LUXURY SHRIMP
Some shrimps are ten a penny, but at the highest ends of top-tier livestock, prices can be eye watering. Gabor Horvath looks at a premium line of invertebrates.
WHEN A fish-person first wanders into shrimp-keeping territory they never understand the risk they’re taking. Shrimps should come with a warning label that tells us they are seriously addictive and can cause financial ruin. True, setting up a simple shrimp tank can cost you less than a fish-tank of equivalent size, but once you’re infected with the bug, shrimp tanks will spread faster in your home than any disease pandemic. And the deeper you delve, the more you’ll find there are to be addicted to.
Join a decent social media shrimp group you’ll be bombarded with pictures of varieties like ‘Galaxy fishbone’, ‘Boa’ or ‘Nanashi backline’. When looking at their price tags you begin to wonder why some of them costs hundreds of pounds (each, not per kg) while seeing other, quite similar looking shrimp for under a tenner.
There’s no definitive guide available with a detailed description of the varieties yet, so I have called upon the expertise of a shrimp breeder friend to create a visual guide. I’ve been acquainted with Tien Dat and his devotion to shrimp keeping long enough to know that I could count on his help. He breeds high-end competition-grade shrimp and was the first British breeder to win trophies in international competitions.
Traditionally the best quality shrimp have always come from either Taiwan or Germany, but
Dat’s intention is to firmly put the UK on the map of top-breeders as well. He also supports other British shrimpers pursuing their own success and has sponsored several of them to attend international shrimp contests (and winning medals). The shrimp images used for this article all come from his various breeding projects and were all bred in the UK. Some of them are new varieties you can’t find anywhere else in the world.
The basics
Before attempting to breed high-end shrimp you should be familiar with the foundations of Caridina shrimp keeping as well as the basic genetics behind the process. Only after you have a sound experience in keeping and breeding ‘ordinary’ Bee shrimp and raising a few generations of offspring should you try your hand at the costly stuff.
The ‘fancy’ ones aren’t any more demanding — just keep them at 5.5-6.5pH, 0-3°KH, 1-5°GH at 20-23°C. But, as even a small mistake could mean you losing valuable and expensive stock, it’s better to make sure you have these basics down first.
The exact origin and even the correct scientific name of the ornamental Bee shrimp is still debated. A recent phylogenetic study suggests that the aquarium strains came from line breeding Caridina cantonensis, potentially hybridised with the closely related Caridina logemanni. You will find both scientific names used in association with the various forms, but the situation is somewhat similar to that of the fancy line-bred
Mollies, where you can only name a variety, but not the exact species.
To further muddle the issue, all of the ‘fancy’ shrimp came from hybridising Bee shrimp with other closely related species: the Tiger shrimp, Caridina marie, and the Tangerine tiger, Caridina serrata.
‘Bee shrimp’ is a blanket term that covers shrimp with a vast range of colours and patterns. The ‘original’ Bee shrimp was black and white, called Crystal black shrimp (CBS). Later a red form popped up and got a name of Crystal red shrimp (CRS). Both are available with various amounts of white.
There’s also a white(ish) form, called Golden bee or Snow-white. This full white pattern is caused by a recessive gene called Golden gene. Shrimp carrying this gene may have more white on them, but the quality of the colouration is weak. By eliminating the gene some breeders developed Bee shrimp with very strong and solid white colours. They’re called Pure red line (PRL) or Pure black line (PBL) and are significantly more expensive than ordinary CRS/CBS.
Another mutation originating from Bee shrimp are the Taiwan Bee varieties. They have a so called ‘Taiwan gene’ which results in a thick and uniform colour coverage. The black forms come under the name of ‘King Kong’ (lots of black with speckles of white) or ‘Panda’ (whiter). If this latter has a blue body colour it’s called a ‘Shadow panda’. The red forms are named ‘Wine red’ and ‘Ruby red’. Taiwan bees have whitish forms (with the Golden gene), which are called Blue bolt (black) and Red bolt (red).
The ‘Pinto’ is a Taiwan bee morph with an irregular white pattern on a solid red or black body, similar to the patterns of the namesake horse living in the Andes. The ‘Pinto’ originally came in three variants, the ‘Zebra’ (with uniform white stripes), the ‘Fancy’ (with a crazy pattern) and ‘Spotted head’ (with spotted head and white body), and it was the ancestor of most of the modern forms we have now.
