Interview with Chris Lukhaup

Many thanks for the following interview have to go to Alex Veres (a proud forum member and ITFS club member) for giving our forum permission to copy the interview he recently did with Chris Lukhaup

The interview contains the CV of Chris as well. All the great pictures are protected by copyright law, were made by him and we have approval for them to be used by the ITFS forum site.

The links are to the website that Alex is an administrator of in Romania.

Interview by Alex Veres. Publishing admitted only with written approval by author.

Interview with Chris Lukhaup

Interview with Chris Lukhaup - Aquascape

Thanks again Alex - you're a great asset to the forum and club.
Andrew

Thank you lads, the pleasure to discover such a helpful friends as you are is mine!
Enjoy the interviews!!!

Chris Lukhaup is the leading freshwater shrimp specialist and a professional photographer as well.
He spends most of his time on expeditions around South America and Asia studying shrimps in their natural habitat. During these trips he has discovered many new species, studied their behavior and taken some of the most breath taking pictures of shrimps ever seen.

Recently he was invited to Dublin where he had a very relaxed speech mixed with great photos from some of his adventures in world of shrimp hunting. I had been lucky enough to get two interviews with this global celebrity and I am very happy to share it with you all.

Hope to meet all of you again, sometime at Rosey O'Gradys Pub!

Cheers,
Alex.

Here is the interview in full (in case it is moved or the link is lost from the host site) -

Interview by Alex Veres. Publishing admitted only with written approval by author.

CV Chris Lukhaup

1986-2008 Bass player of the band Atrocity;
 lots of CDs and videoclips for MTV and Viva;
studio musician for other bands, projects and productions; 
bass player and songwriter of the band Leaves Eyes. 
World tours with both bands. 
Articles and photos in magazines and journals worldwide.

Research Associate:

Museum Leiden / Netherlands
Section of Invertebrate Zoology, 
Carnegie Museum of Natural History Pittsburgh /USA

Humboldt Museum Berlin / Germany


Many collecting trips and expeditions to Cuba, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Australia, USA, Panama, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Brasil, Japan, Europe, Sri Lanka etc.


Important Publications:
• Krebse im Aquarium - Dähne Verlag (März 2005)
• Süsswasserkrebse aus aller Welt - Dähne Verlag (März 2003)
• Süßwassergarnelen – Graefe und Unzer Verlag; ( Februar 2008)
• Süßwasser-Krebse von Chris Lukhaup und Reinhard Pekny von Gräfe & Unzer (2009)
• Schnecken fürs Aquarium von Chris Lukhaup und Alexandra Behrendt von Gräfe & Unzer (2009)
• Nano-Fibel: Dähne (2008) Herrausgeber Reinhard Pekny und Chris Lukhaup
• Nano Meerwasserfibel: Dähne Verlag (2009 ) Sandra Preis und Chris Lukhaup
• Faszination Bienengarnelen Dähne Verlag 2009 - Carsten und Frank Logemann, Chris Lukhaup
• Faszination Süsswassergarnelen Dähen Verlag 2011 – Carsten und Frank Logemann, Chris Lukhaup
• Guppy Fibel – Dähne Verlag 2011 – Harro Hieroniemus & Chris Lukhaup
• Aquarienpflanzen –Gu 2011 – Stefan Hummel und Chris Lukhaup
Aquascaping – GU 2013 – Chris Lukhaup and Oliver Knott

Scientific Papers
• Nature :Ecology: Parthenogenesis in an outsider crayfish Gerhard Scholtz, Anke Braband, Laura Tolley, Andre Reimann, Beate Mittmann, Chris Lukhaup, Frank Steuerwald & Günther Vogt Nature, Issue 6925, Volume 421 (20 February 2003)
• Lukhaup, C. & Pekny,R. - Cherax (Cherax) holthuisi, a new species of crayfish (Crustacea: Decapoda: Parastacidae) from the centre of the Vogelkop Peninsula in Irian Jaya (West New Guinea), Indonesia. Zool. Med. Leiden 80-1 (7), 00-ii.2006: 127-132, figs 1-3.ISSN 0024-0672.
• Lukhaup, C. & Herbert, B. 2008 01 03. A new species of crayfish (Crustacea: Decapoda: Parastacidae) from the Fly River Drainage, Western Province, Papua New Guinea. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 52(2): 1–7. Brisbane. ISSN 0079-8835
• Cherax (Astaconephrops) boesemani, a new species of crayfish (Crustacea: Decapoda: Parastacidae) from the centre of the Vogelkop Peninsula in Irian Jaya (West New Guinea), Indonesia C. Lukhaup & R. Pekny
• Parthenogenetic Alien Crayfish (Decapoda: Cambaridae) spreading in Madagascar - T. Kawai, G. Scholtz, S. Morioka, F. Rananamandimby, C. Lukhaup and Y. Hanamura - Journal of Crustacean Biology
• Crayfish Fauna of the Tennessee River Drainage in Mississippi, Including New State Species Records Susan B. Adams, Christopher A. Taylor, and Chris Lukhaup 2010 SOUTHEASTERN NATURALIST 9(3):521–528



