Questions Answered
Honestly.

Select your species on our order page, choose your quantity, enter your shipping and billing information, agree to our live animal policies, and submit. We'll confirm your order by email within 24 hours and send a ship date confirmation before your animals go out.

We accept all major credit and debit cards, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover. We do not accept PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, checks, or cash for live animal orders. Card-only keeps our transactions documented and protects both parties.

Yes, 5 shrimp minimum per order. This is for the welfare of the animals. Fewer than 5 shrimp in a shipping container creates stress during transit. It also gives your new colony a proper genetic foundation to thrive and breed.

Currently our order form processes one species per order. If you want to order multiple species, please place separate orders or contact us directly at orders@shrimpatelier.com to arrange a combined shipment. We'll package each species separately within the same box to prevent mixing.

Yes, use the Special Requests field on the order form. We'll do our best to accommodate. Standard orders default to a roughly 1:3 male-to-female ratio which is ideal for building a breeding colony. If you want a specific grade (S, SS, etc.) just note it and we'll confirm availability before shipping.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday only. This ensures your shrimp never sit in a carrier facility over a weekend. Orders placed Thursday through Sunday will be scheduled for the following Monday. We will email your exact ship date before anything goes out.

We ship to 48 states. We cannot ship to California, Maine, New Jersey, or Hawaii due to state-specific regulations on live aquatic animal imports. If your state appears on the order form's state dropdown, we can ship to you. If you're unsure, email us before ordering.

Every order ships in breathable breather bags, not standard poly bags. Breather bags exchange oxygen and CO2 directly through the bag membrane, meaning the shrimp breathe naturally for up to 72 hours without added oxygen. They're placed in an insulated shredded paper cushioning box with a heat or cold pack depending on transit weather. The outer box is a standard cardboard shipping box with no external markings indicating live animals.

You must be available to receive your package on delivery day. Shrimp in transit packaging are safe for up to 72 hours in moderate temperatures but a box sitting in summer heat on a porch for 8 hours can be fatal. If you cannot receive the package on the delivery date, contact us before your ship date to reschedule. We are not responsible for losses due to unattended delivery.

Carrier delays (weather holds, facility backlogs, etc.) are outside our control. We ship with proper packaging that gives your animals the best chance through unexpected delays. If a delay results in DOA shrimp, follow our standard DOA process, photo within 1 hour of delivery, and we will replace them. We cannot refund shipping costs for carrier-caused delays.

Every animal we ship is verified alive and active at the time of packaging. If any shrimp arrive deceased, we will replace them at no charge on our next available ship date. To claim: photograph the DOA shrimp on a flat surface outside of the bag within 1 hour of your delivery timestamp and email the photo to orders@shrimpatelier.com with your order number. That's it.

After 1 hour, shrimp that appeared alive at delivery may die from acclimation stress, tank issues, or other factors unrelated to transit. The 1-hour window ensures we're replacing genuine DOA animals, not losses that occurred after delivery. Check your package immediately. This is standard practice across all live animal vendors.

No. All live animal sales are final. We do not offer cash refunds for living animals once they are delivered alive. Our Live Arrival Guarantee covers dead-on-arrival animals with replacement, not refund. This policy exists because live animals cannot be returned, and the welfare of the animals is our first priority. Please read our full Policies page before ordering.

Transit stress is normal. Shrimp may appear pale, inactive, or hide for 24, 72 hours after arrival. This is not cause for concern. Acclimate slowly, keep lights off for the first 24 hours, and don't add food for the first day. Most shrimp color up and become active within 48, 72 hours. Contact us if you're concerned, we're happy to talk through it.

Usually yes, with a quality dechlorinator like Seachem Prime. Most US municipal tap water falls within Neocaridina parameter ranges. Test your tap water pH, GH, and KH before your shrimp arrive. If your tap water is very soft or very hard, a remineralizer or buffer may be needed. For Caridina shrimp, tap water is almost never suitable, RO water is required.

Absolutely yes. This is non-negotiable. An uncycled tank has no beneficial bacteria to process ammonia from waste. Ammonia spikes will kill shrimp within hours. Cycle for a minimum of 3, 4 weeks. Test until ammonia AND nitrite both read 0 ppm consistently before adding any animals. We will not replace shrimp lost due to an uncycled tank as this falls outside our guarantee terms.

Most fish will eat shrimp, especially shrimplets. Even so-called "shrimp safe" fish like Endlers, Pygmy Corydoras, or Otocinclus can predate on baby shrimp. For a breeding colony, fish-free tanks are strongly recommended. If you want a community tank, understand that shrimplet survival will be very low and your colony will not grow as intended.

Healthy shrimp are constantly moving, grazing, swimming, exploring. They should be opaque in color (not pale or washed out), responsive to food, and visible during daylight hours. A healthy colony breeds regularly, you'll see berried females within 4, 8 weeks of a stable setup. Shrimp that are motionless on the substrate or erratically swimming upside down are stressed and need immediate parameter testing.

Once you know what to look for, sexing shrimp becomes second nature. Here are the key differences between males and females across all Neocaridina and most Caridina species:

Size: Females are noticeably larger than males, usually 20, 30% bigger at full adult size. If you see two shrimp side by side and one is clearly larger, it's almost always female.

Saddle: The most reliable indicator. Look at the back of the shrimp just behind the head, females have a yellow or pale green saddle-shaped marking visible through the shell. This is where unfertilized eggs are stored before mating. Males never have this.

Underbelly: Females have a curved, rounded underside with longer swimmerets (the small fan-like appendages under the tail), these hold the eggs after fertilization. Males have a flatter, straighter underbelly with shorter swimmerets.

