5th International Shrimp Championship 2013
The 5th International Shrimp Championship will take place from 25th to 27th January 2013 as part of the Heimtiermesse Hannover. The event was conceived with the idea of presenting the hobby of keeping freshwater invertebrates to those interested in this sphere, and also to organize an international competition for shrimp breeders.
Like last year’s competition, the Shrimp Championship is being organized by caridina magazine (Dähne Verlag GmbH, Ettlingen) and the AKWB, the Freshwater Invertebrates Working Group of the German Union of Aquarium Clubs.
Competition hosts (Organizing committee)
Friedrich Bitter of Geeste, Germany, initiator and competition chairman;
Dähne Verlag GmbH of Ettlingen, Germany, represented by Thomas Heinen;
Arbeitskreis Wirbellose in Binnengewässern (AKWB), represented by Lars Dwinger
of Bargteheide, Germany.
Categories
Category 1
Neocaridina cf. heteropoda (red and orange variants like Red Fire/Red Cherry and Sakura)
Category 2
Neocaridina cf. heteropoda (other colours such as Yellow Fire, brown, black, blue, rili)
Category 3
Tiger shrimp (all blue including Orange Eyes)
Category 4
Tiger shrimp (all black including Black Orange Eyes)
Category 5
Tiger shrimp (all red)
Category 6
Red & Black Bee & Shadow Bee Family “Mixed breed” (Grade A to S)
Category 7
Red & Black Bee & Shadow Bee Family “Mixed breed” (Grade SS and above)
Category 8
Blue Bolt, Red Bolt, Snow-white and all blue-green Taiwan Bee
Category 9
Taiwan bee/shadow bee family red and black (from Wine Red via Red Ruby and Panda to King Kong)
Category 10
Crossbreeds and new colour mutations of bee shrimp, tiger shrimp and neocaridina cf. heteropoda
Acceptance and safe-keeping of registration data
Your registration as a competitor can only be carried out at www.garnelenchampionat.de or www.shrimpchampionship.com using the
appropriate application form. The completed registration is automatically sent to admin@garnelenchampionat.de . The recipient is Thomas Heinen of Dähne Verlag. Mr Heinen keeps a list of all competitors and the categories entered. The list is not accessible to any other member of the organizational team.
The participation fee will be paid via Paypal into the bank account of Dähne Verlag. It will not be possible to view any other information of relevance to the competition through the transfer of the deposit.
Allocation of competition tanks
After the application deadline Mr Heinen will allocate the number of tanks for each category, based on the registrations received. Each show group must be kept in a separate transport bag. The transport bags must be inscribed with the following details: category, genus and, if applicable, the variant or grade. Please ensure these details are clearly legible and applied with a waterproof marker. The participant’s full name should NOT be on the transport bag.
Shrimp deliveries may only be opened by the organizing committee, which consists of Friedrich Bitter, Lars Dwinger and Thomas Heinen. Should you wish to deliver your show group in person, please make sure that the transport bag is handed only to a member of the organizing committee. The organizing committee will then tell the helpers of the AKWB which tank to put that particular show group in. This guarantees that no helper knows to whom any show group belongs.
Mr Bitter, as a specialist and the competition chairman, will check that the shrimps brought in actually belong to the relevant group. Should problems such as missing or wrong labelling arise and no correct allocation be possible, the shrimps will be displayed in separate tanks outside the competition floor with no possibility of being judged.
Appointment of jurors
The jurors will be appointed by the competition chairman, Friedrich Bitter.
The allocation of jurors to the competition groups is carried out by the organizing committee (Friedrich Bitter, Lars Dwinger, Thomas Heinen). This will ensure that no juror judges a group in which he himself or a member of his family has an entry.
To ensure the neutrality of the jurors and to avoid manipulation or bribing, the names of the appointed jurors will not be published beforehand. The organizing committee will endeavour to appoint an even mixture of national and international jurors. If possible, each juror team will be composed of one German and one international juror.
Judging procedure
A show group consists of three to five shrimps to allow for an assessment of the standard of breeding achieved. The best three invertebrates in a show group are compared with each other by the jury (two jurors in each group) with the help of a points system. A maximum of ten points are allocated per show group in quarter-point steps for
1. Colour and intensity of colour (max. 2.5 points)
2. Markings (max. 2.0 points)
3. Size and shape of body (max. 2.5 points)
4. Size relative to each other (max. 1.5 points)
5. Shape, health and vitality (max. 1.5 points)
Categories 1 to 9 will be each be assessed by two judges, who will not themselves be allowed to exhibit in this category (family members are also excluded). Each show group will be judged according to the points system listed above. The tanks are of course anonymous. The two point jurors are not expected to determine any order of merit.
Once the points have been awarded, if there is a draw (in the higher placings) in one category, three other point jurors, who may not themselves have exhibited in the relevant category, will decide the first three places in the category in question.
Once the first place has been decided in categories 1 to 9, each of the competition jurors, none of whom has himself entered a category winner, will be given a list with the tank numbers of the category winners and will then decide which are his three favourites (1st place = 3 points, 2nd place = 2 points, 3rd place = 1 point). The show group with the highest combined number of points from this assessment will be the overall champion.
Category 10 will be given special treatment. Since new hybrids or variants can only partly be judged according to the normal criteria,
three special prizes for innovative breeding achievements will be awarded here by a sponsor with the assistance of the organizing committee.
There will be no access to the competition tanks for spectators for approx. 2 hours on the Friday during the period when the jury members are doing the judging. This is to avoid them being distracted from their task.
Visitors can vote on the public’s favourite on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday. All votes cast that carry the name and full address of the voter will be entered in a draw for a prize, which will be presented directly at the event. Should the winner not be present or able to collect his prize, a new winner will be drawn.
