example of a female Boa where the first picture on the top is when i got it a month in and the bottom picture is in the 3rd month. The colors as you can clearly see intensifies to a darker shade of blue. Yes you are right both of the time when i took the picture she is berried.

People often ask me what i do to be successful in shrimp breeding? Keep it simple. No magic powder, nothing. I’m a plain old school aquarist where i do my regular water change, keeping things simple in the tank and don’t overfeed. There isn’t really a magic formula, the less i do, the better they breed and all i really do on a daily basis is to feed once or twice a day with Hwa version 1 food pad and have the microorganism ball to aid in grazing. That’s all. simple yet very effective. I find there are too many ‘bells & whistles’ in the market today that doesn’t contribute to the success of shrimp breeding. What it does is help is certainly confusing hobbyist and pulls them further away from success.

The grading are based off the grades printed on the certificates.

Right at the onset of this post i mentioned about enjoying the hobby and to me it is all about sharing with friends about my journey of keeping and breeding shrimp. Sharing the information, knowledge and the shrimps with everyone. More importantly i always believe to be inclusive in the hobby and to share the joy with immediate family.

Hope this post have shed some light on the Boa grading topic and stay safe wherever you are and wishing all breeders a happy 2021!

Sorry did i write the wrong title for this post? Isn’t it supposed to be Shrimp related, why is this talking about the Michelin Star?

This analogy was shared to me after a discussion with a breeder in Singapore such as what are mass market shrimp food made up of, what goes into that mix and such, how are shrimp bred and sold, i decided to pen down our thoughts on this.

This short post is for light reading.

A person walks into a Michelin star restaurant after trying to book in advance for a year, he was ushered into the restaurant with finest. The dinner started and he was very please he tasted excellent Wagyu (Japanese beef) and then decided to ask  the Chef.

“What make this steak so tasty?”, the Chef just smile and commented about the special breed of cow that underwent a specific feeding/caring routine but more importantly they are also a selected line of livestock that have been deem the highest sought after grade.

The person then follow up with a few other question “where did this Wagyu come from, how did you manage to cook this, what are your secret?”

The Chef replied politely that this came from a prefecture in Japan and we use the finest of ingredients to serve you well. The chef continue entertaining the guest as dinner was cooked and serve in front of them. Everyone commented that it was one of the best dinner they ever had.

Why did i relate this story?

Globally we have many breeders just like we have many restaurant but each of these breeders have their own trade secrets that they will only share to a certain extend – just like the Chef. Even if the chef shares everything with you and you open up a restaurant doesn’t mean you will be awarded the Michelin star but you do probably get to learn over many years how to breed good shrimp. 

It is however important that as a breeder the most critical part of the processes adds up starting with keeping the water parameters suitable. having good stock shrimp and then the selection process – do you have sufficient tanks to do so; are you keeping a log about it; are you following a strict culling process; every little bit counts. 

Consistency. 

Behind every successful breeder story appears one commonality and that is consistency. If you want to be successful in your breeding journey, and equipped with the knowledge of shrimp breeding you need to have consistency in your process and source. The journey to breeding good shrimps, such as culling (which i will touch on in another long post) is difficult for many hobbyist but that doesn’t mean the shrimp has to go, it all means it will be kept in another tank. The stricter you cull the better. If you apply consistency across your husbandry, breeding methods and source, you will be on the road to success.

While we chase for the stars, look among hobbyist who have high grade shrimp and then if willing – share the information with you. This shouldn’t be taken for granted, and in all my information sharing – there are already processes that will certainly help you to be a better breeder and when you earn your stars, remember to invite me for dinner some day.