Hi, Chris! We’ve known each other for some time and I am honored that you accepted to answer some questions, as you are a very busy person with interests all over the world. In my opinion you are probably the most famous shrimp specialist, with in-depth taxonomy knowledge combined with systematic experience in biology, plus important photography skills… We discovered that we have a lot in common, so let’s start to share our previous discussions with our shrimp hobbyists::

1 AV Please be so kind as to tell us when did you discover your love for shrimps, when did you keep your first shrimp and what species was it?



CL : As so often, everything started in my childhood in Cristian near Brasov, when I was about five or six years old. My brother brought me some guppies from Bucharest. I put them into a tank, in front of which I used to spend hours just sitting and watching. That was back in the 70s, and there was not much aquarium technology and decoration around.
Several years later, when I was a teenager, I saw yellow Labidochromis caerulus in a local fish store and fell in love. I then put up a 720 l tank where I kept Malawi cichlids. I spent many nights studying the literature in order to find out more about them, and pretty soon breeding started to be successful. However, the hobby gained even more momentum when I saw some electric blue crayfish in a fish store where I used to work as a side job during my studies in philosophy. I was totally fascinated by these curious animals. This opened the door to the invertebrates. Meanwhile I was working with crayfish, shrimps, crabs and other freshwater inverts.The first shrimps that caught my attention were the red and white Crystal Red. This was more than 13 years ago.



2 AV You used to have a shrimp-place (room) where you kept and bred shrimps. Are you still breeding them, do you still consider yourself a breeder?

CL: I don’t consider myself a breeder anymore. Those days are over. I did that when I started with shrimps. To be honest I never was very successful with breeding because I was too much on the road with my bands Atrocity and Leaves Eyes and when not touring, I was on expeditions to find new species, in order to photograph and label them. At the moment I have only 3 tanks in total. Two of them are in Germany - one of them is a phototank and the other one is a 60 Liter Cube from Dennerle with some nano fish and shrimps that I need for my work. In Chile I have a tank with some Cherrys and NanoFish. To breed sucessfully you need time and patience. I don’t have time at all and neither am I very patient. I prefer to go on field trips to find new species.



3 AV During that period of time, you probably had many aquariums where you kept shrimps. In your experience, what is the ideal size for a shrimp-tank if you intend to keep regular species, such as Crystal Red Shrimp?

CL: This depends on how many shrimps you want to keep. If you don’t want to breed shrimps you can have a Nano Tank with 10 Liter and 10 to 15 Caridina in it. That will work fine. If you want to breed them, you‘d better have a bigger tank, of 60–100 liters. This is the average tank that breeders use in order to reproduce them in higher quantities.



4 AV Do you recommend a special filtration for that tank? I am more interested in finding out if you recommend canister filter, hang-on, under-gravel filter or simple sponge-filter with strong aeration?

CL: I would not say that there is special filtration system that works best. I have seen all of the examples that you mentioned at different breeders and all of them worked. I think it is more important that the filter is big enough, with a big surface. Which technology you use to achieve biological filtration is almost entirely up to you, there is a vast range of possibilities. What's also important when it comes to filtration: baby shrimps have to be protected from entering the filter in order to prevent them from disappearing in there forever.



5 AV You collect or receive lot of new species of shrimps from all over the world. How do you acclimatize a new shrimp to a new tank and what are the most important parameters that you first observe and check when you bring the shrimps in your home-tank?

CL: Most of the shrimps that I collect go in alcohol to examine them. The ones that I bring home for photographing usually travel in breathing bags with cool water in a styrofoam box. When home, depending where they come from, I prepare the water. I think it is very important to adapt them slowly to the new conditions. After photographing, which takes 2–3 days, I give them to breeders to reproduce them.



6 AV The water parameters are very important in breeding the shrimps. Can you tell us about what water parameter do you recommend for Bee Shrimps?

