Tips for Shrimp Keeping

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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.


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Tips on Selective breeding: What is required?

Tips on Selective breeding

Cross Back


If you like to try selective breeding using the cross back method this post is for you. There has been a lot on-going on my side but things will start settling down and i’ll be able to resume providing new blog post.

To recap what cross back is and does.

Cross back happens when the F1 female is use to cross back with the F0 Male. This way when the first shrimplet that comes out would be the Crossback 1 or CB1. Usually i will use the Female as the F1 cross with the F0 Male instead of the other way around. The reason for this so we have 1 fix variable to selectively breed.

As you continue to use CB1 female to cross back with F0 male again will result in CB2.

What it does with cross back in such a way is to increase the genetic similarity towards the male that was use to breed in this case F0.

This was the F0 male

After 2 back crosses this is the female that i have chosen to use for continuing the line. There is still a long way to go to improve the shell, the colors and such. The size is good at 2.5cm very big.




When we are in this stage, the F0 Male x BC1 Female will result in a higher % of trait similarity genetically to the F0 male.

F1 50 50
BC1 75 25
BC2 87.5 12.5
BC3 93.75 6.25
BC4 96.875 3.125


To prevent deform shrimps and also to keep a good line of shrimp require diligence in ensuring the shrimp do not over in breed. When you do see any of the above effects, the shrimp had already reached a very late stage of inbreeding. You can use that as a gauge if not you can consider injecting new blood/genetics whenever you can and the method of doing so is call outcrossing.

Outcrossing: The idea for outcrossing on the other hand is to inject new genome to the current shrimp which has been line bred for some time. The reason this need to be done is because when line breeding get too excessive, deform start showing, shrimps stop breeding, growth stagnant, etc hence it is important for the health of the line to occasionally introduce new blood. There is no hard and fast rule when to introduce the new genetic into the pool because different people get the shrimp at different generation. If the shrimp i have gotten is already line bred for 5-6 generations it will reach the deform point faster if the shrimp has been already outcross before. A reputable breeder will be able to provide high quality new generation of shrimps when they have a large number of tanks to prevent too frequent inbreeding.

Not all selective breeding projects are successful sometimes after a couple of years (Yes it takes this long), so having a few project running at the same time is recommended. In other words, you’ll need to have a few more tanks to select and try to see if it works.

I hope this post provided you some insights into breeding high quality shrimp.


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Step by Step: Lubao and Kallax ball


Why use it?


There must be sufficient grazing material for the shrimp to consume when you are away. Shrimps graze 24/7 and if you have a small tank without much surface area for biofilm to grow fast enough, it is risky. In addition if you have a lot of shrimp they can strip the biofilm in your tank in a day or 2. When shrimps start to go without sufficient biofilm it triggers cannibalisms, which means they will start preying on each other. This is detrimental if you are doing a selection process as your stock shrimp will be at risk. Hence, having a good source of grazing material not only is critical for a small tank, it enhances the probability of breeding as well.





How to use it?


Directions before using:

  • Soak the ball 3-6 days in RO Water and change the water daily
  • Pour the water used for soaking away, do not pour the soaking water back into the tank
  • place it in the tank, preferably in a feeding dish
  • use 1 ball per tank
    • General rule:
      • 30L and above can use Lubao
      • 30L and below can use Kallax ball
      • 30L and below with a lot of shrimps i.e more than 20, can use lubao too (Soak 5-6 days)
    • If you have a big tank with less than 20 shrimps, there is really no need to use, but if you would like to use, the Kallax ball is more appropriate
    • if you have a heavily planted tank, there is actually no requirement of using the ball
    • if you are traveling on vacation, lubao or kallax ball is used to help provide additional grazing material on top of other grazing material such as leaves, moss etc. The ball do not replace food, when you come back from vacation/work, you’ll need to resume feeding regime.

Directions during using:

  • If you have a lot of shrimps, you will not see massive biofilm growth as shrimp has eaten them, means it’s good.
  • if you have lesser shrimp, you will see a lot of biofilm. If there is too much biofilm growth, you should consider using the Kallax ball than the lubao.

