May Meeting
Erik Lucas presented to 22 GWAPA Members via Zoom on May 22nd. He has been breeding award winning shrimp for many years. He spoke to us about shrimp keeping, breeding, and competing.
He showed us the evolution of his setup. Shrimp don’t need a large tank, they tend to stay at the bottom, so you can save space by getting shorter tanks. The benefit of having a higher number of smaller tanks is that you can keep a larger variety of shrimp. Erik has a rack in his shop that holds 54 20-gallon long tanks! For lighting, he uses connectible shop lighting. It doesn’t need to be high powered.
Shrimp will breed on their own, you don’t need to do much to help the process along. Erik discussed the stages of maturity and the reproductive process of shrimp. He cautions that seeing male shrimp shooting across the tank is not necessarily a bad thing, they could just be looking for a female. Keeping the water parameters stable and providing food are the most important parts of increasing survival rates.
Erik’s company supplies a number of useful equipment, tools, and food for shrimp. They have a special shrimp food blend. Another option is a pad-type food, such as Vin Blizzard. Shrimp King offers baby food that the baby shrimp seem to like. You can also add bacteria that will help keep your tank healthy.
Tiger shrimp are very common in the hobby. There are very specific types of tiger shrimp stripes that can differentiate true tiger shrimp from other striped shrimp. Different types of tiger shrimp require different water parameters. Next, Erik showed us photos of new patterns/styles of shrimp. The new ones can be quite expensive!
Finally, Erik provided some tips about how shrimp competitions work. Contestants should submit at 4-5 shrimp in a group, since most judges will select the best 3 to base their scores on. They look at color, pattern, size, and other characteristics. The attendees also get to vote for their favorite shrimp for an “audience favorite” award.
Some tips to be successful as an entrant in a competition: do not bother the judges or infer which tank is yours, make sure your shrimp are larger than 2cm, include both male and female shrimp, and make sure your shrimp have similar patterns. You can also try to ask for the score sheets beforehand to see how your shrimp will be judged and select your shrimp accordingly. You can always, respectfully, have a conversation with the judges after the results are announced to see why you got the score you did and what you could have improved.