Jump to content

Essential substance in shrimp survival


Bunnybom

Recommended Posts

Hey guys. I've done some reading and brought some info about shrimp survival.

I've translated a report of a research about fulvic acid into English.

What is FULVIC in shrimp breeding?

All organic matters are broken down by bacteria after some time. Dried leaves, tree branches or dead bodies of animals. These organic matters are broken down by bateria and lose their shape, however there's something that still remain after that, that is humic aci, ulmic acid and fulvic acid. Amongst three, fulvic acid is part of humic acid which consist only 10% of humic acid.

Bee shrimps naturally tend to reside in a brook where there's a lot of trees around it. Where the trees are, so are the fallen leaves. These leaves decay in the water by bacteria and thus that habitat is full of humic acid.

Fulvic acid, a substance contained in humic acid has chelate in its structure and this chelate aids absorption of minerals into living body. This indicate that these bee shrimps has far less ability to absorb minerals of their own because they tend to absorb mineral with the help of fulvic acid in the nature. That is the reason why it is recommended to use aqua soil which is made of natural organic substance that contains humic acid when breeding bee shrimps in aquarium environment. It was rather known that main function of aquasoil is stabilising pH and GH however recent research by shrimp hobbyst shows that it is not only pH and GH that aids shrimps in breeding but nutritive substances in aquasoil is almost essential in shrimp breeding.

So now we recognised that fulvic acid helps living bodies to absorb minerals and bee shrimps especially require this help. Established shrimp breeding methods only concentrated on minerals, however it is now known that absorption of mineral is more important in keeping shrimps alive. Adult shrimps does not rely much on the existance of fulvic acid but shrimp juvies, newly born shrimps do not show high rates of survival in an environment with less fulvic acid because they cannot absorb minerals as adult shrimps do by their own.

Reference:

http://blog.naver.com/dragoon86/140182305227

Summary.

With help of my friend I have started a shrimp breeding project using fulvic acid early this year, and so far it seems like it's working fully well.

I'm still getting 100% survival rates of shrimplets after 10 months since the set up

I just wanted to make sure I get the result before introducing new information to you

So I've started with 8 CBS(F0) in the beginning, in Feb 2013.

A female started breeding in May- June and gave birth to 20-30 shrimplets(F1) in June-July, 2nd batch of F1 in August.

I sold about 15 of them when they were 1.5cm when I attended Fishy Park Sale held in September and another 10 more in October.

In October my F1 females started to breed and almost 7 females got eggs.

However my mum wanted to get rid of those ugly hair algae, grabbed a net, swung it in the aquarium, and females just dropped their eggs

Fortunately I got suspicious of females dropping their eggs and caught my mom in early stage.

So now, December I've got first batch of F2 shrimplets grown about 1.0-1.3cm size, with second batch of F2 shrimplets are crawling in the tank.

I still have 7 females barried with 3rd batch

So I ended up having almost 100 shrimps + 7 barried females coming up when I started with 8 shrimps 10 months ago.

However I have not yet tested how it will work with r/o water.

I'll be resetting my tank very soon and this time, I'll be using r/o water.

If I can set my water parameter to ideal level while getting 100% shrimplet survival rate, what else can be better?

So fingers crossed for me guys :encouragement:

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I had heard about the fulvic and humic acid benefits and have been adding some to my tanks with water changes. I've only had my crystals for a little while and only had any males for about a week but they seem pretty active so we'll see how it goes. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awesome write up bunnybom, I'll be very interested to see how your results go over the next few months. I have had similar results, I started with six shrimp & now have well over 200 & I have been using Beni Fulvic soil. :victorious:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very good read mate. Cheers for sharing. So where do you get fluvic acid? Whats your pH of your test tank and your tap water?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unfortunately, "pure" fulvic acid is not yet available in Australian market.

What you can get is "benibachi fulvic grain" which contains humate as I explained above or few benibachi stuffs like active water(which I believe 'contain' humic acid)

Or you can try putting in some dry leaves in the tank for a few days til they decade and emit humate like they do in wild.

In this case you'll carefully need to watch out your WP and consider what leaves to use.

