Well, as some of you may know, I work in the TV industry as a Cameraman. The majority of my work is covering news at the network level. With that in mind it is easy to see why I had such a busy year! A few large hurricanes and a historic election season kept me on the road for over 5 months off and on. I am happy to say both hurricane and election season are over!
With these months on the road most of what I would normally do at home suffered, TheShrimpFarm.com included. I am lucky to be married to a wonderful woman who also has a marine biology degree, so my shrimp were left in capable (but unenthusiastic) hands. She did a great job caring for my vast collection and losses were minimal. So what happened to the projects I had going when it all got so busy?
Soft Water Shrimp in Hard Water
This project was intended to find how much a difference hard water would have over soft water in breeding and life cycle of a Tiger Shrimp. Before I left for work the size of the shrimp was about the same but the soft water shrimp were breeding already while the hard water shrimp were not.
Today, the shrimp population in the hard water aquarium has declined and the population in the soft water aquarium is on its third generation. I can not, with 100% certainty, attribute this to the water because I was not around to control the experiment, but I will say with confidence that there was a big difference. So my conclusion is that soft water is optimal for this species and hard water, while some may have some success with it, is sub-optimal.
Breeding Amano Shrimp – The Journal
This project suffered the most from my absence. All larva were lost. These larva require quite a bit of attention to be successful, and my wife was not willing to put the work in that was required.
I currently have 3 berried shrimp and I will be starting this all over again, again! I had to restart it once before, and now I guess it is time for Take 3!
American Glass Shrimp Breeding Program
This is a slow going program to start with, and while I was gone most of my females gave birth and there was a VERY low survival rate due to food requirements. This program continues and is on generation 3.
There will be more updates to come soon!
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