Caridina cf. cantonensis "Tiger"
The Tiger Shrimp has been around the hobby for quite a while now and was one of the first to show up in local pet stores after the Amano Shrimp as "Algae Eating Shrimp" for the home aquarium. 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 regularly. There have been conflicting reports about Tiger Shrimp being successfully kept in hard water with high PH and although these shrimp will survive in these conditions they will not breed often and their life span is shortened considerably as well.
| Temperature | 68 to 75 degrees F. |
| PH | 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 | 1.5 inch to 2 inches as a rule |
| Difficulty | Medium to easy, water quality very important |
| Compatibility | Non-aggressive, but 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 Tiger Shrimp will show very little color, but as they mature both males and females will begin to show their stripes and when mature show a wide range of color hues from greenish to bluish and even reddish. The stripes as well can be a variety of colors making this one of folks favorite shrimp to keep. They are also a heavy bodied shrimp and quite large for a Dwarf Shrimp and combine this with the wide color range and you have one desirable shrimp species..
I have found the Tiger Shrimp very easy to keep and breed with a starter colony of 18 adults having produced well over 150 young in just a few months time. Now the first generation young are producing as well and I have 2 tanks one a 10 gallon and the other a 20 long full of these great shrimp with more on the way regularly. Tigers are very active all the time and make for a fun shrimp to keep and breed your own thriving colony in no time. I feed a variety of foods as well as some green vegetables from time to time. I also have a good amount of leaf litter for the young and adults to forage on in my tanks.
I keep two tanks of Tiger Shrimp at this time one is a 20 gallon long with HOB and an air driven sponge filter (one shown) and a 10 gallon with a single air driven sponge filter. Both tanks have active breeding colonies of happy Tiger Shrimp
Keeping these shrimp happy and healthy as with other Dwarf Shrimp Species 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.
My Tiger 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 Tiger Shrimp will live from 1 to 1.5 years on average so getting youngsters is a good idea. Please check my AZ Inverts Store for availability
