I have had some time to work on TheShrimpFarm.com lately and have made quite a bit of changes on the back end of the website. The changes are intended to make the site more user friendly and easier to navigate.

Here is a list of a few of the major changes:

• The Dwarf Shrimp Blog will be moving – I am going to be moving the blog over to http://www.theshrimpfarm.com/posts. This new location of the blog will be more streamlined and searchable. I will be posting more frequently and make sure the posts are of a higher quality. If you subscribe to the blog, do not worry, nothing will change for you!
• Dwarf Shrimp Pictures – I have rebuilt the Dwarf Shrimp Pictures gallery. This gallery is cleaner and should allow faster browsing and easier (leading to more frequent) updates.
• Store – I have re-opened the store.
• Articles – I have made the articles much more accessible and will be adding more as the days go by.
• Dwarf Shrimp Wiki – I have moved the wiki (dwarf shrimp profiles) to http://www.thehsrimpfarm.com/shrimp I will be updating the profiles and providing more and more information soon.

Well those are the major updates. This will be the last post here at http://www.theshrimpfarm.com/blog and all further posts will be at http://www.theshrimpfarm.com/shrimp.

I look forward to hearing your feedback!

In an attempt to explain some of the blue colored shrimp being sold in the hobby recently an experienced shrimp keeper came up with the following hypothesis:

“What differentiates most of our aquariums from the actual streams, creeks, and puddles our shrimp live in naturally? Heaters of course, DUH. What occurs naturally over the year in most places? Seasons with temperature changes… DUH.

What produces intense dark coloration in many shrimp that last for life? Cold water.

What have I done this with? Cherry shrimp, repeatedly, and never made the comparison to the purple toned cherries I’ve had in the past to blueberry shrimp. This is also because I believe that each year the seasonal changes are required to enforce the color change.”

My Thoughts:

The Neocaridina heteropoda (wild form of Red Cherry Shrimp) comes from South China and Taiwan. This area is Sub-Tropical and does not have seasons in the way that most American States have. The average highest air temperature is right at 90 and the lowest is just above 50.

The 50 degree temperatures are only experienced late at night and do not last long. This climate leads to fairly stable water temperatures with a summer average and winter average water temperatures only being about 15 degrees different.

None of my aquariums have heaters in them. I have the fortune to live in Central Florida where my average temperatures are very similar to that of Taiwan. It gets a little hotter here and also a little cooler, but because of this stable temperature range I have never had a need for aquarium heaters.

My aquariums tend to run 10-15 degrees cooler in the winter than in the summer (just like the air temps in my house). I have never noticed any difference in color in any of my shrimp during winter.

What causes the colors?

I am a firm believer that any shrimp that is caught in the wild that has a blue color that does not pass to its F1 offspring is caused by a food source available in the wild that is not replicated in captivity.

What are your thoughts?

Yahoo News has recently posted an article about “King Kong Shrimp” and how expensive they are in Japan. The article doesn’t really go into much depth about the shrimp, other than it has a short life span and it is difficult to breed successfully, but it did mention many times how much the shrimp costs.

Article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091106/lf_nm_life/us_taiwan_shrimp

King Kong Shrimp Info:

The King Kong Shrimp is a selectively bred strain of the Bee Shrimp (Caridina cf. cantonenis) that has been bred to be almost pure black. The reason they are difficult to breed is because they have been so highly selectively bred causing genetic issues.

What do you think of the King Kong Shrimp? Would you pay thousands of dollars for a shrimp?

TheShrimpFarm.com has been quite dormant lately. Work has kept me away from my hobbies for quite some time, but recently I have found some time to get back into the hobby!

The first thing I am going to do is update the site with a more modern look. I have already updated the Dwarf Shrimp Blog to reflect what the rest of the site will soon look like and it will not be long before all it done!

I would love to hear some feedback on the new look! Let me know what you think!

I have decided that I will be holding a summer contest here at TheShrimpFarm.com. Here are the details:

How to enter:
TheShrimpFarm.com is looking for some high quality user generated content. To enter TheShrimpFarm.com’s summer contest all you have to do is write an article and submit it to TheShrimpFarm.com to be posted on our blog. Please submit all articles using the submission form that will be provided on the contest page (once set up). If you finish your article before the page is up, please email article to Dan at TheShrimpFarm.com

How to win:
All article submissions will be eligible to win. The winner will be chosen at random from the list of all entries.

Entry Requirements:
All articles should be around 300-500 words and written in English and be related to Dwarf Shrimp. Well-written articles that provide valuable content will be posted to The Dwarf Shrimp Blog at my digression.

Prizes:
I will award three prizes to 3 entries drawn at random. First place chooses from a list of 3 items, second chooses from the remaining two prizes and third gets what is left.

Prize List:
$10.00 Gift Certificate to Online Retailer (your choice)
10 Red Cherry Shrimp
3 self-cloning crayfish

I will be setting up a contest page soon! I will be accepting all articles starting today and will continue to accept articles until the contest concludes on July 10th. So start writing and submit your articles.

Bonus:
Any article that is used in whole or part, as a post on The Dwarf Shrimp Blog will result in the writer being awarded a package of Hikari Crab Cuisine!

Rules:
All articles submitted will become the property of TheShrimpFarm.com
Articles may be edited by TheShrimpFarm.com
Credit will be given to writer of article if published
Articles MUST be original
Article writer grants all rights to TheShrimpFarm.com
Enter as often as you like
Winners will be drawn at random on July 10th.
Submissions will be accepted until the drawing
Rules may be changed at anytime!