Producer: Popular Science China
Producer: Liu Yadan (China Agricultural Association for International Exchange, Knowledge is Power Micro platform)
Producer: Computer Network Information Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Summer is here, and it's time to eat shrimp! Crayfish, Pippi shrimp, prawns... Are you already drooling? However, don't think about eating first, today Zhilijun wants to introduce you to a pleasing shrimp - ornamental shrimp!
As a novel and beautiful emerging pet, ornamental shrimp is known as "special things in the water" because of its crystal clear body and bright colors, and is gradually discovered by people to become the new favorite of the aquarium.
Ornamental shrimp is actually a mutation of the edible shrimp gene?
The shrimp we see in the market are mainly edible shrimp, whether it is seawater prawns, prawns, tiger shrimp, lobsters, or freshwater giant prawns, river shrimp, crayfish, are used to eat. Most ornamental shrimp are exotic species, many of which were first produced in the Americas. Ornamental shrimp have only been popular in the world for more than 10 years.
According to reports, Mr. Suzuki Hisayasu, the owner of a Japanese sushi restaurant, is keen to raise shrimp as a pet and raises cheap bee shrimp as a pastime on weekdays. It wasn't until he had bred thousands that in 1996 he occasionally found a few mutant individuals with distinctive red colors, and these mutated shrimp became the ancestors of all the red crystal shrimps today. Mr. Kuyasu Suzuki has naturally become a pioneer in ornamental shrimp farming.
At present, ornamental shrimp has developed into a new pet due to its beautiful appearance and easy reproduction. However, because the breeding environment of ornamental shrimp is more stringent, it is now only found in aquarium shops in large and medium-sized cities.
In fact, in addition to the beautiful appearance of ornamental shrimp, some species are still experts in labor, and their ability to remove algae has also been recognized. The green algae in the fish tank always obscure the line of sight, which is indeed very annoying, but if you mix some beautiful ornamental shrimp in the fish tank, this can not only make your fish tank transparent and clean, but also reflect the colorful world in the water in the tank, which is really beautiful!
Four families of ornamental shrimp
The variety of ornamental shrimp is increasing. It is understood that there are currently more than 80 kinds of shrimp that can be used as ornamental, with a wide variety and complexity. According to their living habits and family, we mainly divide ornamental shrimp into four categories: crystal shrimp, rice shrimp, shrimp and Sulawesi shrimp.
Crystal clear shrimp
Red Crystal Shrimp, as the name suggests, is the same as crystal, crystal clear shrimp. Mr. Kuyasu Suzuki of Japan brought the rainbow native to Hong Kong back to Japan, and after 6 years of long cultivation and 15 generations of purification, the gene was stabilized, and the red recessive gene was maintained, which made today's crystal shrimp.
Crystal shrimp has many colors, divided into 5 levels, and the same, red and white crystal shrimp ornamental value is extremely high. Crystal shrimp is the most widely popular in China, because of its beautiful color, moderate difficulty in breeding, is a hot classic variety among many aquatic organisms. Representative species of crystal shrimp are:
Red and white crystal shrimp
Red and white crystal shrimp is the highest grade of crystal shrimp, and like red and white koi, pay attention to both red and white colors. If the lights are turned off at night, the shrimp is like a white crystal shining.
Red crystal shrimp
The red crystal shrimp's body is bright red, and it is accompanied by transparent tentacles, shrimp feet and tail fins, like a red flower with a transparent streamer.
Black and white crystal shrimp
Compared with the red and white crystal shrimp, the black and white crystal shrimp is characterized by black and white, which is permeated with atmosphere and aura.
There are also many varieties of crystal shrimp, such as gold and steel crystal shrimp with black body, snowball shrimp with snowball all over body, burgundy crystal shrimp with wine red and white, and green crystal shrimp with green grass all over body.
Small and delicate rice shrimp
Rice shrimp, also known as "grass shrimp", belongs to the small freshwater shrimp class, living in lakes, ponds or ditches, often climbing on aquatic grasses, widely distributed and common Chinese rice shrimp. Rice shrimp is extremely adaptable to water temperature and easy to raise.
Rice shrimp belong to the more diligent group of ornamental shrimp, feeding on algae and plankton, so it is the backbone of the fish tank to remove algae. However, rice shrimp is small, so it is best not to be polycultured with carnivorous ornamental fish, otherwise the juvenile shrimp of rice shrimp will become a delicacy for other fish.
Cantonese rice shrimp
Zhejiang rice shrimp
Golden rice shrimp
Stingy rice shrimp
Orange rice shrimp
Hong Kong wild rice shrimp
Aggressive shrimp by nature
Ornamental shrimp are mainly produced in Jilin, Heilongjiang and other places in northeast China, inhabiting streams, lakes and small tributaries of rivers, belonging to omnivorous animals, mainly feeding on aquatic plants, red worms, earthworms and small fish. The body color is brown, brownish red, olive green and gray blue, not easy to reproduce, the current source of breeds is mainly based on wild collection.
