What it means to be Competition Grade

It truly is my honor to be part of the judging committee for the North America Shrimp Contest 2023 held in North Carolina. It took me a grueling 18 hours direct flight from Singapore to Newark New York Airport before having a lay over of 3 hours for the next flight around 2 hours to North Carolina. Having travel so far, it is indeed something i was looking forward to meeting the judges, panels and most importantly the breeders that i finally put a face to the name that i was talking online.

It is interesting to note the fact this year contest has lesser tanks but of quality entry. This blog post however is not to discuss about the contest but to discuss on what entails a competition grade shrimp.

For those who are interested to learn more about shrimps prior to joining a contest, these are some tips for you.

In the beginning we needed to get entries rolling in and that is where we entered a couple of entries.

As i was part of the jury i couldn’t judge this category so that means i wouldn’t be able to give high scores to myself! That is a common rule in the committee that we will not be able to judge for those categories we entered.

i wanted to take this opportunity to highlight here even fundamental shrimps such as the black ninja or black/red crystal category, can still be entered into the contest and showcase your selective breeding methodology.

Over here we can look at the very first important aspects to grading:

Color:

These pictures were taken by a breeder in the US from Kevin Sheppard. As you can see the colors of the black ninja even under intense lighting which is hung no further than 15cm from the top.

Black ninja are generally fairly translucent as their color pigmentations are often not very densely structured. It get worst as they age and may go into different shades such as brownish, red, transparent. To get to a full jet black with size, may take some time and a few tanks to keep selecting. what is important however is starting with a good source, as this will save you a few years.

Colors on legs, and other areas, are they transparent or with colors?

These are some of the areas where we will award additional points if they have them. So to have good colors at a fairly large size will give you more points.

Next in my opinion is about the patterns or Size, for this shrimp, the black ninja has a white mask on the head face area and are they the same throughout. These are some of the areas we look at when we are judging.

Overall Appearance

usually here is more of a homogeneity where we want to have the same size of shrimps form/pattern to denote stability of the shrimp. Also we look at the size ratio in the group. Sometimes over here, we do also look at how difficult is it to attain such a shrimp.

For example:

Black ninja is a reverse cross of the 4 banded PBL, it goes to black ninja and then finally we select it to make it totally black. In other words, when we select from 4 band to Black ninja, we must ensure quality ones as the further down we select it will help. In other words, if we have poor quality with lots of transparency and hoping to select it better in future will add more years to the long process.

1. 4 band to Black Ninja one stripe choose the best you can to select next
2. Black ninja one stripe to less white choose the best
3. Black ninja less spot to full black choose the best
4. In breed black and black and select the best.

From this to

this and from this

This

So from here we continue to select for quality of the shrimp and become more stringent in the process of selection.

How difficult is it to arrive at this stage? After i have done it, it doesn’t feel that difficult just need to have good stock, time, an eye for detail and patience.

Level of difficulty:

Depending on the judges experience, and many have difference experiences based on their learning curve. Difficulty of breeding and degree of innovation is different things but similar direction, because the more difficult it is to achieve, the higher the degree of innovation.

Also this is relatively subjective in the sense that i may feel it is difficult based on my experience but may be easy to you. Hence it is important for judges to have a wide range of experience globally and with an eye for details, the quality of the results will be great.

Activity/Health of shrimps:

How are the shrimps looking good? Here we look at individual shrimps and see if there are any deformation or potential deformity that may arise. Is the head to body ratio in accordance to the 1:3 ratio.

How active the shrimps are within the tank and are they looking stress etc? In the next section i’ll share more about breeding for competition.

In this section i would not be discussing about selective breeding which i have touched on numerous time on my blog and youtube. However what is important here is that we breed the shrimps with vigor.

Vigor:

It means that we shouldn’t be pampering our shrimps too much yet we give them the care needed to look good and survive well. The fittest survive. Why i say that, is because when we bag our shrimps for competition, the committee will put the shrimps into the tank which has a different tank water than the ones they were being at. So by ensuring the shrimps are strong and rigorous, they’ll need to be kept in such a way that they can withstand a range of parameters.

i did mention this in one of my youtube above absolute vs range. If we are able to keep them in a stable environment but do not chase for an absolute pH or TDS or anything, then as long as they survive well in that range it will give them ad edge over others.

Shrimps generally can survive well between 2-6 GH. Instead of adjusting your GH always so often, a stable tank is more important than chasing a value.

De-vein:

This process is widely known in the fish industry where they stop feeding a day or 2 before the packing process. The shrimps are then net out to an area where they will start to de-vein. This will ensure the shrimps are of great condition when packed and shipped.

Bags:

Breather bags, poly bags, any bags so as long they’re of high quality and process of preparing the shrimps and packing them are done well, they will survive for a long time in the bag. We normally ship with ice pack, due to the heat in Singapore.

What if you don’t do it:

We have seen many shrimp die even before we can judge them or they do not fare as well, also there are various reasons to it, like red shrimps generally have their colors faded during shipping, hence it is important to breed with higher intensity of color to offset some of these small adjustments. For example a darker shade of red will look lighter during stress, but a light shade of red will turn transparent. Remember that shrimp colors are by pigmentation very fine spots, so the more intense the pigmentation or density to size ratio the fuller the color.

Meeting new people:

Of cause all events highlight is really to meet with new breeders and those who are very passionate about the hobby. It is surprising to know that while we are divided far from each other, we share the same passion nevertheless.