Color intensity: In most Neocaridina species, females display deeper, more opaque color than males. Males are often lighter, more translucent, and smaller. If you see a beautifully colored shrimp in your tank and a slightly smaller, paler companion, the vivid one is almost always female.

Berried females: Once fertilized, females carry eggs visibly clustered under their tail, this looks exactly like a tiny bunch of green or yellow grapes. A berried female is unmistakable and confirms she is female and actively breeding.

The ideal starting ratio for a breeding colony is 1 male to every 3, 5 females. Here's why this matters:

Males chase females constantly after a molt, this is mating behavior and is normal. If you have too many males and too few females, the females get stressed from being constantly pursued. Stress suppresses breeding and can cause females to drop eggs.

More females means more egg carriers, which means more shrimplets per breeding cycle. A colony with 3, 5 females per male will grow significantly faster than a 1:1 colony.

Yes, use the Gender Preference dropdown on the order form. We offer standard mix (1M:3F), female heavy (1M:5F), males only, and females only. All gender requests are subject to current availability and we'll do our best to honor them. Note: sexing juveniles is difficult, so gender-specific orders work best when ordering adult-sized shrimp.

This is the most important step most new shrimp owners skip, and it's the leading cause of shrimp loss after delivery. Tank seasoning (also called cycling) establishes the beneficial bacteria colonies that process ammonia from shrimp waste into safe nitrate.

What happens in an uncycled tank: Shrimp produce ammonia through waste. Without bacteria to process it, ammonia builds up rapidly. Even 0.25 ppm of ammonia is toxic to shrimp. An uncycled tank can reach lethal ammonia levels within 24, 48 hours of adding shrimp, and the shrimp will die. They won't show obvious signs of distress first. They'll just stop moving.

4, 6 weeks minimum: This is how long it takes for a nitrogen cycle to fully establish, ammonia-processing bacteria (Nitrosomonas) and nitrite-processing bacteria (Nitrospira) to colonize your filter media in sufficient numbers. There are no shortcuts that reliably work. Bottled bacteria products can help speed it up but should not replace a proper cycle.

How to know you're ready: Test daily with an API Master Test Kit. When ammonia reads 0, nitrite reads 0, and nitrate is rising, your cycle is complete and your tank is ready for shrimp.

If your tank is already established and running with an active filter, you may be ready much sooner. Transfer established filter media from an existing cycled tank to your shrimp tank, this seeds it with beneficial bacteria and can cycle a new tank in days rather than weeks. Test parameters to confirm before ordering. An established tank that tests 0/0 ammonia/nitrite is ready regardless of age.

We use a photo documentation and Google Lens color verification process on orders where color classification may be ambiguous, particularly between similar red Neocaridina varieties like Cherry, Fire Red, and Bloody Mary.

How it works: Before your order ships, your shrimp are photographed in neutral white lighting against a standard background. The photo is run through Google Lens color analysis which generates an objective, third-party color classification result. This result is timestamped and emailed to you with your order confirmation.

Why this matters: Shrimp color can look different under different aquarium lighting, against different substrates, and in different stress states. What looks "cherry red" under your planted tank lighting may look "fire red" under neutral white light. Our pre-ship documentation captures the objective color under neutral conditions, eliminating any room for dispute.

Almost certainly not. Shrimp color is highly influenced by lighting spectrum, substrate color, stress level, and background color. A Blue Dream shrimp will look dramatically different under warm white LED, cool white LED, or full-spectrum planted tank lighting. The same shrimp on black substrate vs white substrate looks like a completely different animal. Shrimp also pale significantly when stressed, within 48, 72 hours of settling in a proper tank, their full color returns. Give them time before drawing conclusions about color.

We use a professional packaging system specifically engineered for live animal survival over extended transit. Every order includes:

Breather bags, permeable membrane bags that exchange oxygen and CO2 through the bag wall. Your shrimp breathe naturally for 72+ hours without added oxygen or CO2 buildup. This is the most important element of our packaging.

Insulated shredded paper cushioning, maintains internal box temperature for 24, 48 hours regardless of external conditions.

Temperature packs, heat packs in cold weather, cold packs in summer, based on full transit weather forecasting before each ship day.

Buffer shrimp, we include 1, 2 extra shrimp per order at no charge to account for any transit losses.

We have had packages genuinely lost in transit for multiple days, and our shrimp were still alive when they arrived. That's not luck. That's breather bags and proper insulation doing exactly what they're designed to do.

In our experience, the overwhelming majority of shrimp that perish after a confirmed live delivery die because of the receiving tank environment, not the shipping. The most common causes:

Uncycled or insufficiently seasoned tank, ammonia spikes kill shrimp within hours. This is the #1 cause.

Incorrect water parameters, pH, GH, or KH outside the species' comfort range causes chronic stress and eventual death.

Copper exposure, from fertilizers, medications, or old plumbing. Instantly lethal to shrimp.

Improper acclimation, dumping shrimp from the shipping bag directly into the tank causes parameter shock and can trigger stress molts that drop eggs.

Predation, fish, aggressive snails, or even other shrimp in a stressed state.

We are a boutique breeding operation based in Arizona. All shrimp are bred, raised, and shipped from our facility. We are not a middleman or importer, every animal we sell is one we personally breed and care for.

100% captive-bred. Every shrimp on our site was born and raised in our tanks from established breeding colonies. We do not import wild-caught animals. Captive-bred shrimp are healthier, better acclimated to aquarium conditions, and more sustainable than wild-caught alternatives.

Email us at orders@shrimpatelier.com. We respond within 24 hours Monday through Friday. Please include your order number if your question is order-related. We genuinely enjoy talking shrimp, don't hesitate to reach out with setup questions, species recommendations, or anything else.