I first discovered Caridina in a local aquarium shop in Australia in 2016. I fell in love simply watching them and began keeping Crystal Red and Blue Bolt shrimp. I don’t have photographs of that first encounter, but the memory has stayed with me.
By early 2017, I was setting up breeding racks in my bedroom in Vietnam. Black metal frames, sponge filters, airlines and LED lights filled the room, with a planted display tank in the middle. These photographs show those first racks as the room gradually filled with tanks. This was where The Brothers Shrimp began to take shape.
What the hobby felt like then
At the time, Caridina were expensive, and everything still felt new to me. Taiwanese breeders were setting the standard for the lines, grades and quality that other breeders aspired to.
In my bedroom in Vietnam, with a few racks and valuable shrimp, my priorities were simple: keep them healthy, understand their water, and learn what was possible.
How I learned
I learned by observing the shrimp and spending hours watching their behaviour. How they moved, fed, moulted and settled into a tank taught me more than any shortcut could.
Much of what became The Brothers Shrimp grew from that experience: patience, close observation, and learning through daily care.
Farm note: My story began long before the farm tours, in a room that had been my bedroom and in the hours I spent quietly watching the shrimp.
Timeline so far
- 2016 — Australia: I discovered Caridina in a local aquarium shop and began keeping Crystal Red and Blue Bolt. I have no photographs of that first encounter.
- Early 2017 — Vietnam bedroom: I set up my first breeding racks, and The Brothers Shrimp began to take shape.
- 2018 — 40ft container: I expanded from 4 small racks to 15 racks, with 9 tanks on each rack.
- Mid 2020 — new room: I built a dedicated room for 35 racks.
- Today — Vietnam: I run two farms, in Vũng Tàu and nearby, with 116 racks between them.