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.