# Wild form of cherry shrimp?



## GekkoGeck0 (Nov 3, 2005)

The LFS I frequent here gets in Amano shrimp on a regular basis, but when I went in one day, they told me that they didn't have any, but they had some "black algae eating shrimp".

Well, they had the Amanos still in the tank, but also these charming little critters:


















I picked up five. Far as I can tell, they're the wild form of Neocaridina denticulata sinensis. The shrimp in the picture has the lightest stripe on his/her back. One of the others is an orangish colour with a lighter coloured stripe. The others either have less brightly coloured stripes, and one has none at all.

Are they the wild form, or am I mistaken on my ID? They're interesting, and I'd love to breed them.


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

Hmm, it's kinda difficult to decipher from the profile of the pictures. But it does look like a form of Neocaridina species, possibily the wild variety that I've seen listed on various websites.

-John N.


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## GekkoGeck0 (Nov 3, 2005)

John N. said:


> Hmm, it's kinda difficult to decipher from the profile of the pictures. But it does look like a form of Neocaridina species, possibily the wild variety that I've seen listed on various websites.


I'm going to make an effort to take better pictures from the sides, but the shrimp hide a lot in the plants and don't come out often. This guy was just hanging out on the driftwood for a few hours, so I was lucky.

EDIT: Caught him again. He's having fun on the driftwood today:










Best I can do, I think. This one was with flash, and I don't have macro on my crappy camera.  That's also why the driftwood and him don't appear as dark, or opaque. The pictures above properly represent the true colours.


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## ianiwane (May 6, 2005)

Body type looks more like a Cardina than Neocardina to me.


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## frugalfish (Apr 20, 2005)

Looks like a type of caridina sp., but whatever the species, it's a female.


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## GekkoGeck0 (Nov 3, 2005)

Interesting, what suggests Caridina as opposed to Neocaridina? I'm sort of new to this shrimp thing.

I figured it was a female, but what's the automatic tipoff?


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## mrbelvedere138 (Jan 18, 2006)

It looks like a female wild form neocaridina denticulata. I had a couple in my tank that randomly showed up in a cherry spawn. I guess the allele shows up now and then in broods.


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## FarEast (May 15, 2006)

I believe they're Malayan shrimps AKA Singapore Shrimps, Rainbow shrimps.
They change their colors based on mood.


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## GekkoGeck0 (Nov 3, 2005)

FarEast said:


> I believe they're Malayan shrimps AKA Singapore Shrimps, Rainbow shrimps.
> They change their colors based on mood.


Singapore shrimps are filter feeders, no? Also known as wood shrimp? These aren't them.

These shrimp are tiny, no more than 2cm long. Much smaller than my Amano shrimp.

Caridina/Neocaridina look so much alike, I'm having a very hard time pinning down an accurate ID, and I'm starting to think I probably won't, since shrimp identification is spotty at best from what I'm seeing.


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