Raising Low Order Dwarf Shrimp

In the Freshwater Dwarf Shrimp hobby there are many different species that have a great verity of breeding techniques.  There are two main types of breeding types, low order and high order.  High order shrimp hatch as miniature adults and have no specific care requirements, while low order shrimp hatch as larva and have many larval stages before they become post larva miniature shrimp.

The Amano Shrimp is a perfect example of a low order shrimp.  After breeding the female will carry the eggs until they hatch.  Once hatch the larva need to be transferred into full strength salt water and fed micro foods such as green water (a single celled algae that when in high concentrations causes water to turn green).  The larval Amano Shrimp will go threw multiple larval stages before metamorphosis. 

After metamorphosis, the Amano Shrimp young are miniature versions of the adult shrimp and need to be transferred back to freshwater.  The young shrimp need no further special treatment and will eat the same foods that adult shrimp eat.

There are also many shrimp that are low order shrimp that do not need salt water for the larva to grow.  The American Glass Shrimp (Palaemonetes paludosus), also known as Ghost Shrimp, hatch as larva.  These larvas thrive in freshwater.  They go threw fewer larval stages than an Amano Shrimp, and seem to eat anything small enough to fit in their mouth.

How can you tell a low order shrimp from a high order shrimp?  It is very difficult to tell the shrimp apart unless there is a berried female (a female carrying eggs).  Eggs of low order shrimp are very small and there are often hundreds of eggs while the eggs of a high order shrimp are often larger than the size of the shrimp’s eyes and tend to have less than 100 eggs.

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American Glass Shrimp Breeding Program (Update #3)

The young shrimp have started to grow a little more rapidly now and have started to display a more aggressive feeding response.  They will gather around a food pellet and begin to eat with in a few short minutes of the pellet being added to the aquarium. 

My second set of shrimp have hatched and are about 2 days past their metamorphosis.  All my observations in update #2 still hold true.

•  The larva seemed to eat from the water column as well as from the surface and bottom of their container.
•   The head down floating larva were attracted to light.
•  After morphing to adult for the young shrimp actively swam in the water column for 2-3 days.
•  The aggressive feeding response that adults display has not yet developed

As thought, once past metamorphosis the young American Glass Shrimp appear to have a much larger survival rate than wild caught adults.

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Blue Shrimp - A Freshwater Dwarf Shrimp Myth?

For many years a true breeding Blue Shrimp was a mythical creature in the freshwater dwarf shrimp hobby.  There were often shrimp sold as Blue Shrimp that turned out to be nothing more than a wild colored Neocaridina heteropoda, and then there were the artificially colored (threw some type of food, or dying) Neocaridina spp. that would not pass the color onto their offspring.  Well, times, they are a changing! With selective breeding there are currently 2 species of shrimp that are passing a true blue color on to their offspring. There is the Blue Pearl Shrimp (check out more pictures of this shrimp in our picture gallery) and the Blue Tiger Shrimp.

The Blue Pearl Shrimp is the same species as the snowball shrimp, Neocaridina cf. zhangjiajiensis. The care requirements of this shrimp are nearly exact to the care requirements of the cherry shrimp (visit our cherry shrimp care page), although it can sometimes be a little more sensitive than the extremely durable Neocaridina heteropoda.

The Blue Tiger Shrimp is a selectively bred color form of the common Tiger Shrimp, Caridina sp. “Tiger”. This shrimp is still fairly rare in the hobby and can cost quite a bit of money (up to $25.00 a shrimp). This shrimp has the same care requirements as the wild form of the Tiger Shrimp, softer slightly acidic water.

So as more and more selectively bred color morphs come to the dwarf shrimp hobby, I for one am excited to see what is next!

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Pre-Filters!

Many times I am asked if a hang on back filter is compatible with a dw

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Dwarf Shrimp Compatibility

It has become quite common to receive emails and other forms of questions about the compatibility of dwarf shrimp species.  These questions are surprisingly difficult to answer because of the often-mislabeled species names of dwarf shrimp.  So what dwarf shrimp are compatible?

The general rules when trying to figure out compatibility is are the shrimp the same Genus?  Most Neocaridina species of shrimp will interbreed and cause a hybrid, and quite a few Caridina species will hybridize with each other.

Now comes the part where it becomes complicated.  There has not been a ton of scientific research that has shown what species will hybridize with each other.  And genetics in freshwater invertebrates are extremely complicated.  For 2 months TheShrimpFarm.com has been conduction an experiment to determine the genetics behind only the color genes of Neocaridina heteropoda and even that is difficult to determine.  So it is understandable that the hybridization of dwarf shrimp is still a gray area.

TheShrimpFarm.com has created a Dwarf Shrimp Compatibility Chart that shows the compatibility of the more common shrimp in the hobby!  You can check it out at http://www.theshrimpfarm.com/compatibility_chart.shtml.

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