Why?

There are two people to blame for this particular folly. Well two people and a bee sting to be precise. I'll get to that a little later.

The why is really the result of one of the two, innocently (no - not at all innocently) suggesting that I write a blog on my learning curve in the fascinating world of keeping freshwater shrimp.

Of course I said no - far too busy, and other pretty lame excuses. Then my wife said, you should keep a blog. So being gullible and prone to persuasion I said ok.

Let's start at the beginning, well as far as I'm prepared to go back. Completely irrelevant to the task in hand but I have always indulged in what many would see as extreme sports. Rock climbing, car racing, power boats and in my 50s I learned to sky dive. None of the namby pamby tandem stuff. I mean full on free fall and daring do.

In freefall with son James

I did say that this is irrelevant, and so it is, but I am just illustrating that all sorts of people get in to shrimp including the odd, and sometimes very odd, adrenalin junky.

Many years ago I kept tropical fish. Eventually, and having graduated through neon tetras and the like I started to specialise in Rift Valley Cichlids. Their social behaviour and structure was a fascinating thing to observe. Years later we bought a house in Yorkshire and I decided it would be really nice to create a water feature. Long tall Steve, 6'3" and thin as a rake, was landscaping the garden. A one man band who could move boulders single handedly.

Steve and I were discussing the idea of a waterfall feature and I mentioned that a few years before, different wife, different house, I kept koi. Low and behold dear Steve turned out to be a koi aficianado. The idea emerged of a waterfall in to a small pond which might just be big enough for a few koi.

I reckon the penny dropped with Fran when she came home to see a decent size digger and Steve standing in the bottom of a rather large hole, head just visible!

Just a little water feature darling!

That led to a second and much bigger pond. From memory about 15000 gallons (UK) and a filter system of 6 or 7000 gallons. Just over 5 years ago we moved to the wonderful county of Somerset. I had semi retired after 13 years doing PLC stuff and had set up my own little company, just as the world fell apart economically speaking. My projects were based in the south, Fran was brought up in Somerset so we moved. Bye bye koi!

Feeding time

A few of my bees

The house we bought is a very nice barn conversion in a few acres. We got in to alpacas, more dogs and chickens. The alpacas have now gone and are being used with autistic children as therapy. Fran is now in to turkeys in rather a committed way, they're not just for Christmas you know, and I became captivated by bees.

Not just for Christmas!

An alpaca!

As I am now learning with shrimp you can never have too many hives (read fish tanks). Right now I have 10 colonies of bees.

So, back to where I started. I was working in my office at home, and for no really good, and certainly no logical reason I thought, wouldn't it be nice to have A (i.e. 1) fish tank.

I wandered down to the local mega fish place, bought a Dennerle 60L nano thing, an Eheim internal filter etc but noticed these little shrimpy things.

10 days later I bought and, I am ashamed to say, murdered 12 Cherry Shrimp.

At that point I happened to be in London and accidentally wandered in to the Aquatic Design Centre where I bought Breeders n Keepers 1 & 2.

Reading through I saw Dane somebody or other mentioned. Mmmm, probably worth a chat. A rather embarrassing conversation followed. Which substrate are you using? Reply - mmmmm, errrrrrr. What's your TDS? Reply - mmmmm, rrrrrr. What about pH, kh and gh.

Dane Frampton could not have been more helpful in explaining things shrimpy. In the article in BnK Dane had mentioned some UK breeders which included one Alan McCormack.

I have never been involved in any pastime, sport, or interest where help and assistance was given so freely. The depth of knowledge of these two is astounding but unfortunately their passion is infectious - so you see, if you have stuck with me this far. It is all entirely their fault.

A bee sting

The final sting, was a bee sting. I had gradually developed an increasingly allergic reaction to stings. The last one was so severe I was put on pretty nasty meds and now carry an EpiPen.

And the good news - although a bit sad in reality, all the bees and accoutrements are going and 4 TMC Signatures are maturing nicely and 3 Dennerle Scapers are in transit.

I hope that you enjoy the blog. I intend to get my own back on Dane and Alan in the fullness.

Happy Shrimp Keeping

Richard