Directions during exchanging:

  • During replacement, use a net to take the ball out and quickly bag, seal and throw away the ball. When the ball is outside of the water, it will smell so quickly seal it and throw.
  • put in a new ball that has been soaked for 3-6 days.

Signs on removing:

  • When you experience cloudy water, remove the ball
  • Let the tank undergo a mini cycle as there isn’t sufficient beneficial bacteria
  • During the fermenting process to create biofilm, ammonia is release, hence a good cycled tank with beneficial bacteria will be able to convert the ammonia into nitrite and nitrate. Hence, if cloudy water is experience, remove the ball. A bacteria bloom is happening as there is now more food for the beneficial bacteria to feed and multiply. once clear, soak another new ball and put it in. this time it will be ok or use the kallax ball if you’re using the lubao initially.


Support


In doubt, always ask. I can be contacted via facebook messenger benetay or email which can be found in the contact section.

I believe in this “Each one, Teach one” so don’t be shy and contact me on how to use it.




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The All New: Kallax Ball

Read more
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Tips on improving shrimp development


Is grading only for competition?


Shrimp grading should not only be used during competition or sales. I think it is a good tool for hobbyist used wisely and appropriately can help improve shrimp quality.

In general the shrimp grading would consist of a few broad spectrum and they are :

  • Size
  • Color
  • Pattern
  • uniformity

In these grading list we will need to look into a few areas like for example color, the overall color of the shrimp, how does it look. What about the legs are they colored as well.

If we based everything upon 100% you can actually develop your own grading ranking chart to improve your shrimp quality.




Setting up the grading


Size and colour is critical because if the shrimp is able to maintain the colors when they are of big size 2cm,2.5cm the scoring increases. The reason behind this is because as the shrimp grow large, their colors fade so if the shrimp is able to attain to the max size and maintain the color it will be scored highly.

As you can compare the size on the left and right, the right Boa have a much large size, max size with full colouration. This would have scored very highly.

The color is also uniform with little to no transparent in the body nor legs. Also the colors of gold/blue and black are all colored well.

Next as we come to pattern, it is critical to score highly here too, while color comes first followed by pattern, it does not mean it is not important. Pattern as you can see from the size of the shrimp vs pattern.

The patterns are well shown on the body with respect to body size.

Now with that in mind, we understand this is how the grading chart works. So if i take this as a benchmark, i’ll work my shrimps towards this grade. I benchmark the boa grading with Skyfish as i have his shrimp also authenticity to understand and learn what entails Grade 1, 2, 3 and Championship grade.

Selective breeding helps to improve the shrimp grading eventually if done properly. However, that is the external features of the shrimp which is done through selection. There is another critical point the internal factor of the shrimp health being attributed by how well the food, water parameters, grazing material and overall tank condition.

These 2 factor, internal and external need to be done hand in hand for better results. One focuses on the exterior beauty of the shrimp, the other focuses on the interior health of the shrimp.



Internal vs external beauty


While we can grade external features of the shrimp such as colors etc we cannot grade the health of the shrimp and i think both internal and external features are important.

Usually if the internal health of the shrimp is fundamentally sound, the process of selective breeding will breed very successful shrimps.

What does that mean? For example, a healthy shrimp may not be within the grading chart, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good shrimp. The environment it was bred in is ideal, there is good food, grazing material and regular water change. In short, the husbandry is taken care well. The health of the shrimp is in good shape regardless of the grading of the shrimp. This is what i call the internal health of the shrimp.

Now with good husbandry associating with good selection we can start proceeding with selection process which is now the external features of the shrimp.

Only when 2 of these internal and external concepts forge together will deliver the outstanding results you are looking for. One cannot work independently and this has been proven and seen from time and time again.

We have breeders who get the same shrimp from the same source and it was hand selected at the place 20 pieces. It was then brought back home and pass to 2 breeders, each of the breeder get 10 shrimp randomly, but one of the breeders faces issue with the coloration of the shrimp for most of the shrimp he keeps whereas the other does not have any issues with it. Persist on and remained like that.

Once is probably a coincidence but it happened more than once and i’m sure you have experience this too. Even the same shrimp kept at different breeders place will result in different colouration. So this exemplifies that both internal and external factors for shrimp breeding is critical.


