grades of tiger [Archive]

retardo

27th Apr 2005, 11:08 PM

i've heard there are different grades of tiger shrimp. i assume that this would be true. can anyone provide examples of what a high grade is compared to a low grade? is there a grading guide such as the one for CRS? thanx.

rich

jojoecute

28th Apr 2005, 01:05 AM

Hi mornig to you,
In s'pore Tiger shrimps are very cheape S$0.50 / pc, LFS selling it in pkg of 10 pcs for $5.00 and there no choice of choosing..

Attached picture of Tiger shrimps hand carry in from Hong Kong with nicer black stripes & red stripes..

i've heard there are different grades of tiger shrimp. i assume that this would be true. can anyone provide examples of what a high grade is compared to a low grade? is there a grading guide such as the one for CRS? thanx.

rich

silane

28th Apr 2005, 01:39 AM

We don't have grading of tiger shrimps over here, but we do see slight color variation in batches, but pricewise, still the same.

My understanding is most of the Tiger Shrimps are wild caught, so not sure if grading make sense, different location may produce slight diffrent in color.

retardo

28th Apr 2005, 03:46 AM

i see. :cool: the tigers i have look similar to the pics you attached, black with a little bit of white. there are some that are a little duller in color and some that have an opaque exoskeleton rather than a clear one. i'm just hoping that they aren't sick and will die soon.

i also have some that have brown stripes rather than black stripes. i'm guessing the ones with brown stripes are getting closer to what has been called a red tiger shrimp.

which do you prefer: tigers with the black stripe or ones with the brown stripe?

silane

28th Apr 2005, 03:55 AM

There are a few more types:

With yellow head and tail:
http://www.shrimpnow.com/mygallery/files/1/0/tiger_shrimp.jpg

jojoecute's blue body:
http://www.shrimpnow.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=13&stc=1

I like yellow head and tail tiger best plus black stripes. :D

retardo

28th Apr 2005, 04:01 AM

wow, talk about bright yellow coloration on the tail. i think i may have a good combo of all of them, based on the pics. i think with time, they may improve in health and look like the one zhou hang has.

Robert

28th Apr 2005, 08:56 AM

Hi,
I never heard of any grading system for tigers and I think it would make not much sense. (BTW, I thinkt the grading system for CRS is useless too, it's mainly there to make profit IMO.)

There are several stable color variations and mutations. There are normal grey tigers, there are blue tigers (a recessive mutation which requires lots of selective breeding), blond tigers ( a recessive mutation with a partly lack of melanin) and black tigers (a recessive mutation which requires lots of selective breeding, much more melanin than usual). You can also have a combination of blue and blond.

The wild-caught one from Zhou Hang is no normal tiger shrimp but a exceptional beauty and most of them do not look like this. Of course I would like to cross such a shrimp into my own lines but until there are more exports from Southern China, I have no chance to do this.

So for the moment I try to get a stable blond tiger shrimp strain, best would be blond eyes with blue body color (the blond blues look better than the normal blue) and red stripes (I have all these genes in my tank but not in a single shrimp yet :D ). Here is a blond tiger shrimp:

http://www.shrimpnow.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/C_tiger_blond.jpg

This a blue one:

http://www.shrimpnow.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/normal_C_tiger3.jpg

And this male has red stripes (hope to stabilize this trait, he is not sick and lives for more than a half year in my tank now):

http://www.shrimpnow.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/C_tiger4.jpg

For more information about tiger shrimps take a look into the species section: http://www.shrimpnow.com/modules.php?name=Content&file=viewarticle&id=9 .

Best regards

Robert

Walter

28th Apr 2005, 11:20 AM

Hi, let me provide you an example of low quality tiger shrimps. Some of mine. :embarasse

Basically, the stripes are not thick and instead of the standard 5 stripes a tiger should have, some were missing. :embarasse

retardo

29th Apr 2005, 10:08 PM

So there are many different variations of tigers, in terms of striping, color (stripes and eyes), etc., it seems. I definitely would like to see more red/brown coming from the ones i have in future offspring. btw, is the color of the exoskeleton normal (milky and opaque)? It's very different that the pic that zhou hang took, which is very clear and transparent. I have a mixture of both (colorwise and "grade" wise) and am wondering if it's any indication of health. I've only had one loss, so I don't think it is, personally.

fruitpie, I'm just wondering about your statement that tigers are mostly wild caught. Is this something you've been told by your lfs? Just wondering where this info comes from.

Thx.

silane

30th Apr 2005, 02:33 AM

fruitpie, I'm just wondering about your statement that tigers are mostly wild caught. Is this something you've been told by your lfs? Just wondering where this info comes from.

Frankly, I do not relay what LFS said in a forum, a couple of smart LFS are good at using internet for their publicity or sales, it is hard for me to tell things a LFS said is truth and false.

I know someone higher up in the supply chain who deal with tens of thousand of shrimps per day. That's all I can say. :D

retardo

30th Apr 2005, 05:07 AM

Frankly, I do not relay what LFS said in a forum, a couple of smart LFS are good at using internet for their publicity or sales, it is hard for me to tell things a LFS said is truth and false.

I know someone higher up in the supply chain who deal with tens of thousand of shrimps per day. That's all I can say. :D

i c. I'm not expecting you to reveal your source. The main reason I ask to figure out how diverse the genepool is of my tiger population. I have 40+ that was sent to me by a friend that knows a wholesaler who imports shrimps from Asia. If I have a very diverse genepool with shrimps from the wild rather than captive bred, it would be ideal. I don't put too much value in most of the lfs around here; only a few of them will I actually consider to be reputable.

gigahertz

30th Apr 2005, 05:55 AM

Frankly, I do not relay what LFS said in a forum, a couple of smart LFS are good at using internet for their publicity or sales, it is hard for me to tell things a LFS said is truth and false.