However I managed to get few products overseas.

[ATTACH]6031[/ATTACH]

From the image, left "LIAN Fulvic extract" middle "Canada HNC fulvic acid" right "Tetra black water"

post-346-13990985534_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great read.

I thought I was the only one using black water extract in shrimp tanks.

IAL and Dried oak leaves are also regularly in my tanks.

I used black water extract as Fulvic acid can be expensive for a small bottle.

I've seen them on website for $44 for a 50ml bottle, not inc shipping.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great read.

I thought I was the only one using black water extract in shrimp tanks.

IAL and Dried oak leaves are also regularly in my tanks.

I used black water extract as Fulvic acid can be expensive for a small bottle.

I've seen them on website for $44 for a 50ml bottle' date=' not inc shipping.[/quote']

Which product are you using jayc?

Mine never exceed $30 excluding shipping :redface-new:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bunnydom,

I'm currently half way thru my bottle of Brightwell Aquatics Black water extract. But I mainly use it in my Amazonian biotope tank for Apistos, Discus and tetras.

The Fulvic acid I saw was from

http://www.fulvicminerals.com.au/

We gotta get Dean to bring in the Salty shrimp blackwater powder.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bunnydom' date='

I'm currently half way thru my bottle of Brightwell Aquatics Black water extract. But I mainly use it in my Amazonian biotope tank for Apistos, Discus and tetras.

The Fulvic acid I saw was from

[url']http://www.fulvicminerals.com.au/

We gotta get Dean to bring in the Salty shrimp blackwater powder.

Never new that we had fulvic product in Australia :stupid:

But yes, it's a bit pricy and I'm not sure if it'll fit for aquarium use.

Since you're using it, that sounds good though:congratulatory:

And YES we do need to get Dean for Salty shrimp blackweater :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm didn't use the Fulvic acid from the web site, just to be clear. It was too expensive.

I decided to just use blackwater extract instead. I already have blackwater for my fish tanks, so I add half dosage to my shrimp tanks.

And like you, I've noticed very good shrimplet survivals too. I don't know if it's specifically Humic/Fulvic acids though, since I dose the tank with all sorts of things.;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oops my bad:p

It is expensive maybe because it's made for human consumption.

Good to hear that black water extract is working for you too jayc :o

I'll be testing different product as soon as I reset my tank and share it to the forum

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have some of the blackwater powder on order. It was really hard to find though. Hopefully it becomes more readily available. I've been using the Aquasonic brand extract and IALs and things in all my tanks for the meantime. It seems good. I just go through a lot of it pretty quickly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have some of the blackwater powder on order.

You've ordered the Salty Shrimp Blackwater powder?

Where from? and how much?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Only place I could find that sent to Australia was Alpha Pro Breeders. Hopefully the AU distributer gets it soon though cause postage is a killer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How does fulvic acid raise pH if it's an acid? Did I miss something?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How does fulvic acid raise pH if it's an acid? Did I miss something?

FIGURED OUT!

Thanks for your sharp observation mate!

Fulvic acid meant to "LOWER" pH as its own pH is 4.3 however in some occasion it will increase pH after denitrifying nitrates in the water:rolleyes:

post-346-139909855343_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks mate, but I'm still confused... I did a bit of googling and it would seem that acids might donate their protons to the denitrification process, BUT the pH would only rise to the level it was at prior to the addition of acid depending on how much acid is consumed. Correct? Is this something you have read scientific literature about?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks mate' date=' but I'm still confused... I did a bit of googling and it would seem that acids might donate their protons to the denitrification process, BUT the pH would only rise to the level it was at prior to the addition of acid depending on how much acid is consumed. Correct? Is this something you have read scientific literature about?[/quote']

The previous reply came out from my experiment :confused-new:

From the above pic in my last reply, the left is pH result of my shrimp tank- 6.0

where 3rd from left is the result when I added a dose of Lian fulvic extract.

As you can see it clearly rose to 6.4.

I'm adding lots of stuffs to my tank and now I dunno which reacted with fulvic extract :crushed:

I have contacted the manufacturer yesterday and got an answer to only add few drops a day to prevent WP swing.