Improve Internal health


Improving internal health can be understood as the external environment such as water parameters, inhabitants, hiding area, food, grazing material. All these sums up to achieve the Gold standard of the external environment.

Water parameters :

  • GH 3-4
  • KH 0
  • pH 5.8
  • TDS 85-90
  • Water change weekly weakly (5-10%)
  • Filtration : Totto hangon

Hiding areas:

  • Mosses/plants

Food:

  • Hwa Version 1 daily pad

Grazing material:

  • Moss
  • Lubao

A simple list that i use and used by many renowned breeders in Taiwan.


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The importance of focus

The direction



Having dreams and Goals


When i first started i always thought that having one type of shrimp per tank and i can keep multiple types if i have multiple tanks. That was my initial plan, setup more tanks so i can house more of them. However, as i grow and learn deeper into the shrimp breeding process i met with renowned Taiwan breeders who shared with me over many years the How’s and Why’s.

Having a dream is important and having goals is even more important to get to your dreams. Whatever your dream might be for shrimps it is achievable as long as you set your heart and mind to it. Have goals so that you will eventually reach and get what you wanted.

If you dream is to have the best PRL you have in the country, start learning what it takes to get there.





Focus


When you have your goals, it is important to focus on what you have. Everyone is different and so is space, time, money, etc so you’ll need to ensure that the goals you set is achievable by yourself. I have this discussion few years ago with a group of breeders and it is clear that while breeders in Singapore are generally constraint by space, we had to re-think to get better at what we do.

So focus was the topic of discussion for many weeks and months and eventually we came to realize to be great at what we do, we need to understand what to do with what we have. This particular local breeder is very successful with Gold Standard breeding methodology and he is one true example of breeding successful and awesome looking shrimp.

For him, he focuses on 1 type of shrimp which is the PRL and really do very well on it. Focusing all his time, effort, resources into it rather than to spread it all out. Like mentioned on the onset, everyone is different so if you want to be good at breeding, you will have to make a plan and goal that suits you. Remember that focusing doesn’t mean you only can keep 1 type of shrimp, you can keep a few type but choose which to focus based on your resources.




When the going get tough


All great breeders started somewhere and would have fallen down many times before they got to where they are today. It takes decades to fully appreciate the journey. None of the renowned breeders had it easy and this is a great lesson for those who are starting and also those who are already in this for a long time. There will be times when you feel down because your shrimp just die, it is part of the breeding process and does not define if you are a success or failure. It is simply part of the process. Learning from it is important because we try not to make the same mistake.

If you are not failing, you are not even trying. To get something you never had, you got to do something you never did. This is important because when we think that we are too good, we don’t learn or further tweak to be better. This is a very dangerous place to be at so it’s better to understand why some people are more successful. Learn from them both their success and failures.

Learn as much as you can, try and keep trying even very season breeders continue to learn. It’s a life long journey. At the end of the day, the focus is on the shrimp, if you can get to your goal of a beautiful shrimp you are halfway there. The other half is sharing. Not much use holding onto everything in my opinion. When you reach your goal, remember to pull someone up, each one, teach one.




Time is limited


Everybody have the same amount of time a day, so it is limited and by focusing your time on what matters is important. Being better tomorrow should be your personal goal as well, this means that you’re using your time wisely and to improve your breeding process, your setup and program altogether. In my previous post about time, it is important to know that shrimps life span is very short. There is only so many times a shrimp can breed and by focusing on that it becomes clear that there is really no time to waste.

Time can be invested or wasted, so do not waste time on the naysayers along the way because they will not be supporting you in getting where you want to go. Let them go. They will tell you a thousand reason why you cannot do it but they never tell you how you can do it (Only holds you back). That is why it’s better to learn from breeders who are successful and have results to show. Hence, i take time to share what works, as i was fortunate to learn from the best and i wanted to share it with the rest.

Hope you had a good read!

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Being successful: Decision making and Risk Taking

Are you confuse at times?



