Care Guides
Everything you need to know about water chemistry, tank setup, feeding, breeding, and troubleshooting, written by someone who actually keeps these animals every single day.
Neocaridina are the gateway shrimp for good reason. They're forgiving, hardy, multiply fast, and look incredible. Get these right and you'll be ready for anything.
| Parameter | Target Range | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| pH | 7.0, 7.8 | Slightly alkaline. Tap water in most US cities is fine. |
| Temperature | 68, 75°F | Higher temps speed breeding but shorten lifespan. |
| GH (General Hardness) | 6, 8 dGH | Provides minerals for healthy molting and shell formation. |
| KH (Carbonate Hardness) | 2, 8 dKH | Buffers pH from crashing. Neos need stable KH. |
| TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) | 150, 250 ppm | Overall water mineral content indicator. |
| Ammonia | 0 ppm | Any ammonia will kill shrimp. Zero tolerance. |
| Nitrite | 0 ppm | Toxic even in trace amounts. Must be zero. |
| Nitrate | Under 20 ppm | Keep low with regular partial water changes. |
| Copper | 0 ppm | Instantly lethal. Check all fertilizers and medications. |
10 gallons minimum. Larger is more stable. Smaller volumes are more susceptible to parameter crashes. A 10-gallon holds 50, 80 Neocaridina comfortably. Use a dark substrate, black sand or dark aquasoil makes colors pop dramatically.
Always use a sponge filter for shrimp tanks. HOB (hang-on-back) and canister filters will suck up shrimplets by the dozens. Sponge filters are gentle, provide excellent biological filtration, and shrimp actually graze on the biofilm that builds up on them.
Java Moss, Java Fern, Anubias, and Hornwort are your best friends. Live plants stabilize parameters, provide hiding spots, and give shrimp natural grazing surfaces. A bare tank stresses shrimp. A planted tank keeps them calm and breeding.
Run your filter with an ammonia source for 3, 4 weeks. Test daily. When ammonia reads 0, nitrite reads 0, and nitrate is rising, your cycle is complete. This is the single most important step and the one most beginners skip. Don't.
Float the bag for 15 minutes to equalize temperature. Then drip acclimate over 60, 90 minutes using airline tubing. Never dump shrimp directly from a bag into the tank. The parameter difference can trigger a stress molt and drop eggs.
All Neocaridina are the same species, Neocaridina davidi. Mix colors and they will interbreed. Within two generations your beautiful blues and reds become wild-type brown. Separate colors means separate tanks, always.
Overfeeding is one of the most common mistakes. Excess food rots and spikes ammonia. A small pinch of food every other day is plenty for an established colony.
Rotate between quality shrimp pellets, blanched vegetables (zucchini, spinach), Indian almond leaves, and biofilm-building foods. A varied diet produces healthier, more colorful shrimp.
If food sits for more than 2, 3 hours without being eaten, remove it. Use a small turkey baster or pipette. Uneaten food is the fastest way to crash your water quality.
Leave a molting shrimp completely alone. They need the calcium in their shed exoskeleton. Don't remove the old shell, the shrimp will eat it as part of the recovery process.
Crystal Red, Crystal Black, and Tiger shrimp. Stunning animals that reward patience and precision. The main shift from Neocaridina: soft, acidic water and RO filtration are not optional.
| Parameter | Target Range | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| pH | 5.8, 6.8 | Acidic water is essential. Active substrate maintains this. |
| Temperature | 68, 74°F | Caridina prefer cooler water. AZ summers need monitoring. |
| GH | 4, 6 dGH | Soft water. Achieved with RO water + Caridina remineralizer. |
| KH | 0, 1 dKH | Must stay very low. Active substrate buffers this down. |
| TDS | 80, 140 ppm | Much lower than Neocaridina. Precision matters here. |
| Ammonia / Nitrite | 0 ppm | Same as Neocaridina, absolute zero tolerance. |
| Nitrate | Under 10 ppm | Stricter than Neocaridina. More sensitive to nitrate buildup. |
Tap water is almost always too hard and too alkaline for Caridina. An RO unit ($60, $100) produces pure water you remineralize to exact Caridina parameters. This one investment prevents 90% of Caridina failures.
Caridina are more sensitive to temperature swings than Neocaridina. Sudden changes trigger stress molts. In Arizona summers, a tank chiller ($100, $200) may be necessary to keep temps below 74°F.
Match your new water parameters to the tank parameters exactly before adding it. Even a 0.2 pH difference can stress Caridina. Use a quality TDS meter and pH pen, not test strips.
10, 15% weekly maximum. Never do large water changes with Caridina. The smaller and more frequent, the more stable your parameters stay. Stability is everything with these shrimp.
Blue Bolt, Black King Kong, Wine Red, Panda. The pinnacle of Caridina breeding. Same water requirements as Caridina but even less tolerance for error. These animals demand your full attention.
| Parameter | Target Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| pH | 5.8, 6.5 | Tighter range than standard Caridina |
| Temperature | 68, 72°F | Lower end preferred. Chiller strongly recommended in warm climates. |
| GH | 4, 5 dGH | Very soft water. SaltyShrimp Gh+ Caridina used sparingly. |
| KH | 0, 0.5 dKH | As close to zero as possible without hitting it. |
| TDS | 100, 150 ppm | Slightly higher than CRS, more minerals needed for color development. |
| Ammonia / Nitrite | 0 ppm | Absolute zero. Any spike risks the entire colony. |
| Nitrate | Under 5 ppm | Taiwan Bees are extremely sensitive to nitrate accumulation. |
Galaxy Pinto, Boa Pinto, OE Neocaridina. You're in collector territory now. These animals are rare, expensive, and unforgiving. The OE Neo is a notable exception, Neocaridina parameters, elite price point.
Despite their collector status and $150+ price tag, OE Neos use standard Neocaridina parameters. Same pH, same tap water, same care. The difficulty is sourcing authentic Häsler lineage, not keeping them alive.
Ultra-precise water chemistry. TDS 90, 130 ppm. pH 5.8, 6.3. Any parameter drift shows immediately in stress behavior. Weekly testing is minimum, serious keepers test every 2, 3 days. Isolation tank for breeding is strongly recommended.
Treat exactly as Galaxy Pinto with even less tolerance. These animals represent years of breeding work and thousands of dollars. A separate, dedicated system with redundant equipment (backup heater, backup air pump, backup filter) is not excessive, it's responsible.
Never introduce new shrimp to an elite colony without 4-week quarantine in a separate tank. One diseased shrimp can destroy a $2,000 colony in a week. No exceptions to this rule regardless of the source.
All species ship live and guaranteed. Choose your shrimp and place your order directly from our secure order form.
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