Tiger shrimp, Caridina marie, is itself available in a range of colour forms, from red striped to blue bodied varieties with orange eyes. What they never have is a white
colour, so if you see a Tiger with white, it’s definitely a hybrid.
The other ‘Tiger’ often used in crossing is the Tangerine tiger, Caridina serrata, or its ‘Aura blue’ morph. They’re excellent for introducing and enhancing the much-desired gold and blue colours.
Get mixing
Nobody knows who was the first to cross a Bee shrimp (CRS or CBS) with a Tiger (it could have been just an accident) but breeders soon realised that this hybridisation could result in very interesting patterns. The first generation (F1) of the ‘Tibee’ offspring (as they are called) are usually plain with a tigerish pattern and some white patches, but in second and third generation hybrids (F2 and F3 respectively) some interesting patterns can emerge. This is how the ‘original’ Fancy tigers appeared on the scene, carrying white patterns from their Bee ancestors and stripes from their Tiger ones.
When you cross a ‘Tibee’ with a ‘Taiwan bee’ you will have a ‘Taitibee’, which carries the pattern from the ‘Tibee’ lineage and the solid colours of the ‘Taiwan bees’. Depending on their origin ‘Taitibees’ can appear very different, so it’s not possible to define their holotype. In general, if they don’t conform to any of the accepted high-end patterns we’ll look at shortly, they’re simply called ‘Taitibee’. They can be attractive in themselves but are mainly used as a stepping stone towards higher goals. All of the high-end shrimp we see today have ‘Taitibee’ roots. Once breeders got the hang of back-crossing and line-breeding, several new forms and patterns emerged, often claiming very high prices.
Breeding true
Before running out and purchasing some shrimp to mix in the hope of earning big money you should consider a couple of things. The real difficulty is not creating a new form, but establishing it. Due to the mixed genetic backgrounds, often shrimps don’t breed true. It takes years to create a stable strain. Even in that
case many of the offspring will be throw-backs to their ancestors or just low-grade shrimp. Don’t be surprised to find ‘Blue bolts’ among the shrimplets coming from your high-grade ‘Galaxy’ shrimp. According to Dat, the road to success requires commitment, patience and focus. Random mixing can result in unique and attractive individuals, but refining them takes lots of time and patience.
The first thing you should learn is to be able to tell the sexes apart at a very young age, as they play a different role in the breeding process. The males are usually less colourful and mainly responsible for the pattern (spots and stripes), while the females present the colour coverage. You will need to pair the best patterned male with the best coloured females.
You have to be strict: although it could be tempting to speed up the process by using multiple males and females, only do it if they have uniform patterns and colours. Looks can be deceiving: even two similar looking shrimp (same phenotype) can have different genetical backgrounds (different genotype) leading to unexpected results. Don’t try to achieve too much: concentrate on improving one thing only, and only when you established that go for the next feature.
As a minimum you would need at least three tanks to create and maintain a line — a large tank for the ‘backup’ average quality shrimp, one growing tank, and a selective breeding tank for your best shrimp. If you want to enter your shrimp to a competition, consider the marking criteria. The judges will look the colour coverage first: there should be no transparent spots or clear patches on the shell. The shrimp needs well-defined patterns,
including side spots, backlines, and so on. Metallic blue and/or gold colours bring extra advantages (except for ‘Fancy tigers’, where only black/red and white allowed). ‘Spiderlegs’ (solid-coloured patterned legs like a Tarantula’s) can be important for some varieties. The highest-grade competition shrimp (sometimes called SSS) have a well-balanced look.
As females tend to be the bestlooking specimens it’s usually female shrimp you should enter. Deformities (a hunched back, bubble head or short carapace) aren’t allowed on competitions, but some breeders find them ‘interesting’ and keep breeding those ‘balloon fish’ of the shrimp world. The most important point is the homogeneity of colour and pattern of the shrimp in each entered category; in other words, all three shrimp entered the contest need to look the same. This is where a consistent breeding technique comes into the picture. It’s easy to breed one quality shrimp but creating and maintaining an established line of quality shrimp is another story. As Dat says, you’ll need time and you’ll need patience.