CL: When it comes to Bee Shrimps it is important that the water is clean and that the nitrate content does not exceed 10mg/liter. In general I would recommend that Caridina species should be kept in cooler water with a temperature around 18–24 C and a conductivity from 50 -300. Water change every week around 10%. The ph should be around 6,5.. In my experience most shrimp species from the genus Caridina love the cooler water. Recently I have been to Hong Kong where I have found the habitat of the bee shrimp. This place was a secret for many years because local shrimp catchers did not want any foreigners to go there. When we measured the water the temperature in March had been 16,5 Celsius.The water had a conductivity of 40 microsiemens, so in fact that was rainwater. Similar parameters you can find in most of the shrimp habitats I visited during last years.




7 AV Total dissolved solids (TDS) is a measure of all organic and inorganic substances that are dissolved within a liquid, do you think this is the most important parameter that it has to be checked into the shrimp tank? What model/brand of device you use for that?

CL: I would not consider that the most important parameter. I know that most of the breeders don’t pay attention to it at all. If it is around 5–8 it is fine. I think that other parameters are more important.Conductivity for example. It should not be higher then 200–300 microsiemens.

8 AV In Romania Crystal Red Shrimp/Red Bee is still one of the most popular shrimp. But even for this species, there are just a few who succeed in breeding them. Can you tell us a few secrets about how to breed them? Is there any mineral or salt that improves the breeding rate or makes the breeding easier?

CL: Crystal Red Shrimps are the most popular shrimps worldwide, not only in Romania. There are no secrets about breeding CRS. If you have the right water parameters it should work. The Logemann Bros. From Hamburg Germany have a very nice salt that they produce especially for Caridina species but it should also work without it. The minerals in these re-mineralising salts are however not oriented on the shrimp's needs, but on those of the bacteria that form part of the microfauna. I don’t add any minerals to the water because shrimps need to get their minerals from their food; mineral intake from the water is only secondary.



9 AV What is the substrate that you recommend for shrimps like Crystal Red Shrimp/Red Bee, Crystal Black Shrimp/Black Bee and Snow White/Golden Bee?

CL: When it comes to substrate I always tell people that in all the habitats in China, Hong Kong etc. where Caridina and Neocaridina can be found I never saw soil on the ground. Always it was gravel and sand with detritus. I know that many people use soil for the shrimp tanks they have, but I don’t. The breeders from Hong Kong and China sometimes use soil but I have also seen breeders who reproduce them in very high quantities and they don’t have substrate at all. They told me that it makes it easier for the tank to be kept clean. I think the most important is that the water is pollution free.



10 AV Every hobbyist knows that keeping shrimps is similar to having tanks with different species or varieties of Moss. Is there a Moss that you recommend for a particular reason for the shrimp tank?

CL: In some of the habitats in China or Hong Kong you can find mosses in the water. I suppose that’s why many people think that shrimps need mosses. It is a good combination because it looks good and because the shrimps can find microorganisms in the mosses. But they can thrive perfectly without them.



11 AV I know that now you produce specific diets for shrimps. Tell me more about these shrimp foods and the Shrimp King Concept. Is it already available at Dennerle?

CL:A friend of mine, Bernhard Ehmer, is a shrimp enthusiast and also a food specialist. He knows all about food ingredients. One day he suggested that we create a shrimp food that should work very well. We discussed the issue and we set up a concept. It was important for me that it all should be natural. First we produced a small range and distributed it under Crustahunter “Chris Lukhaup Shrimp Food”. Breeders of shrimps loved that stuff but I had no time and interest to produce it in big quantities and distribute it, so we decided to give it to a company that can do the job properly. I named it ShrimpKing and now Dennerle has several sorts on the market.

ShrimpKing is based on the species-specific feeding habits of shrimp in their natural habitats (Caridina and Neocaridina species).
Its high-quality ingredients have been diligently selected to provide your shrimp with a varied diet. All components are suitable for human consumption and have been chosen due to their high nutritional value. Four of the five sorts are in the form of flat food pads, with 100% natural ingredients. The food sorts complement each other perfectly. ShrimpKing foods are a wholesome concept oriented on the natural requirements of shrimps. The different products complement each other ideally.



12 AV What equipment do you use to take fantastic shrimp’s photos, what kind of lens do you use? Can you tell us some fine tuning of the photo camera during the photo shooting session?

