Project Blue Shrimps

An update of my recent hatch of these shrimplets which I believe they are BR tiger shrimps with silver eyes. Let me tell ya, they are so gorgeous with their deep dark blue color. It's obviously one of my favorites shrimps.

Unlike many, the thing is I Never bought any pure blue royal shrimps, then tried to keep and breed them from there. I went to another direction of development, for sure they were born and raised locally. I'll let you figure it out how... :)

So far everyone are healthy, still young. Their blue color will get darker when they'll reach to adults. I take really good care just like any others of my local shrimps, will build a solid colony of them.

I learned they are sensitive, picky enough in term of food, shy shrimps and grow pretty slow. IMO it ain't an easy shrimp to keep especially for beginners. :)

Mosses & Pellia

I decided to transfert a few of my mosses into this tank. It's been 2 weeks and half, they seem to grow pretty well under BeamsWork LED light. This tank is currently residents my colony of TWB shrimps.

You can see new attached Spiky Moss (Taxiphyllum sp.) starts to develop new leaves...

This is Monosolenium Tenerum (aka Pellia) seems really appreciate this LED light.

One of my favorites mosses Fissiden Fontanus (aka Phoenix Moss) :)

Shrimp Foods Review: Shirakura Ebi Dama Soft vs Dennerle Shrimp King Complete

Hello Shrimps Fans,

Today I will compare two Premium types of shrimp foods. Both contains 100% natural ingredients, no artificial and low quality.

Let's start with the Japanese brand Shirakura Ebi Dama Soft. I trust this food many years now, it's actually the main food and I usually give them at least twice a week. Shirakura Ebi Dama has been in market for very long time in Japan.

The Shirakura Ebi Dama Soft pads are larger and softer than the original Ebi Dama, I always break into half and feed them once a day. I keep the other half later, never waste it. In my experience a package of Shirakura 80g could last for more than 10 months to a year if you carefully use it.

My Crystal Red shrimps (local breeding) just grazing around this food like nuts, none stop killing machine! LoL! They love it. Usually they finish half of pad within 2-3 hours.

Once I add this food in the water and it sinks down for a couple minutes, it doesn't break and doesn't make a big mess in my tank unlike a few others cheapo, crappy brands. What is interesting to know, this food keeps fresh and hard shape even if the shrimps don't finish eating it. But remember, you have to figure it out the amount of food for the population of shrimps you have.

Here's another quick shot of them, enjoying Shirakura food. I drop one small pad and my Red Tiger shrimps (local breeding) are going crazy over this food, they're getting on the top of it in few of seconds. It's kinda Cool to watch them... :)

Next it's Dennerle Shrimp King Complete, another premium food brand but it's from Germany. Dennerle is well known German Company, the largest European supplier. They sell many food products, aquatic plants and equipments for aquarium.

I started using it about 6 months now. It's actually my second alternative food. My shrimps like it too, especially my Red Tiger, Taiwan Bees and CRS, they finish until the last piece of it. Just like the first brand mentioned, this pad doesn't break easily after sinking down at bottom. However what is interesting about this Dennerle pad, it will swell a bit bigger from its original size. Another thing to consider when the pad is in water for hours, it won't stay as hard as Shirakura pad which I think it could pollute a little your water.

If I compare to Shirakura to Dennerle pads are actually smaller, darker and softer. Here are a picture I took of both pads beside. You can see the difference right the way.

Bottom line, these are two Excellent food brands. I personally use both and highly recommend them. Dennerle might be softer but the choice is yours.

I hope this review will help most of Beginners of this hobby out there to get a better idea which brand to buy. Keep in mind this is my personal review as shrimp breeder/keeper and remember rotate your feeding, don't just give same food to your shrimps every time. They will get bored of eating same stuffs over and over again... 

Feeding Shrimps

They are enjoying boiled spinach. Mine are always hungry not that picky. I heard some said their red crystal won't eat spinach. Well I had experienced it before, for sure they won't eat it if they are not hungry, they don't care about any food you put in either. As for my own experience, if I Don't give them anything to eat in a day or two, they will go nuts whatever I give them.

You should be aware of the capacity of your own shrimp population. You need to know the shrimps won't eat that much. If you give too much food, it will pollute your water and that will cause lots of harm than good eventually. As for portion, I always give small amount. When I notice they Don't eat the whole food, I will remove it within 2 or 3 hours right the way. Usually I give many different types of food switching them between during week. But I don't feed them everyday though.

Why give them different food? Well the benefit from a variety food sources is a good balance diet from dry natural food to veggies ones. Obviously there are too many different brands in market out there, some is really worth to get and some Just Don't, they are Only here in purpose to make profits. Avoid food that breaks down easily in water. That's kinda confuse for beginners who search for good quality food and have no idea which one is the best to purchase. Therefore, I will try to explain in another review. But keep in mind a more balance diet will keep your shrimp active, happy and healthy.