Shrimps are Shrimps


Yes, Shrimps are Shrimps and i believe everyone agrees with that. Why did i bring this up? One of the important elements during the setting up phase of shrimp keeping is the tank setup, introduction of shrimp, feeding and water change. As we go deeper into the biology of shrimp, we tend to think what is best for keeping our shrimps in the most ideal condition.

So what really am i driving at? Shrimps are by nature scavenges and they have a fairly straight digestive system unlike human. In general the food takes a very short time from consumption to passing out and there are 2 important factors here.

Firstly, shrimps would need to have sufficient nutrients such as staple food, vitamin and trace minerals for healthy growth. In addition, because shrimps feed and digest quickly it is necessary for shrimps to have a comprehensive food to provide the majority of the nutrients and also feed frequently. It is better to feed lesser but higher frequency vs feeding more but lesser frequency. However, i think it is difficult for many to feed 4 times a day including myself. If we can feed them once or twice a day, i think it is considered a luxury. The science behind this is so that excess food does not foul the water and hence i use snails to clean up the rest of the food.

Secondly, between feeds, shrimp need to graze continuously and it is important here to have a few natural biofilm producers such as mosses and lubao. Mosses are great for cover and biofilm for shrimplets to survive as they need those food in the first couple of weeks before they can consume larger food item. I have received feedback from Netherlands breeders that the shrimplets are always on the lubao that they got from me. This is great for the growth and development of the shrimplet as they get their first food which helps increase survival of shrimplets. I have written it here in detail :

https://www.shrimpsanctuary.com/tips-on-increasing-shrimplet-survival/

Lastly, it is important to note that there are a variety of staple food and i have been using Hwa v1 pads for a long time and it is really have a strong pull/draw factor (written here: https://www.shrimpsanctuary.com/hwa-food-lubao/) with comprehensive ingredients. In addition, i also recommend having a couple of biofilm producers such as plants, mosses and lubao. While lubao is a natural producer of biofilm, it need some learning to use it well. It took me two years at least of trial and error to learn how to control using it.






Maintaining water quality


Other than feeding the shrimps and reminerize after water change, i don’t add other elements into the tank. The reason is because the lesser you add into your tank, the more stable the water parameters will be. Not all shrimps are kept the same and the higher the grade the shrimp, the purer it is and a slight change in water parameters they get uncomfortable and that had taught me to be discipline in breeding high grade shrimps. Keeping the water as consistent as possible with little fluctuation.

Good water filtration is still at the fundamental of shrimp breeding and while there are a range of filtration available, choose one that you be able to stick to. i have tried a range of filtration, box, perm ugf, etc and i stuck to the Totto filtration due to space constraint. Sponge filter will work too i think a large sponge across the tank will also be a good method.






Deciding your method and Taking Risk


I often remind myself, If i want to achieve something i never had, i need to do something i never did.

Taking risk is not just about breeding shrimps but it’s about knowing what you know and what you don’t know. There will be people who will encourage you and people who pull you down. Embrace both.

As Sarah Ban Breathnach mentioned “Consider the track record of your naysayers. How many dreams have they successfully brought into this world?“

Keep trying and never give up. Fall down 9 times, get up 10. Taking risk is also about accepting new views and new opinions. It  may be frightening at times but is also rewarding, the changes you take, the people you meet, the faith that you have, that is what going to define you. People who keep trying after the first attempt generally start to see results. Brushing teeth for one day doesn’t do anything, going to the gym or running once a month doesn’t do much. It is doing it consistently day in day out and keeping at it that makes a difference. T

Time can be invested or wasted, and all the failures are time invested to be even better. With all the setbacks you have experience, do not be discourage or disappointed, it is simply a setup for better things to come.

So never be discourage, never hold back, give everything you got and while you fall down along the way, remember to always stand up and keep trying and moving forward. End of the day if you are better than yesterday, you have made progress.

Hope you guys have a good weekend!


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How to be Successful in shrimp breeding

You are successful



A different perspective


I often get this including myself. Am i a failure if i have dead shrimp? Frankly you are successful and the long and short of it is that if you don’t fail, you are not even trying. Only through failure we learn what was the fundamental knowledge behind why we fail. We dust it off stand up and keep moving forward. I have some tell me that they feel disappointed when their beloved shrimp die and all the time and money that goes into it is gone.