Evaluation of the public’s favourite and the jurors’ points will be carried out by the organizing committee.
After the evaluation, the winners of the different categories will be announced on the exhibition area and on the website. The names of the jurors for the individual categories will also be announced.
Entry conditions
Any private individual breeding shrimps that come within one of the 10 accepted categories may participate in the competition.
Registration deadline
Registration must be completed on the website www.garnelenchampionat.de by 15th January 2013.
Category entry
A participant may enter a total of three show groups per category.
Number of shrimps per group
A show group consists of three to five shrimps. If there are more than three shrimps per group, the three best ones will be judged.
Entry fee
An entry fee of € 12.- per show group will be charged provided the shrimps are handed over for auctioning in favour of the
AKWB after the competition.
An entry fee of € 20.- will be charged to register each show group if the owner intends to take them back after the competition.
Dealing with shrimps after the competition
When completing the registration process for the competition you must state (by selecting the appropriate box on the form) whether or not the shrimps are to be donated for auctioning in favour of the AKWB. Those that are not to be auctioned must be collected in person on the Sunday between 5 pm and 5.30 pm. Alternatively, the owner must contact the organizing team and arrange the collecting details with them in advance. An authorized representative may also collect the shrimps upon production of written authorization plus a copy of the registered participant’s identity card. Any shrimps that are not collected will automatically become the property of the AKWB and will be sold. No reimbursement of the higher entry fee is possible. For organizational reasons it is not possible to send any shrimps back to their owners by post.
Auction
All shrimps in the competition that have not expressly been ruled out of the auction at the time of registration, will be included in the auction on the Sunday. Any shrimps that were excluded from the auction but have not been collected by 5.30 pm on the Sunday will become the property of the AKWB and will be sold. The money resulting from such sales will serve to cover the AKWB’s costs for the competition. Any surplus will revert to the AKWB for a specific purpose.
The auction will take place on 27th January 2013. A comprehensive list of the shrimps to be put up for auction will be issued to accompany the event. Shrimps bought at auction must be paid for at once in cash. There is no right of any kind to return or exchange the goods. At the end of the auction helpers will place the shrimps purchased in the course of the auction in waterproof transport bags, with a thermal outer cover if necessary, and hand them over to the purchaser. All purchasers of auctioned goods should themselves make arrangements for appropriately insulated transport since it is cold at that time of year.
Premature end of registration period
A maximum of 250 show tanks is available for the Shrimp Championship 2013. Entries for the competition are accepted in their order of arrival. The registration period ends on 15th January 2013, but may be terminated ahead of this date if the maximum number of show groups is reached earlier.
Delivery
Shrimp deliveries by airfreight must arrive at the exhibition venue no later than Thursday 24th January 2013. The destination airport for airfreight deliveries is Hannover. All airfreight shipments should be addressed to:
Deutsche Messe Hannover / Heimtiermesse
Internationales Garnelenchampionat
Dähne Verlag / AKWB
Thomas Heinen / Lars Dwinger
Halle 17/Messebüro
Eingang Sued 1
30521 Hannover (Germany)
Phone contact: +49/151/24044476 or +49/171/6035118
Shrimp shipments via freight carriers, parcel services, DHL: delivery no later than Thursday 24th January 2013 to:
Deutsche Messe Hannover / Heimtiermesse
Internationales Garnelenchampionat
Dähne Verlag / AKWB
Thomas Heinen / Lars Dwinger
Halle 17/Messebüro
Eingang Sued 1
30521 Hannover (Germany)
Phone contact: +49/151/24044476 or +49/171/6035118
You must include this telephone numbers when sending entries by freight carrier or airfreight.
Participants from outside Germany must note on the box that it does not contain any protected species, only unsolicited gifts of no commercial value.
Shrimp entered for the competition can also be handed over at the exhibition site in hall 17 (only to the three members of the organization team) up to 4 pm on Thursday 24th January 2013 at the latest. It cannot be guaranteed that any shrimp arriving after this
time will be judged.
Packaging
Please pack your shrimps well. Although we endeavour to place all shrimps in the show tanks as soon as possible, this can take some time when dealing with large numbers at once. The transport bags must be inscribed with the following details: category, genus and, if applicable, the variant or grade. Please ensure these details are clearly legible and applied with a waterproof marker. Your name should NOT be written on the transport bags. Write your name and address only on the package exterior or include a letter with your name and address inside your package.
Show tank specification
250 aquariums with a gross volume of approx. 10 l or 16 l are being made available for the competition. The show groups will be presented in these, ordered according to category. The water parameters will be maintained within acceptable limits for the different categories.
Substrate
Tested neutral substrate suitable for shrimp.
Lighting
Individual lamp (daylight bulb or LED) integrated into the cover or mounted above the cover panel.
Filter
Air-driven sponge filter, motor filter.
Water quality
Soft or medium hard water with a pH approaching neutral.
Tagging
The tanks will be numbered consecutively. Following judging, each tank will be labelled with the category, the breeder’s name and the number of points awarded or the placement.
Photos
Official photographs will be taken of the show groups. The organizers will hold the copyright of these photos, which will be made available for publishing in magazines, etc. We are planning to present the winners of the competition at least in the appropriate print media and on internet sites. Visitors may take photos of all the invertebrates on display. No manipulation with fingers, sticks or similar objects is permitted in the tanks. Only the official photographers appointed by the organizing committee may be permitted some careful manipulation by means of clean wooden skewers. The organizing team is obliged to prevent any manipulation by visitors.
If you have any questions, please e-mail admin@garnelenchampionat.de.
Drafted on 26th November 2012.