...ooopsy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cool, thanks for the info mate :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have heard it is meant to stabilise ph in a similar way to carbonates (useful if you want to avoid swings with low Kh) but I'm not sure the exact mechanism.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Join Our Community!

    Register today, ask questions and share your shrimp and fish tank experiences with us!

  • Must Read SKF Articles

  • Posts

    • beanbag
      Update to say that after a few gravel vacs, front wall scrub, moss / floating plant trim, that the condition seems to have improved.  My current theory is that it is due to waste / debris management, where "stuff" like that brown mulm accumulates in the substrate and behind the HMF filters.  Maybe some tanks can somehow deal with it, but mine can't.  Also another experienced shrimper suggested that maybe those "shell bugs" don't just live on the shrimps but also in this debris.  Maybe this is the reason some tanks fail due to "old tank syndrome" where all they need is a good gravel vac? Also, I am guessing that plant trim helps too because now more of the nutrients and light go into growing algae instead of more plants? Well anyway for this tank I will try weekly water change and monthly gravel vac / plant trim.  For my next tank, I'm thinking of something like an under-gravel system where this mulm can fall down and I vac it out.
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Good to have an update and good to hear you are getting shrimplets, so hopefully your colony will continue and you may not get to the point where you have to cull some to stop over population. These type of shrimp only live 12 - 18 months so the adult deaths may be natural? If you have the time I would do weekly 25% water changes, adding the new water via a drip system and do some vacuuming clean of the substrate each week, even if only a different bit each week! See if that helps in a few months and if it does then stick with that regime? It should help reduce any build-ups that may be occuring!
    • beanbag
      Hello again, much belated update: The tank still has "cycles" of 1-2 month "good streaks" where everybody seems to be doing well, and then a bad streak where the short antenna problem shows up again, and a shrimp dies once every few days.  I am not sure what causes things to go bad, but usually over the course of a few days I will start to see more shrimp quietly standing on the HMF filter, and so I know something is wrong.  Since I am not "doing anything" besides the regular 1-2 week water changes, I just assume that something bad is building up.  Here's a list of things that I've tried that are supposed to be "can't hurt" but didn't prevent the problem either: Dose every other day with Shrimp Fit (very small dose, and the shrimp seem to like it) Sotching Oxydator Seachem Purigen to keep the nitrates lower Keeping the pH below 5.5 with peat Things that I don't do often, so could possibly "reset" the tank back to a good streak, are gravel vac and plant trim, so maybe time to try those again. One other problem I used to have was that sometimes a shrimp would suddenly stop eating with a full or partially full digestive tract that doesn't clear out, and then the shrimp will die within a few days.  I suspected it was one of the foods in my rotation - Shrimp Nature Infection, which contains a bunch of herbal plant things.  I've had this in my food rotation for a few years now and generally didn't seem to cause problems, but I removed it from the rotation anyway.  I don't have a lot of adult Golden Bees at this point so I can't really tell if it worked or not. Overall the tank is not too bad - during the good streaks occasionally a shrimp will get berried and hatch babies with a 33-50% survival rate.  So while there are fewer adults now, there are also a bunch of babies roaming around.  I guess this tank will stagger on, but I really do need to take the time to start up a new tank.  (or figure out the problem)
    • jayc
      If that is the offspring, then the parents are unlikely to be PRL. I tend to agree with you. There are very few PRLs in Australia. And any that claim to be needs to show proof. PRL genes have to start as PRL. CRS that breed true after x generations doesn't turn it into a PRL. Neither can a Taiwan bee shrimp turn into a PRL despite how ever many generations. I've never seen a PRL with that sort of red colour. I have on Red Wines and Red Shadows - Taiwan bee shrimps. So somewhere down the line one of your shrimp might have been mixed with Taiwan bees and is no longer PRL. It just tanks one shrimp to mess up the genes of a whole colony. 
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Sorry, missed this one somehow! The PRL look fantastic and the odd ones look part PRL and part Red wine/Red shadow in the colour. They are still very beautiful but ideally should be seperated to help keep the PRL clean if you can do that.  Nice clear photos!
×
×
  • Create New...