For me it is clear that if i want to get something i never had, i need to do something i never did. For example, if i want to do selective breeding, i need to try, i need spend time, effort and money to have a setup and than go for it. I rather fail trying than not try at all because at least i had some learnings. Shrimp breeding especially high grade shrimps are not straight forward but the learning from it will be beneficial.

There cannot be success without trying. If you don’t start, you will never have a chance of being successful. Not everyone succeed, but those who keep pushing forward, does.

Many don’t even start, some give up after the first fail attempt, the rare few keep persisting on and tweak their process and than stuck to it. Keep trying, keep moving, keep pushing forward.

Knowledge is key to understand and having the will to keep trying is as critical. Many aspire to have the best shrimp but don’t have goals and plans to reach there, all the excuses started to come in, oh i don’t have this, i don’t have that. There are thousands of reasons for not starting, but it only take one to begin.




Now, if not when?


Start now. There is no better time than now, set a goal and then move towards it. Shrimp life cycle is very short, 2 years or lesser so we need to ensure that we provide the best opportunity and probability for the shrimp to breed out their next generation. While we human may have a longer life span compared to a shrimp but the idea is the same.

Don’t count the days, Make the days count. Get your female shrimp ready by ensuring the water parameters are spot on, the male:female ratio is good, have sufficient food, grazing material and hiding space. Get the female shrimp ready before they molt. Make the days count.

Like most things in life, we often delay, wait another day, think too much and eventually life takes control. Days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months and then look back and say i should have done something back then.

There isn’t a day call “Some day”, there is Monday to Sunday and Some Day isn’t in there. So instead of telling some day i will do it, make a plan and make it happen.

So start now, if not when?

if not you, who?





If not you, who?


Keeping $5 shrimp and $1000 shrimp doesn’t define if you are successful or not at least to me. I love my $5 shrimp as much as the high end ones. I have seen some breeders who are truly good and understand the fundamental of shrimp breeding and selection. Even normal $5 shrimp are being selective bred for excellence.

Don’t listen to your inner voice and say oh no, i’ don’t have the time, and it’s not me, i can only dream because i don’t have good stock shrimp. Again you beat yourself to it because whether you can or cannot, you are right. If there is a will, there is a way. Probably it doesn’t happen now, but do you have the faith to keep trying?

Maybe now you may not have good stock shrimp but you can start off the selection process and see if you get successful results from that, once you are more confident over the years you can than move on to higher grade shrimp. So why not take a chance and believe in yourself that you can do it. Learn, unlearn, relearn.

Don’t be afraid to try because you get one chance in life because if not you who?

I trust you have benefited from this post and keep trying!



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Tips on setting up a new shrimp tank

Keeping things simple



A list of things needed


Setting up a shrimp tank is fast and easy provided you keep it simple. I have tried many methods of setting up a shrimp tank from sponge filter, permanent UGF, box UGF, overflow etc. In my opinion, choose one that will suit your availability of time and effort when you need to reset the tank later on.

Things you need:

  • Aquarium Tank
  • Active Soil
  • Filtration
  • RO water
  • Reminerizer

Optional items (added after cycling or during) :

  • Moss
  • some plants
  • quick start bacteria (liquid or powder)
  • Microorganism ball (Lubao)


Setting up


The steps are fairly simple and if you have everything ready, setting up the tank would probably take 15 minutes.

There are different methods and my method is to ensure during reset it also takes a much quicker time. Reason being is that if you have to use 45 mins or 1 hour to reset your tank, multiply that with the number of tanks will determine the total time required. Also resetting tanks require some form of effort and if you have a lot of tanks, it will also take a lot of effort physically.

People ask why do we need to reset a tank? When breeding slows down and the soil has slowed down in it’s buffering than changing it will help kick start the breeding too.

Coming back to the method of setting up:

  1. Pour active soil into the tank until it reaches 1cm
    1. 45 cm x 30 cm x 30 cm tank will use about 1L of soil
  2. Add water into the tank and reminerize to TDS of 85-90 with GH of 3
  3. Setup filter (i use Totto hang on and powerhouse S size Soft water filter media)
  4. Wait 40 days.

