I wanted to get some different colour shrimp to help liven up the Shrimphaus but it’s not good to mix different colour morphs of the same species as the offspring will eventually wind up as wild-type colouration. Shrimphaus already has two different morphs of Caridina cantonensis shrimp: pure red line (PRL) and more generic crystal red shrimp. Maybe it wasn’t a great idea to have both of these, but there you go. They are doing well and breeding successfully. Shrimphaus also has a handful of Neocaridina davidi ‘Bloody Mary’. The bloody marys first arrived 3 years ago and I think had one generation of offspring so those left (which have been through a lot if I’m honest) are pretty long in the tooth and I wouldn’t think be able to still breed.
So, let’s get them some new friends…
Neocaridina davidi ‘Blue Velvet’ – doing badly
The Shrimphaus is currently set up mostly for caridina species with a KH of around 30 ppm CaCO3 (dKH of around 1.5) but since the bloody marys are doing ok I figured neocaridina in the general case would probably be ok as well. I picked up some ‘blue velvet’ neocaridina from the ebay vendor Best Aquarium Shrimps UK from which I’ve had high quality arrivals previously including the pure red line cardinas. The blue velvets arrived in all-good condition post shipping and seemed to acclimatise well to the Shrimphaus. I did not test the alkalinity of the water they were shipped in, but probably should have done.
blue velvet neocaridina
blue velvet and bloody mary neocaridina
These blue velvet are very dark
I expected the blue velvet to be a lighter shade of blue. Mostly these are super dark, almost blue-black. Not that there is a lot of agreement on how to describe the various colour morphs of shrimp, but these might be better described as ‘blue diamond’ or possibly ‘blue dream’.
Significant losses of blue velvet
Unfortunately, the blue velvet have done very badly. Even through they underwent initial acclimatisation well there have been deaths every few days such that now there are only 3 or 4 of the original set left. There aren’t any signs of trauma and no evidence of failed moulting. A similar thing happened with caridina shrimp in straight-up hard alkaline Cambridgeshire tapwater. I don’t know if the bloody mary shrimp are just more tolerant of different water conditions generally, or whether these remaining bloody marys are simply the most robust and fittest of the bunch – they have been through a lot including both citric acid or hydrochloric acid dosed periodically into the water column. The few remaining blue velvet do look to be active and feeding and not distressed, but I must say confidence is not high.
Caridina Serrata ‘Tangerine Tiger’ shrimp – doing well
Tangerine tiger shrimp have a reputation for being robust to different water parameters which might be just what is needed with the Shrimphaus. They are difficult to source at the moment in the UK but I found this wonderful breeder Shrimpcove that carries them. These guys really love their shrimp! The shrimp arrived with their own santa hat on their travel bag and were well-packed with heat insulation and a hot-pack to keep warm in transit. They even threw in a free vial of ‘snowflake’ shrimp protein goodies.
I did test the alkalinity of the water the tangerine tigers arrived in and it was even lower than the acid-treated Shrimphaus water with a KH of maybe 15 ppm (less than 1 dKH). Just to be extra careful I did a full drip acclimatisation for them before adding them to the Shrimphaus. They adjusted well and although I did find one dead the next day, since then it’s been all good. They are swimming and feeding well and exploring their new surroundings. I’m pretty confident about these guys and it makes sense they would thrive in a caridina-friendly low alkalinity environment because after all, they are a caridina species.
Freshwater shrimp crossbreeding
The tangerine tigers are sold as being non-crossbreeding shrimp (with other caridina or neocaridina species) and there are several other potentially interesting options along these lines. This doesn’t get much discussion in the hobby for some reason as far as I can tell. Mostly people seem to have either single-species setups, or alternatively just take a ‘skittles’ approach and mix it all up together regardless of what might happen.