Content Policy

This policy explains how Shrimp Aquatics researches, writes, checks and updates the information on this site. We sell live animals, so a care page that reads well but gets one number wrong can cost a reader their shrimp. These are the rules we hold ourselves to on every page.

What this content policy covers and who writes Shrimp Aquatics pages

It applies to everything we publish as editorial content: our species care guides, blog articles, category pages and the written descriptions on product pages. It does not set the terms of sale or shipping, and it never replaces the handling instructions supplied with a specific order.

Our content is written and reviewed by the Shrimp Aquatics team, the same people who keep and breed the livestock we ship from Vietnam. We do not publish under invented author names, and we do not create quotes and attribute them to experts who never said them. When we describe something we have seen in our own shrimp tanks, we say that it is our observation and name the scope it applies to. When we are repeating a published finding, we cite it.

We are experienced keepers, not veterinarians. Nothing on this site replaces advice from a qualified aquatic veterinarian or a local specialist who can examine your tank.

How we research care information and which sources we cite

Any claim that could change how you set up a tank, choose an animal, treat a problem or spend money is treated as a claim that needs evidence. Before drafting, we list those claims and find support for each one, in this order of preference:

• peer reviewed research, scholarly datasets and primary scientific publications;
• government, regulator, standards body, IUCN or other official conservation records;
• university, museum, veterinary and aquaculture institutions, and recognized noncommercial specialist organizations;
• named expert publications with transparent authorship and visible editorial standards;
• our own dated records for our own stock, systems and packing process;
• manufacturer technical manuals, specifications and safety data sheets for their own products.

Competitor stores, marketplaces, forums, social posts, user written care sheets, content aggregators, search snippets and AI summaries are not sources on this site. We read them to understand what hobbyists are actually asking, but none of them becomes a citation behind a care claim. When we cite a study, the link goes to the record we actually used, and cited pages carry numbered markers with a full reference list at the foot of the page.

We also keep three kinds of information visibly apart. A verified species fact is stated with its source. A typical hobby range is labeled as a reference range, not as a promise for your particular animals. A measurement from our own tanks is attributed to us and is not converted into a species wide rule. Where good sources disagree, we show both values with their dates instead of averaging them into one comfortable number. Where reliable data does not exist for a question, we say the data is missing rather than filling the gap with a confident guess.

What we will not promise about the animals we sell

Welfare comes before conversion. A fully cycled, stable aquarium is the baseline in everything we write, and we would rather talk a reader out of a purchase than describe a demanding species as easy.

Health content follows the same logic. We describe observable signs and the plausible categories of cause, and we start with the checks that cannot hurt: ammonia and nitrite, temperature, recent changes, hardness and TDS, oxygen, contamination and behavior across the whole tank. We do not diagnose an illness from a photo or a short description, and we do not publish exact medication or chemical doses without authoritative product and species specific evidence plus qualified review. Where copper or a common fish medication can harm shrimp and snails, we say so and point to the actual product formulation rather than treating every trace mineral the same way. Where severity or uncertainty warrants it, we tell readers to consult an aquatic veterinarian.

Compatibility is written the same honest way. Fish described in the hobby as shrimp safe still eat shrimplets and sometimes adults, and we state that residual risk instead of hiding it behind a reassuring label.

How we keep selling livestock separate from care advice

Shrimp Aquatics is a store, so most pages here have something to sell. That makes the separation worth stating plainly. We use no affiliate links, we accept no sponsored posts or paid placements, and we run no third party advertising. Everything we recommend is our own tank bred stock or a product we sell for a reason we can explain in writing.

Care requirements are never softened to widen the market for a species. If your water, tank maturity or experience does not fit an animal, the page should say so and point you toward something that does, even when that means no sale today. We do not use fear of livestock loss, invented urgency or unsupported superlatives to move stock, and commercial details we have not verified for a specific item, such as pack quantity, shipped size, grade or import status, stay out of the copy entirely rather than appearing as a hopeful estimate.

How we use AI and where human review takes over

We use AI tools to help with research, drafting and editing. AI does not decide what gets published. Before a page goes live, a person on the team checks every parameter, safety statement, species name and citation against the source or against our own records, and rewrites anything that reads as generic filler. We do not present AI generated images as photographs of our stock, and we do not publish AI written quotes attributed to a real person.

Rules for product reviews, comments and customer photos

We publish customer reviews on product pages, comments on care guides and blog articles, and photos that customers send us. Those contributions belong to the people who wrote them, and we moderate them under a short set of rules.

• We never write or commission fake reviews, and we do not offer payment, discounts or free stock in exchange for a positive one.
• We do not remove a review because it is critical, and we do not edit a review in a way that changes its meaning.
• We do remove spam, abuse, personal data, off topic promotion, and any comment giving a dosing instruction or handling method that could injure an animal or another keeper.
• We publish customer photos and videos only with the sender’s permission, and we label them as customer images rather than presenting them as our own stock photography.
• We can correct a factual error in the reply below a comment, but we do not rewrite someone else’s words to agree with us.

Advice inside a review or comment is the contributor’s own experience and has not been through the checks described above. Treat it as one keeper’s report, and use the guide itself for the researched version.

How pages are updated and how to report an error you find

Care pages are revised when something changes rather than on a fixed publishing calendar. The usual triggers are a new result in our own tanks, a source that has been superseded or withdrawn, a taxonomy or conservation status change, a product record that no longer matches what we ship, and a reader telling us that something on the page is wrong. When a correction affects animal safety, it goes ahead of new content, and related guides, category pages and product descriptions are checked at the same time so the fix does not create a second version of the truth somewhere else.

Reader reports are the fastest way we find mistakes, and we would rather hear about a wrong number than protect a page.

To report an error or ask which claim a statement is based on, email contact@shrimpaquatics.com with the page address and the exact sentence. If you are asking whether a species suits your setup, include your pH, GH and KH, TDS, temperature, tank size, how long the tank has been running and what already lives in it, and we will answer against those numbers instead of guessing.