# What Shrimp Species would you like to be more available?



## PM (21 Aug 2010)

Hi all!   

I am trying to decide which species of shrimp to breed in my new shrimp only tank.

I'd like to know what people would like more availability of, as I considered cherry shrimp to start with, but EVERYONE has them, so thought I might try something different (but not too hard to care for), to offer to the forums eventually.

I don't mind ordering from Germany either, as they have MUCH more choice.

Any opinions or thoughts greatly appreciated, and possibly a free shrimp if and when you buy!!


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## nry (21 Aug 2010)

Bumble-bee, struggled to find any of these and gave up...


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## a1Matt (21 Aug 2010)

If you want something as easy as cherries, but not as common in the UK, but quite cheap in germany... blue pearls and snowballs fit the bill nicely IMO.

Little more expensive gets you sakuras.  They are a very nice red and definitely a cut above the UK cherries, and the stuff LFS' here fob off as taiwan red/sakura.

If you want to go 'upmarket' then high grade CRS (inc. blue ones, and SS, SSS) and high grade tigers (black or dark blue) I think make good choices.

If you really want to open the frontiers up then there are lots of breeds in Germany that most have not even heard of over here   Princess shrimp anyone?

Tap 'garnelen shop' into google and a whole world of German LFS opens up to you.
If more hobbyists did this the range of shrimp we would all have would sky rocket....  8)

I had the same thought as you a few months back   ...so I got some blue pearls and also some high grade CRS (SS grade double hinos).  Both species are breeding and the colonies are slowly establishing  

EDIT - as I am getting pm's asking me... I got them from Frank Kulich. http://www.fraku-aquaristik.de 
I paid premium DHL and they were here in under 48 hours   Expertly packed. Grading was a little hit and miss, other than that faultless IME.  Overall I was very pleased and would recommend him. You can arrange your order in English with Frank via the kontact form on his website rather than battling the checkout in German.  If a few of you club together then p+p can work out quite reasonable.  If anyone does order with him I would appreciate it if you mentioned that I recommended him.


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## Gill (22 Aug 2010)

The shrimp on those pages are amazing, but the Cardinals I got were cheaper here from Ebay. 

I would love to see some of the Shrimp Seline keeps over on Shrimpnow. Some of them are Simply Spectacular. I want Rilli Shrimp like little swarowski crystals


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## PM (22 Aug 2010)

Thanks for everyones input so far, esp. a1Matt!

I was thinking of snowballs, but I'd like something with more colour I think. One thing that I don't like in shrimp (completely personal preference), is colored/bight eyes, I think they should always be black.

Nobody ever seems to mention all of the yellow, orange & green shrimps I have noticed. I think I'll stay away from CRS types, I have hard alkaline water and don't fancy a tank full of dead shrimp.

I am leaning towards Sakura Taiwan shrimp. I love the colour of blue tigers too, but they have blue eyes,   I'll eventually just get some normal tigers too anyway.

But there are still many shrimp I have never heard of,and I can't seem to find pics of 'Rilli Shrimp' or 'Princess Shrimp'.

Another thing I am on my mind, is inbreeding too achieve these amazing colours, I don't want to buy beautiful but unhealthy or shrimp that may develop problems etc is this an issue with for example Sakuras??


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## Nelson (22 Aug 2010)

never used these,but have some nice shrimp   .
they've got princess bee and some nice super tigers.

http://translate.google.co.uk/translate ... %26hl%3Den

ps...got this site from Matt as well   .


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## PM (22 Aug 2010)

Oh wow, so much choice!!    

Shame I can't have Blue Pearl and Sakura in the same tank, they both look fantastic on that front page...


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## a1Matt (22 Aug 2010)

I can't take the credit for finding these sites. Frothhelmet found them 

I hear what Gill is saying, I've also noticed that some shrimp are not any cheaper in Germany.  What you do get is consistent availability and wider choice.  Shrimp like Rilli, king kong, panda and the like... somehow I do not think these are going to be readily available for some time to come. I'm content to wait until they come out, then wait a bit more until they are a reasonable price.  Would still like to get my hands on them though   

I think having shrimp in a large (mine were in a 160l) well established tank is probably more important than specific water parameters.  That is the way I approach it anyway...

I've kept and successfully bred a decent number of CRS in london tap water.  They seemed pretty hardy to me. I would not worry too much about them being 'delicate.' 
I've not got experience with Sakura's, but I know man who has, and would not worry about those either.
Sulawesi's though, those I would be cautious with!

I enjoy the whole choose one species of caridina and one species of neocaridina for each tank process...

