shrimp-attack.com

- ‘We all need new breeding material, don’t we?’  -

Many shrimp lovers spend the weekend in Hannover (Germany) to visit the ‘2^nd International Shrimp Championship’. While I have been attending this event in 2009 I decided against it this year. The reasons letting me staying at home were mostly deficits in the planning and performance of this show that was not so international at all. Some facts to think about:

1. English information came out on January 16^th on the contest website; less than 4 weeks before which is really late. The registration form was not translated to English at all. Meanwhile I had been contacted by shrimp keepers from Sweden, Hungary and other countries already who wanted to participate in the event or visit the Hannover fair. They had written two or three emails to the organizer but none was answered. The organizing team gave the impression, the new competitors where neither that much nor particularly so important.
2. The recommendation of shipping the shrimps without papers but declared as a gift seems questionable to me (‘Participants from outside Germany please note on the box without fail that the shipment does not contain protected species and that it contains gift parcels, not commodities.’)
3. Information in Germany was spread in garnelenforum.de only. No announcements in crustawelt.de, wirbellose.net or other (international) boards like shrimpnow.com. The whole schedule was fixed on January 26^th and some tanks out of 200 were still unoccupied then, due to the lack of registrations. Funny, since some breeders had been invited participating in person by the organizer.
4. The five judges remained unknown until now, but were said to be from the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Taiwan and Japan. They were free to participate in any category with their own shrimps they did not judge. Why was there no general prohibition for them to attend with own shrimps?
5. The auction standards were astonishing, too: 100% of the auction benefits went to the organizer. A 30/70 percentage split (organizer/breeder) known from some betta clubs would be a fairer rule and encourage more people to participate.
6. The participation for breeders giving their shrimps into the auction was also rewarded with a one year free membership in the ‘AK Wirbellose’ association (benefit =25 Euro). Furthermore, those breeders could receive a receipt (‘Sachspendenquittung’) for German fiscus. This information wasn’t shared on the contest website, but within garnelenforum.de, where several threads were opened maybe to push the event in search engines result.

In sum, a fair competition policy should not penalize Newbies or non-German-speakers.

Overall, one could have the dim feeling that participation from unknown foreign breeders really was not particular desired by the organizing team. Perhaps only few selected professional breeders of the old boys-network were appreciated guests? A separation of competitors in hobbiest’s and professional breeders would be a wise thing to do in the future. Hopefully, the ‘AK Wirbellose’ will check the final accounting in Sievershausen accurately and heed all the helpful suggestions from shrimp keepers around the world in 2011.

Recently the number of questions I receive via email increased: How to get off hydras? How to build a moss wall? Which gravel should I use for my new set up? Will the prices for King Kong drop in Germany? Is my filter shrimp-safe? and other drop to my mailbox.

Although I like to share all of my experiences and opinions openly, I cannot consult you individually and it is better to discuss your concerns in a wider public, say forum. I therefore like ton invite you to shrimpnow.com-forum where your concerns can be talked over.

Remark: This is a rough overview only – no responsibility is taken for the correctness of this information!

1. Check out fees and taxes, depend on the product you trade first. German’s can check this data in a special online register (click on ‘Auskunftsanwendung’). You can get a code number for your shrimps there, f. e. 0306 2390 000 for shrimps of the family Pandalidae, genus Crangon. The import turnover tax is 7%. Sometimes you have to pay extra customs tariff for non-EU countries (f.e. when you get shrimps from Japan). All the fees and taxes are paid in advance!
2. Get your customs ID than before focusing on further paper war.
3. The forms you need to fill out in step three are called ‘Einheitspapier’. This customs declaration is easily made online.
4. Contact your local official veterinary office to get an import license; check full list here PDF.

Here is a complete list of papers necessary to do an import, f. e. from Japan. They must to be shown at the customs office responsible for your address or at Frankfurt Airport International, where your shrimps arrive.

1. customs declaration (‘Einheitspapier’)
2. invoice of the seller (2 copies)
3. veterinary report with German translation (from your seller)
4. import license

Further Information at the German Customs

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Information in English
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When talking about shrimp keeping, most people talk about breeding shrimps too. But in fact, simple reproduction is not breeding. Breeding means to select offspring to meet criteria for better genes. This also means to reject a great number of shrimplets  which don’t meet the breeding target. A serious breeder will not sell shrimps he rejected; this is an unwritten code of honour. Otherwise, the market is overstock with low quality shrimps.

Hi there,

I will be moving to a new appartment in the nearer surrounding of Cologne in March 2010. Therefore I had to reduce my tanks and give away most of my shrimps. It was not an easy decision to make. I finally will keep my Guinea Swarm Shrimp (desmocaris trispinosa) and an older Betta boy (called ‘Oleander’) which shall retire in good care. My last betta spwan has very beautiful males and I plan to send some of them to the Betta show in Friedrichshafen (Aqua Fish, 5th-7th march 2010). I’ll start from the beginning with my tanks and hopefully will get new exciting shrimps like the beautiful Princess Bees or other.

Perhaps I will be cut off from this blog a couple of weeks, but I’ll sure come back with new articles! As promised, the import/export procedures will be a hot topic, furthermore a review of the Hannover shrimp show will definately come out and I’ll also discuss what minerals shrimp need.

So: it’s time to say good bye for a couple of days, stay tuned and have fun with your shrimps and tanks,

Imke

Fortunately I have had the opportunity to learn English in school. It was not my best class neither my favorite but these days I am happy about every snatch of conversation I can do in English. As a blogger and moderator in shrimpnow.com I have daily practice and try to improve my language skills whenever possible. Most people I am talking to are ashamed of talking English because they think they talk clumsy or incomprehensible. They forget about the best: The main point is that English gives you the opportunity to exchange ideas, beliefs, know-how and experiences. And this plus is not limited to shrimp keeping. Dwarf shrimp have fans around the world: One should not think that sticking to his own country or language brings our hobby forward. But lately, there is an unpleasant vanity in German forums: to think that German shrimp breeders will be in pole position soon. Germany = ‘Black Tiger Land’; how priggish! They will be brought back down to earth soon. Let’s wait and see who will be smart ass in the end.