Bee Shrimp have been kept in Japan by breeders for many years and are one of my favorite shrimp along with the Crystal Red Shrimp or "Red Bee" Now we have the Golden Bee Shrimp and this one is new to the hobby in 2007 or at least here in the USA. I have successfully bred them and have found them no different to care for than other color varieties of Bee Shrimp. These are some really neat shrimp to keep and the young can come in many color variations from almost all white to clear gold and white. Personally I find this an attractive trait liking some variety in my tanks color wise. I would actually like to see a clear gold variety of this shrimp.

One interesting thing is that the young seem to grow faster than CRS or Bee Shrimp young I have raised and are all over the place hiding much less as well. On the dark substrate it is quite entertaining watching the small white young foraging for food. The females also berry again very soon after having their young and tend to carry a large number of eggs for their size. After around 22 days depending on temp and water quality the young are born as mini versions of their parents.

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. The Golden Bee Shrimp will breed readily in your tank when the water is kept within the proper range and although these shrimp can survive in a fairly wide range of PH they will not be as healthy of live as long in higher PH nor will the survival rate of the young be as high. In higher PH over 7.2 your shrimp will not be as colorful and become sluggish and just don't appear healthy because they are stressed.

Again 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. 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. I know this is repeated from species to species, but I feel it is important to keep shrimp in their own tank. I know I say this often, but other than Ottos I can really think of very few fish that will not eat the very young shrimp.

This shrimp has quickly become one of my favorites after keeping and breeding them for a while and they are more active than some of the other shrimp available. They are always busy picking around the tank feeding on bio film or lazily swimming around the tank.

My Golden Bee Shrimp are in a 20 gallon long tank set up with ADA Aquasoil Amazonia II to help keep the PH buffered around 6.4 to 6.5 with R/O water. I use a sponge filter as well as a HOB with sponge filter over the intake in this tank. There is some driftwood, Oak Leaves, and Moss in the tank as well there is more info on why I use leaves as well as moss in the article section. I have found these shrimp easy to keep and breed as long as water parameters are maintained. I also have lava rock in the tank to add surface area for bio film to form on, with all the small pits and holes this rock is great for shrimp tanks.

My Golden Bee Shrimp are tank raised by me and kept in excellent health and 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 Golden Bee Shrimp will live from 1 to 1.5 years on average so getting youngsters is a good idea. Please check my forum for availability

By William Southern

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