PM - Do not be fooled by the blue pearl photos! They tend to look different in real life than in the photos. Still nice, but different.  Hard to describe, but being in Bromley you can always come by mine and check mine out if you want. Some pics of my blue pearls and CRS here.

As to the other colours you mention...

I've had green shrimp in the past, they were babaulti's and were a really nice green.  They blend in to a planted tank though and breed very very slowly.

Had yellow's too, they are available in the UK.  I've seen them in LFS from time to time.

Most times the orange shrimp for sale are Caridina propinqua which do not breed in freshwater, shame as the orange is a lovely colour. There is also an orange variety of cherry (Neocaridina heteropoda var. "Orange")... I think that would be a good candidate for someone to get. Although I've not seen them in the flesh.


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## PM (24 Aug 2010)

a1Matt said:
			
		

> I enjoy the whole choose one species of caridina and one species of neocaridina for each tank process...
> .



Aha! So this is the key to what you can/can't keep together then??

Thanks for all the good info, I have a couple of weeks to make my mind up...


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## a1Matt (24 Aug 2010)

Yep, that is the key 

The exceptions to the rule are... 

Shrimp that need a brackish stage (eg Amanos, Pinocchio shrimp). You can add as many of those as you like.

Sulawesi's, it is reported you can mix\match any sulawesi's and they will not cross breed at all. Personally I think it is too early (i.e. not enough people have kept them and bred them in all the different combos) to state this categorically.

The occasional oddball creeps in... I think Malaya does not need a brackish stage, but can still be kept with others of the same genus.


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## mr. luke (27 Aug 2010)

Im currently hoping to get Caridina parvidentata


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## a1Matt (27 Aug 2010)

parivdenta?
Thats the ickle blue sulawesi one isn't it?
I've seen them on a couple of the German sites going pretty cheap as they are apparently really easy to breed and quite hardy.


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## mr. luke (30 Aug 2010)

Yeh thats the ones


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## frothhelmet (16 Sep 2010)

deep down i still want to get a colony of Caridina Simoni Simoni going again. Still just have the one female...


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## Anubia (8 Oct 2010)

Hi guys.....Thx for the good read...!!

I would love to keep Sulawesi Cardinal (Dennerli), so if anybody knows a UK breeder then pop me a PM.

I think the main reason that the Sulawesi's are harder to keep is that the transportation of many that arrive in our UK LFS are from Indonesian breeders and heavy losses are found. Then the usual LFS doesn't have a specified shrimp setup where they can keep the appropriate water conditions. My LFS had CRS and Sulawesi C's in the same tank where water params / temp for these two species is totally different. The argument against this from them is that we acclimatised them and they all look healthy.......

I truly do hope that more UK guys attempt to stabilise and breed these wonderfull shrimp colonies. Thx for your time...


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## Shrimptastic (9 Oct 2010)

Gill said:
			
		

> The shrimp on those pages are amazing, but the Cardinals I got were cheaper here from Ebay.
> 
> I would love to see some of the Shrimp Seline keeps over on Shrimpnow. Some of them are Simply Spectacular. I want Rilli Shrimp like little swarowski crystals



I know silane  I can try to get some shrimp but, I don't think ud want to pay the prices that he's gonna quote me  lol!

Erm, I want chocolate shrimp! brown variants of the cherry shrimp


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## mr. luke (11 Oct 2010)

If you want a brown shrimp have my cf babaultis


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## BigTom (11 Oct 2010)

Seeing as this thread is active I figured I'd pop this question in here... are there any shrimp people can recommend that are smaller than cherries but just as prolific? I'm after shrimp where the juveniles can act as a partial food source in a semi-sustainable micropredator setup, so need them to be as small, numerous and juicy as possible   

The malayan shrimp with the non-brackish free swimming stage sound interesting but I can't find anywhere that sells them.

Cheers, Tom


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## a1Matt (11 Oct 2010)

I'd go for cherries (or snowballs, blue pearls, etc) and then let the predators feast on the juveniles.
They start life about 1mm in size 
The adults being too big to eat would be a good thing in my book as it means the colony will be able to sustain itself.


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## BigTom (11 Oct 2010)

Aye I'm sure cherries will be fine, just thought there might be something smaller. I've had my PhD head on today and was idly thinking smaller might mean more shrimp/faster life cycle/longer period of 'eatability', all of which = more food. I should get out more


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## mr. luke (11 Oct 2010)

If you want to get really into the ''eco system'' aproach alltering the temperature has a huge impact on breeding rates 
Depending what fish you have (thread was tldr ) you could alter the temperature according to food demand.
up to 28'c or so for cherries and they would breed stupendously fast, down to around 10-15 'cand they wouldnt breed hardly at all (compared to the normal temperature).


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