Shrimp is a "night owl", generally come out to feed at night, not very "bright and upright"; shrimp is still a combatant, is a very aggressive creature, even if the same species will fight between each other, sometimes from the tank to escape, so the fish tank shrimp should remember to be vigilant, strict defense. The main species of shrimp are:
Crawfish
Yellow capsule shrimp
White shrimp
Sky Blue Devil Shrimp
Northeast black shrimp
In addition to these, the series also includes 、、、、、、、、 and so on, some are named after the place of origin, some are named after the appearance image, such as the demon shrimp in the picture below, it is fierce, wearing armor, steel pincers and iron feet, is it a bit like a demon?
Demon shrimp
Both beautiful and elegant Sulawesi shrimp
Sulawesi shrimp is a freshwater ornamental shrimp native to Lake Tauti in Sulawesi, Indonesia, which can also live in alkaline fresh water and is a large egg ornamental shrimp. We introduced this type of shrimp from Sulawesi, Indonesia, in 2008.
Sulawesi rainbow shrimp and shrimp on the contrary, it is both elegant and beautiful, very beautiful in color, habits and appearance are incredibly perfect. Because its stripes resemble Coke, it was also called "Coke Shrimp" in the early days of its introduction. The main species of Sulawesi shrimp are:
Rainbow shrimp
Rainbow shrimp is the most representative of the many Sulawesi ornamental shrimp, because the shrimp is distributed in the natural ecological environment in very few areas, so it is very precious.
Blood drill rice shrimp
The blood diamond rice shrimp is also one of the representatives of the Sulawesi shrimp, and its blood-red body is covered with white dots the size of a grain of rice.
Sulawesi blue diamond rice shrimp shimmer blue in the water, dreamlike light.
Sulawesi white socks rice shrimp are the most distinctive, shrimp feet seem to be wearing a pair.
There are many types of Sulawesi shrimp, most of which have beautiful names, such as Sulawesi white-bearded cherry rice shrimp, Sulawesi orchid shrimp, Sulawesi red sun rice shrimp, Sulawesi red bee rice shrimp and so on.
Ornamental shrimp are so beautiful that it can be eaten?
In principle, there is no fundamental difference between ornamental shrimp and edible shrimp, both are edible. In particular, there is not much difference in taste between wild-caught ornamental shrimp and edible shrimp. Many freshwater rice shrimp can be eaten fresh or peeled after cooking or used as food for other large freshwater fish and shrimp.
Despite this, there are still some differences between farmed ornamental shrimp and edible shrimp, mainly in the commercial breeding of edible shrimp, the formula of feed is strictly controlled, while the feed of ornamental shrimp is mainly vegetables, aquatic grasses, small fish and shrimp, and some artificial compound feed, so there is no strict standard.
Although ornamental shrimp can be eaten, shrimp farmers should not be willing to eat the beautiful and cute ornamental shrimp, right?
Coach, I want to raise ornamental shrimp at home! What should I pay attention to?
There are many ornamental shrimp that can be raised at home, but if you want to raise ornamental shrimp, you need to pay attention to the following three points:
First, do a good job in the oxygenation facilities of the fish tank to ensure that it is not short of oxygen.
The second is to control water quality. Adjust the pH value in the water according to different shrimp requirements. In addition, fish tanks, aquariums and other containers should be frequently brushed and disinfected, and regular disinfection of water bodies to ensure the quality of water.
The third is water temperature control, most of the ornamental shrimp are suitable for raising in fish tanks with a water temperature of 25 ° C to 30 ° C. In the winter of our country, except for Hainan, the fish tank basically needs to be warmed.
If you want to mix ornamental fish with ornamental shrimp, it is possible in principle, but be careful not to raise varieties that may swallow each other together and ensure the relative integration of living conditions.
As an expert in algae removal, ornamental shrimp and ornamental fish are less common, but we need to be wary of some large fish will use shrimp as food. Therefore, considering the difficulty of breeding and the problem of mutual matching, it is recommended to choose small ornamental fish and ornamental shrimp to be mixed, of which cherry shrimp is a good choice; small medaka fish such as ratfish, golden beard, traffic light, Pauline lamp, peacock fish, etc. are also good choices.
So what do ornamental shrimp eat?
Ornamental shrimp are actually omnivorous animals, the main foods are: grain grains, flake grains, red worms, shrimp, moss, algae, aquatic grass, minerals in the mud, freshwater shrimp special grains and organic bouliflower. But their favorite is spinach, especially cooked spinach. Crystal shrimp, on the other hand, prefer to eat kelp, snail algae and moss.
If you are a master shrimp farmer, you can pick some high-quality ornamental shrimp varieties to breed small shrimp fry. If the aquarium is large enough, you can also buy a few more pairs of shrimp to raise together. But be sure to note: in order to avoid fighting, pet shrimp in the same tank should choose the same breed. In addition, you can also buy some aquatic plants loved by shrimp in the store to enhance the beauty of the aquarium!
The image used in this article is from the Arowana Top Ornamental Fish Encyclopedia (http://shuicao.cc/baike/xia/view-613.html) and has been licensed.
(Circle cards have been added here, please check out the today's headlines client)