Here's a video of them in action. Don't forget to switch in HD :)

Taiwan Bees Project Part 1

Two years ago, I started my first breeding project. So I purchased 5 Black King Kong juveniles from a local breeder in BC, I must admit this guy had the nicest and quality local breeding shrimps ever. I personally never was and still really Not fan of those who import and sell back right the way. Simply cause good quality are NOT there and chances to get diseases and infections are high. For this reason I only deal with local breeders. They take good care of their shrimps and they sell what they have available in stock.

So from this small batch he send me, I had 2 females and 3 males king kong juveniles. Surprisingly, I was capable to keep them all alive and healthy. It took them about 2 months to reach to adult and finally two females got berried. Each gave birth around 12 to 18 babies, they hatched within 25-30 days and I was able to keep babies grow and reach maturity. Since I took really good care of them None of adults and babies died.

Here are the original photos I took of them from young to adult age.

And this is how I started to have small colony of Taiwan Bees shrimps and I keep breeding them to get bigger colony with time... :)

Then I got Hooked and My next big challenge was How to create Blue Bolts, Shadow Pandas, Hulks, Full Black King Kongs, Red Wines (Panda) and Red Rubies (King Kong) from my current ones? (Meaning not buying anyone shrimps sources already Done For Me. Because I knew it was too Easy and faster to buy everything Done. Yeah but where was the challenge then?). From that point of view, I did some studies and research and found out how these breeders did. Therefore, I took some of my males King Kong and crossed with females CBS/CRS in order to create Hybrids F1 (aka Mischlings).

Here are some shot of my Hybrids F1 (aka Mischlings or Taiwan Bee Mix), they are actually look like normal CBS/CRS but have Taiwan Bee genes inside. They throw many different grades from S, SS to SSS.

I even had some golden/snow whites which are hybrids too.

 To be continued...

Beamswork LED Review

Unboxed the BeamsWork 18" LED, my first impression of this light fixture is simple, slim and clean design that I like it. It comes with two extendable brackets which can be extended to 21" max. If I can compare to my current Odyssea T5H0 fixture, this one is lot thinner and lighter.

- Hi-Lumen 50
- New 0.5W Chip set (33 x 0.5W LED = 16.5W)
- 6500K daylight perfect for aquarium freshwater plants

It has 3 arrays of 11 each. Total of 33 Leds

It's pretty easy to setup this light, all you need to do is reverse the leg brackets and then adjust the appropriate length for your tank in order to sit a bit high. Here's how I set it up on my rimless 10 gal tank.

This fixture has 2 modes power switch: Full mode or Lunar mode.

Ok so I tested this BeamsWork 18" LED. For first 2 weeks, I used this method: Set my timer 4 hours during morning and 4 hours during evening. In total of 8 hours daily. The light seems to be working really good, there are NO Blue lights integrated with white ones. It's all white LEDs lights. It spreads directly into tank, there are no shadow or dark corners. It's actually brighter than my current T5H0, although it consumes much less energy and it doesn't heat the water. My aqua moss plants are growing, there are no green or brown algeas develop on them or on glass, soil and filter. But in order to get the maximum moss grow result, I will experiment and keep 8 hours straight duration.

Overall, it's great light fixture for the quality and price. My shrimps and aqua moss are happy. Bottom line, you Don't need to change the bulbs because there are None unlike T5H0 fixtures. So far, I don't find any downsides. But I'll see how it will handle in a year and two in long term used... :)

Young Born Blue Tiger

This is one my young born blue tiger about 3 or 4 weeks. I took it with my phone, too lazy to setup studio light and my fancy camera in this time of day.

Notice he/she has already dark blue color just like his dad... ;)

Feeding young Red Tigers Shrimps in HD

Red Tiger Shrimps

A shot of my red tiger shrimps while eating fresh spinach. My colony starts to grow very nice. IME, they are very easy to keep as regular tiger. I have over 100 in this tank and no death, everyone are very active. They keep breeding like rabbits, I constantly have females berried all the time...

Take a look of them in action :)

Last month of December a couple week before Xmas, I ordered a brand new ADA Cube Garden tank. For this tank I wanted to challenge back myself, I wanted to get back in the aquascaping world since I stopped in 2012. This tank will be a demo tank, it ain't focus to breed shrimps.

As you can see, it arrived all in excellent condition. Now the challenge is what kind of aquascape, aquaplants, light and filter equipment I will use to maintain this tank but it will also looks good. Well I though about it already and made a rough sketch of hardscape... :)

Also bought a brand new Eheim filter Classic 150 and ADA clear hose 13mm