The annual Singapore Shrimp Competition was held on the 10th August 2019 at Shrimps Affair this year. The event was great where shrimp hobbyist could gather to share their humble experience and also make friends.

Shrimps Affair had put in a lot of effort to ensure that everything went smoothly and also to create a fair environment for all competitors. It is great how two businesses could come together with one common goal in mind, that is to bring up the awareness of this hobby and also to create love, fun and respect in this hobby. Kudos to them!

I was extremely honoured to be invited as one of the judges for this year’s Singapore Shrimp competition. The judges for this year are as follows from right to left:
1) Lee Tai Cheng (Taiwan)
2) Darick Toh (Shrimps Affair Singapore)
3) Demin Wong (MADSHRIMP Singapore)

This year’s competition was slightly different from last year. The tanks were cycled and parameters are adjusted for you to put your shrimps in. This is to ensure that all shrimps compete in the same environment that promotes fairness. There are about 50 entries this year, a great increase from last year and I’m happy to see hobbyist coming out to compete in this friendly community.

I have previously shared about judging criteria in one of my blog post here, you can check it out over there. Here are some of my thoughts on the entries this year to help everyone understand how the judging works.

Before you send your shrimps in, it is good to understand how the scoring is done. The scoring for the competition this year’s competition is as follows:
1) Size 15%
2) Colouration 40%
3) Similarities 30%
4) Overall activity 15%

Size and similarities comes in proportion, it is in human nature to to identify the odd one out of the community usually. What happens when you have five shrimp entry, but four are about 2cm huge and one of them is about 1.5cm small. There is a huge difference in the contrast of size here and immediately, it looks bad and you will get points deducted in both segment here. It would be better to send in four shrimps that are big size and skip the smaller size one. By doing that, you probably only get points deducted in the similarities segment only.

To score in the size category, send in female shrimps only or even better, berried ones as they look bigger and have better form as well. Male shrimps look smaller and will also lose some points in the similarities category if you have four female and one male.

Superb Red Boa in the Creative group

If you could, send in five shrimps per entry, in case of shrimp death, you still have four shrimps competing for you. For similarities category, all shrimps have to be similar to score more points. One example to this, for crystal red categories without specific patterns, send in shrimps that are of the same pattern. Sending in four similar Hinomaru shrimp would score you more points or equates to sending in four Hinomaru and one Mosura shrimp. That Mosura shrimp may be stunning, but it could be an eye sore among the rest.

Red Boa Entry in Creative group

Overall, everyone did great in their shrimps, I can see more quality shrimps in Singapore and also encourage you to join us in the next shrimp competition. I manage to capture some pictures of the competing shrimps and I will be sharing them now. So bear with me for the heaving loading of pictures on your mobile or desktop!

Yet another Red Boa

There were two Red Boa entries this year, both are absolutely stunning! The name Boa derives from the snake species Boa. It was name after that as the metallic colour of the shrimp look similar to the snake.

Blue Boa

This breeder had won the champion in the creative group. You can follow him on Instagram @kel118 and check out all his fishes and shrimps. He had also won the grand champion for last year’s Singapore Shrimp competition.

Another piece of Blue Boa in the same tank

Blue Boa was first launched by a breeder in Taiwan, it was selling for a price of about $6000 USD at that time. Insane prices for these insane shrimp. These shrimps have been bred in quantity now and prices have dropped way low now.

Blue Boa

One important thing about competition categories is that it gets complicated at times. If you are joining a wine red category, sending in golden eyes wine red might get you disqualified as they belong to another group. Always ask first before sending in, the organisers would be happy to help.

Orange Eye Blue Sapphire

These Orange Eye Blue Sapphire was one of my favourite in the Golden Eye category. Unfortunately it didn’t win anything but I thought that the coloration and form of the shrimp was really good. The colour was intense black with some hue of blue. These shrimps are not to be confused with Royal Blue Tigers, they carry taiwanbees bloodline and have evolved from crossing tigers with taiwanbees for many generations.

Orange Eye Yellow King Kong

There was only one entry for this Orange Eye Yellow King Kong, but this group of five was amazing and spectacular. They are all of the same size and also very uniform in colour and eyes.

Red Galaxy Fishbone

There is also one entry on Red Galaxy Fishbone competing in the Galaxy/GFB category. This entry is also another stunning one with very define red, nice fishbone pattern and most importantly, look at those spider legs. One of the best red GFB i’ve ever seen! Great work by the breeder Mr Denis Poon. He won the champion for this this category as well!

Red Galaxy Fishbone have been in the market for quite awhile. Originated from Taiwan, the black version used to go for prices of about $1000 SGD and the red ones goes for about $1500 a piece. Prices have since dropped when they were mass produced in Taiwan. However, genetics for this shrimps are pretty complex, and there are still GFB bloodline that breeds close to 80% true selling for high prices as well.

Like most hybrid shrimps, GFB don’t breed true. So if you have offsprings of different pattern, it is very normal.

Black Fancy Tiger

Another unique entry in the competition are these black fancy tigers. They are quite big in size and also have some good coloration. Fancy tigers and galaxy tigers are quite popular these days. A lot of hobbyist think that the two shrimps are the same, however they are not and the prices varies a lot as well. So make sure you do your research before purchasing these fanciful tiger shrimps. I have received feedback from many hobbyist about them being con by the seller. Always get these shrimps from reputable sellers, they tend to give you the real thing instead as they have a reputation to uphold.

Red Fancy Tiger

There was another entry featuring a Red Fancy Tiger. Also very stunning and unique. Overall, this year’s Singapore Shrimp competition is a very successful one and we hope to have more participants next year joining us. If you are worried about shrimp survival rate in the competition tanks, I can assure you that at most times, they survive through the competition and still live well in your tank.

All these pictures were taken during the event day itself, apologise for the poor quality. Our community in Singapore is growing and we hope to have more people joining us in this hobby. If you have any event ideas or anything, feel free to hit me up at demin@madshrimp.com.

We would like to dedicate our thanks to Shrimps Affair for being such great host and partners once again! See you guys next time and don’t forget to check out our newly launched shrimp feed MADFU series!