Today, we are very fortunate to have interview on of the hobbyist in Singapore. Zi Long has join this fast growing community of shrimp keeping in Singapore since 2014. He is currently rearing some red spotted German pintos.
We manage to grab hold of him for a short interview and snap some pictures of his beautiful shrimps.
Q: Can you share, what are some of the products that you are using to maintain your tank?
Zi Long: I use SL-Aqua series of products right from the start, including Purify for cycling and building of biofilm. TM-1 to encourage breeding, Bing Cao as plant nutrients (as I am a Bucephalandra junkie), as well as weekly sprinkle of SL-Aqua Magic Powder. I also use SL-Aqua baby food to feed my shrimplets.
Q: What are some things that you will look out for in your shrimp tank?
Zi Long: Generally, I like to err on the safe side. I am very mindful of pH levels and variations in the tank from the start, and have a pH meter to do so. Also, I do bi-weekly ammonia, nitrite and nitrate tests. I do not have the habit of monitoring the kH levels too much, as mine have consistently shown negligible kH values. I’m more concerned about the gH valies, which brings me to the point of shrimp behaviors.
I am most worried about molting issues, as it often leads to death, and taking advice from experiences folks, it can be a result of extremities of gH. ADA Amazonia and other active soil would usually control for fluctuations in gH, but I am currently going through the process of monitoring active soil that I have, which is reputed to contain minimum ingredients.
It is definitely not inert, but it’s effects on waters in creating a conducive environment for shrimps area deplorable. I will share more when I have tested it fully.
Speaking of other shrimp behaviors, I treat long term discoloration or loss of colors as something to look about for. I did not have enough research to go into the specifics, but they are enough reason for me to check my water.
Q: I can see that you take great care in maintaining your tank. Do you think water change is important and how often do you change?
Zi Long: I do think water change is important for shrimp growth and overall health. This is a habit I had developed from keeping planted tanks and to a large degree, it would also apply to the shrimp setup. I take it as an opportunity to flush out ammonia and nitrates, as well as fecal and decomposing matter such as food and plants that contributes to them. I do not change more than 20% of the water thou based on my personal preference.
I am pretty conservative when it comes to water change thou, so when doing water changes, there are two things that I am extremely particular of:
- I always ensure the water I’m adding into the tank matches the water parameters in the tank as far as possible. I do this by re-mineralizing the RO water. However, top ups would be roughly 70-80% of the TDS of the water.
- I would drip the water into the tank using a drip bucket. It is marked to be six litres, and usually, I would finish dripping in the ‘new’ water between 1.5 to 2 hours.
We would like to thank Zi Long for sharing his thoughts and methods on this hobby. We would like to hear from other hobbyist as well who like to share their experiences, feel free to drop us an email at our contact page and stay tune for more!