Caridina cf. cantonensis "Blue Tiger"
The Blue Tiger Shrimp has only been around the hobby for a relatively short while now and really caused a stir when it showed up as do all blue shrimp. These are very hardy and easy to keep shrimp when the water is kept soft and acidic with an ideal PH near 6.4 or so. I also keep my water very clean and my shrimp are robust, active, and breeding fairly regularly. There have been conflicting reports about Blue Tiger Shrimp being successfully kept in hard water with high PH and although these shrimp will survive in these conditions it is not prover to be ideal for them. Along with the beautiful blue color these shrimp have gold or orange eyes which adds to their beauty. These shrimp do breed somewhat true, but there is always a mix of colors in the young with some light blonde with orange eyes and some will be dark blue almost black as well as every hue in between. The eye color does however breed 100% true in this species.
| Temperature | 68 to 75 degrees F. |
| PH | wide range 6.2 to 7.2 |
| Origin | wild form South East Asia |
| Breeding info | fairly easy to breed,young have no larval stage |
| Food | algae, bio-film, regular fish food pellet and flake |
| Size | 1 inch to 1.75 inches as a rule |
| Difficulty | Medium, water quality very important | Compatibility | Non-aggressive, should not be kept with any other Caridina sp. as they may cross breed |
The chart is a guideline only and these shrimp will be best kept at a PH of 6.4 to 6.5 as that is the PH they are accustomed to in my tanks. As young your Blue Tiger Shrimp will show very little color, but as they mature both males and females begin to show different variations in color many will be light with very little or no blue, but many will be different shades of blue and some almost black and I think the color variation in these shrimp make it very interesting to keep and breed.
Keeping these shrimp happy and healthy is as easy as keeping the water very clean and using a sponge filter or keeping a sponge pre filter over your canister or hang on the back filter is recommended to keep baby shrimp from being sucked into the filter. The young are not much more than 3 mm long at birth and easily sucked into your average filter. These shrimp like very clean water and a little extra filtration can't hurt. As with all Dwarf Shrimp it is recommended they be kept in a shrimp only tank as most fish will eat the young shrimp, yes even guppies and the shrimp will be much more active when not worried about being eaten.
My Blue Tiger Shrimp are tank raised by me in a 20 gallon long and kept in excellent health. I do a 20% water change once a week with R/O water. The substrate is ADA Aquasoil Amazonia II. I have Java Moss in this tank along with Oak Leaves and lava rock giving lots of surface area for bio film. There are two filters on this tank an air driven sponge filter and a HOB with sponge over the intake.
I do have some available for purchase from time to time. I prefer to sell only juvenile shrimp from 1/4 to 1/2 inch long because they ship and adapt to your tanks parameters better and live a longer life than if you are sent adults that you have no clue as to age. Your Tiger Shrimp will live from 1 to 1.5 years on average so getting youngsters is a good idea. They will grow quite fast and within 4 to 6 weeks you will see your first berried females. Please check my AZ Inverts Store for availability
