Arizona Inverts Freshwater Dwarf Shrimp Blog

I am getting quite a few emails regarding “Wild Type” Neocaridina sp. Shrimp from folks wanting to know if Mine, Their own shrimp, or some for they have seen for sale are Neocaridina heteropoda or Neocaridina cf. zhangjiajiensis or something else all together.

Well to start off I am in my opinion only able to give a guess at best by site on these shrimp this early in my shrimp keeping so usually seek advise and ID either from Mustafa or the good folks at Crusta Forum where there are also some very knowledgeable folks. Even with this resource available to us it is still near impossible to get a positive ID by site alone on these shrimp.

Both species and I would guess perhaps others not yet identified look very much the same in their “wild” form meaning not bred for any particular color strain as in many of the N. heteropoda and N. cf. zhangjiajiensis we see in the hobby today like Red Cherry, Yellow, Snowball, Blue Pearl etc. and without the aid of an expert with a microscope identification is very difficult if not impossible. This is the reason many of these species have now been commonly named “Wild Type” Neocaridina sp., proper name? No, but the best we have right now.

Now add this to the mix, Is you have say someone that crosses N. heteropoda and N. cf. zhangjiajiensis you may and very likely will get something looking like common wild type shrimp and again these will end up for sale here and there as “Wild Type Neocaridina sp. thus adding to the confusion for hobbyists.

I have some of these shrimp and have no clue as to what they actually are, but they are very active, colorful, and easy to breed shrimp so I keep a colony going and share some from time to time. Yes I am careful to explain they could be either species, something else, or even a mutt, but they are interesting shrimp just the same and I for one am quite fond of them.

Hope this helps a little….

Wow things have been hectic at work this past month and finally I think things will slow enough for me to get back to my hobbies and family.

Things are going well in the shrimp room and I now have it pretty much completed in that there is no more room for tanks with 33 running now. Actually one is a 125 gallon divided into two tanks and set up in the middle of the room. This tank will house Blue Pearl Shrimp on one side and Blue Tiger Shrimp on the other. This tank is fully sealed top to bottom at the divider so no water or shrimp can pass between the two.

I also have picked up a few new species and have had some success with others I have not talked much about, but I will be back at it after this week is over. Just a heads up to let you know I am still out here and still activly keeping and breeding Dwarf Shrimp and as always have a passion to share info. As always I invite you to visit my main site and forum for more great information about invert keeping.

More to come soon…..