This method of cycling is the traditional method and it works as active soil release ammonia which then kick start the nitrogen process.

During this period some will add liquid bacteria (can be any brand) to ‘kick start’ the beneficial bacteria colonization. More importantly is these beneficial bacteria will then convert ammonia to nitrite and then the less harmful Nitrate.

Source:http://theaquariumwiki.com/w/images/1/1f/Cycling_graph.png

Once it reaches 40 days it is then where the Nitrate is the highest and Ammonia and Nitrite becomes 0.

Few methods to Seed the tank:

  • Use existing mature shrimp tank water
  • Use existing filter media
  • Add Lubao

The first 2 directly place beneficial bacteria colony into the new tank but an ammonia source is needed to keep them going. Active soil and lubao emits sources of ammonia to allow beneficial bacteria to feed on and multiply.

The difference over here is lubao whilst a grazing material will also help condition the water.




Using Microorganism ball


Using microorganism ball to seed the tank can have multiple layers of benefit while it creates biofilm for shrimp to consume, the biofilm creation is due to the fermenting of material in the ball which invariably also feed beneficial bacteria thus in return increase beneficial bacteria numbers.

While the creation of biofilm cannot be controlled as there are no shrimps in it to feed on, what i do is to scoop out excess biofilm that i think the shrimp will not be able to feed upon when they’re release into the tank after cycling. Incorporating microorganism ball as part of tank reset or setting up new tank what i’ll do is to soak the ball for a day in RO water to leech out the tannin and then let the process begin.



After 40 days


After 40 days i’ll then measure the water parameters and if the parameters are fine, i’ll do a 20% water change, reminerize and wait for another 2-3 days and re measure the water parameters. Once everything is fine, i’ll add mosses, a claypot of plants and frogbits. By day 47 the tank will be more or less ready.

However, there is this unspoken feeling, gut feeling based on experience that if the tank doesn’t appear to be ready, i’ll continue to keep cycling till day 50-60. Once that is done, i’ll re-measure the parameters before adding the shrimp.

The shrimps will have sufficient food in the tank and i’ll hold off feeding for a few days. If you’re adding new shrimp in hundreds, they’ll strip off biofilm very quickly so you can then start feeding after 3-4 days in the new tank.

Thanks for reading and i hope you have learn something from this post.



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Awesome Shrimp Pictures Using Cellphone and Clip On

Using Cellphone to take Shrimp Pictures



Introduction


There are many ways to take a good picture. I picked up photography when I was young and spent countless hours in the field taking macro photography.

Certainly it will be great if everyone can afford a DSLR a macro lens etc to get the perfect shot. However, what dictates a good photo? In my opinion a good photo is one where you can capture the moments.

In this blog post I will not be sharing how to use a DSLR to take shrimp pictures but simply using your phone and a clip on lens.




Clip on lens


Using this clip on lens is what i need to achieve clear pictures, and i have tested quite a few of them and this inexpensive clip on lens works great for cellphone with 1-2 lens. I haven’t yet test on a 3-5 lens cellphone. The whole idea is to use just 1 of the cellphone lens and then use this clip on. You can view the inexpensive lens $15 here: https://amzn.to/3yvHCVm

There are some other types as well which i think serve the same purpose:

https://amzn.to/3vaWHtp



Trying on


  • I will also make sure that area is the feeding area. Shrimp will know eventually that is the feeding area.
  • I prefer taking pictures horizontally so I tilt my handphone sideways.
  • When focusing tap and adjust the brightness of the photo to reduce exposure and snap away.
  • Phone camera in general uses light optics to capture image so a good strong light for focusing will be good.
  • I like taking my shrimps horizontally due to the depth of field in phones.

Things to take note:

  1. Keep the shrimp and camera lens as parallel as possible as the Depth of Field is horizontal and if you capture the subject in a parallel, your picture will be crisp and sharp
  2. Most aquarium light nowadays are very bright, it is recommended to dial the brightness down using the phone function to capture more details
  3. Just keep practicing and in doubt please let me know and i can certainly help you out


Taken together


The clip on lens will do wonders after trying so many types. Give it a try and keep shooting!


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