CL: Well, I've been sitting in front of aquariums for years, observing and studying the inhabitants.
If you consider the photos I've taken over the years you'll see that they continuously get better. This is not only because my equipment has constantly improved. Of course, the equipment is important, but without a trained eye, patience, the necessary knowledge and the ambition to keep getting better, even the best of equipments is not really going to get you good photos. Of course you can photograph shrimp then, but I like to search for pictures that are out of the ordinary.
I have decided to keep my equipment up to date, and also with the lighting technology. I consider the light the most important aspect of aquarium photography. I've found my optimum solution with a softbox.

At the moment I work with a Canon 5 D Mark II which I use for habitat photography and filming, and of course with my Canon 7 D, a really great cam. Naturally I also use a macro lense Sigma 105. To get very close I use some extension tubes. In addition, over the years I've found the best camera parameters ( z.B. white balance, shutter speed etc.) for photos of aquariums and aquatic animals.
However, I can only speak for myself, and describe my way to do things. There are great aquarium photographers who work in a different way and their work is awesome.
To work in the pics I use Photoshop or Lightroom. However, if I'm not done with a pic in 3 to 5 minutes I usually discard it. You can see in a photo when it has been overshopped. A little contrast, around 3 to 5%, and around 7 to 8% colour.
However, many photos are already good when I download them from the cam, and I almost do not have to do any work with them. If I minimize pics I sharpen them slightly afterwards.
When the preparations have been good there's no need to repair much afterwards. One of the most important preparations is that I always change water a day before the photo shoot. This really makes a difference.



13 AV Last but not least: I know that you intend to publish a book. Any news about when it will be ready and how it will be structured by chapters?

CL: I have published many books already. I think 14-15 in several languages. At the moment I am working in 2 new books that will come out this year and 6 magazines. Some days ago I launched a book that I have done with Oliver Knott, one of the best and more creative aquascapers in the world.
Also a book about freshwater invertebrates will be available in English now. We have just finished the translation together with Dähne Verlag in Germany.



The last two questions are about some hidden information regarding other image of your profile…:

14 AV I know you have a strong connection to Romania. Just a few people knew before this interview that you were born in Brasov/Kronstadt, Romania, and you are a member of the German minority. I was impressed with your patriotic feelings about your/our native country. Do you have nice memories regarding your childhood; did you have a fish tank back then?

CL: Well, you have to know that I had a great childhood in Cristian (Brasov). I still consider Romania to be my country. I was born there, my parents and grandparents were born there too. My roots and my history belong to that place. I think one should never forget where one comes from! When I hear Romanian or about Romania it wakes up my feeling of home. Even if back then we lived in hard times, especially for my family. In the 70`s and 80`s life was not easy in Romania.The people over 40 will remember and the know what I am talking about. Anyway I kept some great memories of that place. I would love to go back again to give speeches or workshops. With the band, unfortunately we’ve never had a concert in Romania.

15 AV As I am a rock fan as well and we already discovered that we are both Nightwish admirers and friends, let’s share with the rocker shrimp hobbyists that you also used to play in a rock-band, and you recorded a video clip in Transylvania. Are you still planning to give concerts with your band?

CL: Yes, I confess I love rock music but I am very open for other styles too, like country, 80‘s pop and classical music. I could listen to Slayer in one moment and a few seconds later to Mozart or Brahms. I have a very broad spectrum of music. In the 90‘s I have been with Atrocity in Hunedoara to produce a video clip. We had a great time. I liked a lot to show my band members where I come from. Right now I am out of the music business because it was a bit too much to travel with the 2 bands, then do expeditions in search of shrimps, crayfish and other aquatic animals and also to have a wife and child in Chile. I practically lived in airplanes. After doing it for one year I decided to leave the bands and get more involved in nature and family. The bands meant always stress, every day a different place when we were on tour and then studio for some weeks, tour again etc. Now everything is much more relaxed and I have time to write books and do nature photography.

Well done alex, a great interview, I attended his talk at the red cow and it was very informative and enjoyable. He is a natural extrovert and really commands the attention of the audience.

derek wrote:

Well done alex, a great interview, I attended his talk at the red cow and it was very informative and enjoyable. He is a natural extrovert and really commands the attention of the audience.

Thank you derek! You're right, he`s very skilled for that kind of things.

Wonderful stuff!

Thanks.

H.

Very interesting indeed

Very interesting, thanks!

Jaysus I had no idea it was the same guy, and I listened alot to Atrocity in my teens.

Have to dig up the old albums now.

Andreas