I know someone higher up in the supply chain who deal with tens of thousand of shrimps per day. That's all I can say. :D

I completely agree with what Fruitcake is saying.....er fruitpie :joking:

Tiger shrimps are wild caught mainly in China. So far from what I can see in HK where there are lots of these guys for sale. There are lots of variations and just as many names made up to differentiate them.

I will be going there soon and hopefully if the weather cooperates I will be able to go to the place where these guys are caught and catch them myself. I will take some photos and some water sample measurements.

gigahertz

30th Apr 2005, 06:01 AM

i c. I'm not expecting you to reveal your source. The main reason I ask to figure out how diverse the genepool is of my tiger population. I have 40+ that was sent to me by a friend that knows a wholesaler who imports shrimps from Asia. If I have a very diverse genepool with shrimps from the wild rather than captive bred, it would be ideal. I don't put too much value in most of the lfs around here; only a few of them will I actually consider to be reputable.

Hey Rich I can guarantee that your tigers are wild caught! :)

Any babies yet?

ralp

30th Apr 2005, 09:05 AM

Offtopic:

I will be going there soon and hopefully if the weather cooperates I will be able to go to the place where these guys are caught and catch them myself. I will take some photos and some water sample measurements. Wouw! Ghz. I looking forward to read your documentation about your trip on this forum :D

Regards. Ralp

p.s.: What a beauty! The Zhou Hang tigershrimp.

Walter

30th Apr 2005, 09:32 AM

gigahertz

30th Apr 2005, 05:10 PM

p.s.: What a beauty! The Zhou Hang tigershrimp.

Which one is that?? :huh:

ralp

30th Apr 2005, 06:45 PM

This one - posted from fruitpie. Sorry, if i mixed up.

There are a few more types:

With yellow head and tail:
http://www.shrimpnow.com/mygallery/files/1/0/tiger_shrimp.jpg

Walter

1st May 2005, 10:07 AM

The Zhou Hang tigershrimp? Is that in mandrian or? Where this name come about from?

Although I know the quality kind of differs but then is the picture attached counted as the so called Zhou Hang tigershrimp? But, I think I would rather just call them "high quality tigershrimp" and low/normal quality tigers.:p :cool:

retardo

1st May 2005, 10:24 AM

hi, Walter:

I agree that we shouldn't call it the "Zhou Hang" tiger shrimp as it may be a source of confusion, but it certainly is a testament to the quality of the picture and of the specimen itself. It is of a very high quality, one that I"m sure many of us on this forum would not mind owning. Thanks for the observation.

rich

retardo

1st May 2005, 10:31 AM

Hey Rich I can guarantee that your tigers are wild caught! :)

Any babies yet?

hey, GHz, thanx for confirming.... I should've gone straight to the source to figure out if they were wild caught. :undecided I figured I'd ask to find out from those with easy(er) access to the tigers.

Unfortunately, no babies yet. I will say that I did manage to find a baby in the same tank, but it's too small for me to say if it's a tiger or not. I had previously kept a pregnant female amano in the tank I'm keeping the tigers in right now and all the eggs hatched. I'm hoping there may be a case of an amano being able to reach adulthood in full fw and without the necessity for sw, as so many before me have said. Only time will tell. I haven't seen the baby since first sighting, so let's hope it's still alive somewhere and growing. :D

gigahertz

1st May 2005, 04:57 PM

This one - posted from fruitpie. Sorry, if i mixed up.

That is a nice looking shrimp!

gigahertz

1st May 2005, 04:59 PM

hey, GHz, thanx for confirming.... I should've gone straight to the source to figure out if they were wild caught. :undecided I figured I'd ask to find out from those with easy(er) access to the tigers.

Unfortunately, no babies yet. I will say that I did manage to find a baby in the same tank, but it's too small for me to say if it's a tiger or not. I had previously kept a pregnant female amano in the tank I'm keeping the tigers in right now and all the eggs hatched. I'm hoping there may be a case of an amano being able to reach adulthood in full fw and without the necessity for sw, as so many before me have said. Only time will tell. I haven't seen the baby since first sighting, so let's hope it's still alive somewhere and growing. :D

How big is your tank? I can't spot my babies unless they are CRS because most babies ( Tiger, cherry etc ) are almost clear when they are hatched. That's one of the problem of using big planted tanks for shrimps.

retardo

2nd May 2005, 04:15 PM

How big is your tank? I can't spot my babies unless they are CRS because most babies ( Tiger, cherry etc ) are almost clear when they are hatched. That's one of the problem of using big planted tanks for shrimps.

The tank is a bare-bottom 10G with mostly java moss and a big java fern v. windelov. My guess is that the baby is not a tiger tho; I'm more inclined to think it is an amano than a tiger just based on the history of the tank.

gigahertz

2nd May 2005, 04:40 PM

The tank is a bare-bottom 10G with mostly java moss and a big java fern v. windelov. My guess is that the baby is not a tiger tho; I'm more inclined to think it is an amano than a tiger just based on the history of the tank.

I see. Well only time will tell.

Oh and BTW I read your post on the same subject at the other forum. Prof. shrimp's reply was so predictable....I have never seem anything like that so it's not possible! http://www.guppy.de/chat/www/images/smiley11.gif ! :rolleyes: