6 Rare Freshwater Shrimps You Might Not Find In Your Fish Store

So, if you have already had the experience of keeping common freshwater shrimps and want to explore the ever-growing world in shrimp keeping, this article will introduce you with some rare and attractive shrimps for your freshwater aquariums.

Although you might not get these rare shrimps in the local fish store, you can order them from online fish retailers who will deliver you live shrimps within a certain period.

Here I am talking about the care, habits, and breeding of some of the rare species of freshwater shrimps that you can add to your aquarium considering your experience level.

1. Black/Red Galaxy Pinto Shrimp

• Scientific Name: Caridina Cantonensis
• Ideal Water Temperature:  64-78F
• pH Level: 5-6.5
• GH: 3-6
• KH: 0-1
• TDS: 100 to 180
• Size: up to 1 inch
• Life Span: 1 – 2 years
• Temperament: Non-aggressive
• Diet: Omnivore
• Care: Intermediate-Moderate
• Breeding: Moderate
• Minimum Tank Size: 15 gallon

The rare and fancy Red/Black Galaxy Pinto Shrimps can be an enticing addition to your freshwater aquarium if you are an experienced shrimp keeper or hobbyist. The white spots on their body resemble a galaxy full of stars, which can be the reason behind its name.

Although they are expensive and will demand more care and maintenance, their lively and colorful appearance in your aquarium will soothe your eyes for sure.

Getting surprised seeing the difference in price in various online fish stores? The price of these beautiful shrimps varies greatly according to their color, size, and sex. The red variation costs more than the black one as it is more popular among the hobbyists.

The pattern also determines the price along with the colors. The highest price ranges belong to the variation which attributes more red/black-white contrast. With a very little white in proportion to the black/red color, the price goes low.

They are basically tibee shrimp, bred by mixing of Taiwan bee and tiger shrimp. The tibee shrimps with Taiwan Bees will breed taitibee where the patterns will develop so you can achieve the patterns you want by selective breeding.

Another good reason to choose them is that they are quite peaceful and you will always find them to hang out in groups here and there and keep searching for food digging the ground all the time.

Maintenance

So, now let’s talk about their demands.

I would suggest using a larger tank for these shrimps, at least more than 15 gallons. You can try with smaller tanks but it is easier to keep the parameters stable in a larger tank and to keep your shrimps happy giving more area to play around.

These beautiful shrimps are a little bit choosier and more sensitive about water like the other inbred shrimps. They will demand very clean water. You should use RO/DI water in your tank and remineralize that with shrimp minerals to keep your expensive guests happy!

You can choose a Matten filter for them to ensure ideal flow from top to bottom of your aquarium.

They will thrive in low temperatures and pH. Very low temperatures and neutral pH can cause various diseases in them. You can use Fluval Shrimp Stratum, Brightwell Rio Cafe, or ADA Amazonia substrate to maintain the slightly acidic pH and low GH water condition.

Explore the fascinating world of Freshwater Shrimp—this post has everything you need! 19 Easiest & Hardiest Shrimps To Keep For Beginners

Breeding

Though you have the option to produce a new pattern in the offspring, it is not that easy to replicate a pattern.

So, if you want to skip years of toil you are left with two options, buy from an online shrimp retailer or collect from an acquaintance.

Diet

They are omnivore in nature and will eat any type of shrimp foods, algae pellets, high-quality flakes, veggies, etc. In an established tank, they will eat biofilms, algae, etc so you will need to provide more food supplements if you put them in a new tank.

Try to feed them only as per their need. Keep an eye on how much they can eat and decrease/increase feeding according to that.

Leftovers from the excess food will rot and decrease the water quality raising ammonia and nitrite levels. Always remove the leftover foods and keep the tank clean.

Want To Get Them?

As these shrimps are very rare, I am pretty sure you won’t find them in most of the fish stores. If you want the best-quality Black/Red Galaxy Pinto Shrimp, then I’ll highly recommend FlipAquatics. They are very reliable, offer live arrival guarantee, and help you throughout the whole process!

2. Red Fancy Tiger Shrimp

• Scientific name: Cardina Cantonensis sp.
• Temperature range: 68- 74F
• pH level: 6.6-6.9
• GH: 4-6
• KH: 0-1
• TDS: 130-160
• Average Adult Size: about 1 inch
• Temperament: Non- aggressive
• Diet: Omnivore
• Care: Intermediate-difficult
• Breeding: Easy
• Minimum tank size: 10 gallons

Red fancy tiger shrimp is another tibee shrimp that has been created from the crossing between crystal red shrimp and tiger shrimp. These shrimps are hardier that makes it a good choice for your aquarium.

The sharp contrast between the red and white will brighten up your aquarium. And if you like variation, the good thing is that Red Fancy Tiger shrimps do vary in pattern spontaneously from one genetics to another where all the variants are equally charming.

Explore the fascinating world of Freshwater Shrimp—this post has everything you need! 9 Best Freshwater Aquarium Shrimps for Beginners

Maintenance

Although they are hardier, like the Galaxy Pinto shrimp, they also love very clean water. So, fill your tank withRO/DI Water remineralizing it with shrimp minerals.

A Matten filter will be good to go with the tank for these beautiful shrimps. You can choose Fluval Shrimp Stratum or Brightwell Rio Cafe as the substrate.

You would better keep these expensive shrimps in a single-species tank to avoid any possible risk of losing fry or unsuccessful breeding. However, if you want to keep some tankmates, some non-aggressive invertebrates like Thai micro crabs will good to go with them.

Diet

Red fancy tiger shrimp will eat any organic matter they will get searching in the tank. If your tank is mature enough and has enough biofilm, algae, and leaf litter, they will eat those foods happily.

In case you have a new tank or too clean water, you have to provide them food supplements with their diet. Pick a high-quality shrimp food for them. Besides continue feeding blanched veggies, mosquito larvae, algae pellets, spirulina, etc.

But make sure you are not overfeeding them. Keep an eye on how much they are eating and lower the amount of food if needed. Food leftovers will affect the water quality very quickly.

Breeding

Unlike the maintenance of Galaxy Pinto shrimps, breeding of Red Fancy Tiger shrimps is relatively easier. If you keep good maintenance and provide required water parameters, your Red Fancy shrimps will start spreading their colony in your aquarium within a short time.

The females will carry small eggs for around 30 days wherein favorable conditions 20 or more baby shrimplets will be hatched.

You need not worry about the shrimplets much, without extra care they will start growing in their own way.

Want To Get Them?

As these shrimps are very rare, I am pretty sure you won’t find them in most of the fish stores. If you want the best-quality Red Fancy Tiger Shrimp, then I’ll highly recommend FlipAquatics. They are very reliable, offer live arrival guarantee, and help you throughout the whole process!

Ready to learn more about Freshwater Shrimp? This post will give you fresh insights! Beginner’s Guide to Keeping Shrimps: Interview With Abhisek Mallick

3. Green Jade Shrimp

• Scientific name:  Neocaridina davidi
• Temperature Range:65–84F
• pH: 7.0 – 8.0
• GH: 4-8 
• KH: 3-15
• TDS: 200-300 ppm
• Average Adult Size: 0.75 – 1.25 inch
• Temperament: Peaceful
• Diet: Omnivore
• Life Span: 1.5 -2 years
• Care: Easy
• Breeding: Easy
• Minimum tank size: 5 gallons

One of the rarest species of the Neocaridina genus that has come from the selective breeding of Red Cherry shrimps for different colors.

Originated from Taiwan, this recent species has received immense popularity due to its brilliant vibrant green emerald color, ease of breeding, and low maintenance that will be a stunning accent to any new or established freshwater aquariums.

It possesses a beautiful deep emerald color of varying shades green and contrasts beautifully with a dark substrate. Some of them attribute a green-yellow or green-blue or lighter green coloration.

Maintenance

Are you tensed that such rare shrimps definitely need high maintenance? But much to your surprise you will notice that they will demand the care and maintenance that you do for your cherry shrimps.

Only if there is no predator fish or other threats, they are supposed to thrive, breed, and continue for generations in your tank. As they only live for a year, they must have to breed to create their territory in the tank.

Being very social in nature they always hang out here and there in groups. As they are quite peaceful, you can keep them with any non-aggressive tankmates.

You should keep them in a tank of around 5 gallons to maintain the water quality easily. You’ll just need a filter to cycle your tank and a heater to avoid temperature fluctuation.

Green Jade Shrimp can go through a wide range of water parameters that are great when you are keeping them with other species.

Unless any sudden and frequent change in temperature or pH occurs, they can endure soft or hard water and can acclimatize outside their ideal water temperature and pH (70-84 degrees Fahrenheit and 7-7.5).

In the case of a new aquarium, you should do frequent water changes to remove nitrates and ammonia until the beneficial bacteria colony grows to withstand them.

You can use gravel for the substrate as they are great for the shrimps to pluck the food and provides enough surface for an algae bloom.

The Green Jade Shrimp cannot get through copper infused water. So, prevent the presence of copper in water by cold water(as possible) and do not use fish medications in the same tank you keep the green jade shrimps.

If you are usingCanister filters, powerheads, and overflow boxes in your aquarium, reduce their flow rate so that the shrimps can avoid the suction which absorbs them. They feel comfortable in slow-moving water with a lot of plants. 

Hungry for knowledge about Freshwater Shrimp? We’ve got you covered in this article. Bacter AE: The Silent Killer Of Shrimp?

Breeding

They breed relatively quicker than the other dwarf shrimps so they can be a good choice for the beginner shrimp keepers. You have to maintain the water parameters and provide proper nutritious food to help the female shrimps hatch the eggs successfully and the fry shrimps molt and grow properly.

If you want to breed them without any risk, give them a separate tank. But if you want to give them tankmates, you would better keep other non-aggressive nano shrimps, a few inverts- small snails, Thai micro crabs, etc.

When your Green Jade shrimps feel any threat or don’t find places in your tank to hide, they do not tend to breed. With some tubes or live plants, you can manage some places for your shrimps to hide.

Diet

Being a scavenger, the list of their diet is occupied with algae, biofilm along with decaying plant matter. Being safe with all plants, in a planted mature aquarium they will need very little extra food and will work relentlessly to clean up the waste.

But in a new aquarium, you have to provide high-quality dry food and flakes, algae tablets, spirulina, plants, blanched vegetables several times a day. Whenever you will notice, you can see their lively activity in search of food. Make sure you are not overfeeding them allowing food leftovers fouling the water.

Want To Get Them?

As these shrimps are very rare, I am pretty sure you won’t find them in most of the fish stores. If you want the best-quality Green Jade Shrimp, then I’ll highly recommend FlipAquatics. They are very reliable, offer live arrival guarantee, and help you throughout the whole process!

4. Red King Kong Extreme

• Scientific Name: Caridina cf. Cantonensis
• Temperature: 70 – 78F
• PH: 6.5 – 6.8
• GH: 4-6
• KH: 0-1
• TDS: 90-120
• Average Adult Size: 1.2 inches
• Temperament: Peaceful
• Diet: Omnivore
• Care: Difficult
• Breeding: Difficult
• Minimum tank size: 5 gallon

Red King Kong Extreme shrimp is another type of Taiwan bee shrimp from the genus Caridina.

It is relatively more difficult to keep and breed than the other shrimps. However, if you are making an attempt to try the next level in your shrimp-keeping hobby, these shrimps can be a good choice.

You can keep your Red King Kong shrimp collection with your other Taiwan Bee shrimps in the same tank. As they all have the same genetics, their offspring will be similar to their parents.

Hungry for knowledge about Freshwater Shrimp? We’ve got you covered in this article. From Rare To Pricey: Top 50 Most Expensive Freshwater Shrimps

Maintenance

To keep your Red King Kong Extreme happy you should maintain and very clean water and good oxygen supply in your tank. So, you would better use RO/DI water and remineralize it with shrimp minerals. They will thrive in soft acidic water with low temperature.

The Red King Kong Extreme is very peaceful in temperament that will make them a good match with other peaceful dwarf shrimps. They like to hang out in groups of at least ten members. 

Breeding

If you are serious about breeding and expanding their population, it will be better to keep them in a separate tank.

Ideal water conditions in the tank are needed for successful breeding. The female King Kong carries about up to 40 eggs about once a month. You have to keep very soft water in the tank for successful hatching.

Diet

You should feed them regularly but in small amounts. They will eat algae, oak or beech leaves, vegetables, special shrimp food, etc. 

You should provide essential nutrients and minerals for enhancing the shrimps’ coloration, increasing their health and immunity, and fueling the molting process.

Food leftovers must be removed from the tank to avoid fouling the water. Aquarium sand is, therefore, better for the bottom as food leftovers may get stuck to the nook and corner of the gravels. You can pick Brightwell Rio Cafe or ADA Amazonia as the substrate.

Want To Get Them?

As these shrimps are very rare, I am pretty sure you won’t find them in most of the fish stores. If you want the best-quality Red King Kong Extreme, then I’ll highly recommend FlipAquatics. They are very reliable, offer live arrival guarantee, and help you throughout the whole process!

5.  Black King Kong Extreme

• Scientific name: Caridina cf. Cantonensis
• Temperature 68 – 78F
• pH: 6.0 – 6.8
• GH: 4 – 6 
• KH: 0 – 2
• TDS: 120-150 ppm
• Life Span: 1 – 2 years
• Average Adult Size: up to 1.25 inch
• Temperament: Peaceful
• Diet: Herbivore
• Care: Intermediate – Difficult
• Breeding: Easy
• Minimum tank size: 5 gallon

The Black King Kong Shrimp is another rare and expensive shrimp from the Caridina genus. Like most other inbred rare shrimps, they are difficult to care for.

The Black King Kong shrimps possibly have been created from a mutation of crystal red, crystal black, and golden bee shrimp or a complex crossbreed.

They attribute the attractive appearance of black and white contrast. The black King Kong is almost fully black where you may sometimes find some small white spots near their upper body. Some of them are completely black.

Maintenance

Like the other inbred shrimps here, Black King Kong shrimps are very choosy about water.

You will need to fill your tank with completely clean and pure water. So use RO/DI water but do not forget to remineralize it with shrimp mineralizer.

They may also thrive in warmer temperature and neutral pH, but these conditions will not be ideal for their health and breeding in the long run for the risk of growing harmful pathogens.

Like the other Caridina shrimps, 68°-75° F with and a low pH level will be helpful for this shrimp’s well-being.

Larger tanks will be good for these shrimps to maintain the required parameters well. If possible, get a fully cycled tank of around 20 gallons with a lot of biofilms and plants to allow them to graze spontaneously.

Keep Ammonia and nitrite zero and nitrate under 25ppm to keep your shrimps risk-free. If nitrate rises, continue 10-20% water change daily until it gets back under 25 ppm.

Breeding

Like the other shrimp keepers and breeders, you will also want to cross these Black King Kong shrimps with other variety of other Caridinas instead of crossing between themselves.

Because the possibility of successful breeding will be around 10% when you cross between two shrimps of Black King Kong variety. Pretty shocking, right?

Female shrimp carries the eggs for about 30 days and hatches if a favorable water condition is maintained. For keeping the shrimplets alive you must have a well-established aquarium as they live only on biofilms until they grow up.

Diet

They are herbivores in nature, you can opt for blanched spinach or vegetarian shrimp food. You may have to feed them only 2-3 times a week.

And as for the other shrimps, clean the uneaten foods to control the ammonia and nitrite levels that otherwise will harm your shrimps badly.

After they molt out, leave the shells in the tank to let them provide the necessary calcium for the shrimp’s diet.

So, if you are an experienced shrimp keeper or hobbyist, try the challenge to make a colony of these rare beautiful shrimps in your aquarium.

Want To Get Them?

As these shrimps are very rare, I am pretty sure you won’t find them in most of the fish stores. If you want the best-quality Black King Kong Extreme, then I’ll highly recommend FlipAquatics. They are very reliable, offer live arrival guarantee, and help you throughout the whole process!

6. Red Galaxy Nanacy Pinto

• Hybrid of Caridina cf. cantonensis
• Water Temperature:  64 to 78F
• pH Level: 5.5-6.5
• GH: 3 to 6
• KH: 0 to 1
• TDS: 120 to 130
• Average Adult Size: up to 1 inch
• Temperament: Non-aggressive
• Diet: Omnivore
• Care: Intermediate
• Breeding: Not easy
• Minimum Tank Size: 15 gallon

Originated from Southeast Asia, this comparatively newer addition in the shrimp hobby is bred from crossing two fancy shrimps, Galaxy Pinto and Nanacy Pinto.

With their striking color contrast and pattern inherited from their parentage, they are always ready to glow in your tranquil aquarium water.

They are bred crossing Red Galaxy Pinto and Nanacy Pinto.  So, naturally, they get the white star-like dots and nanacy patterns from their parentage. The white dots on their cheeks and nanacy pattern in the body have made them more attractive.

There is no need to say that the Galaxy Nanacy Pinto is more expensive than Galaxy Pinto shrimps. Its price varies also with color, pattern, size, and sex like the Galaxy Pinto shrimps.

Maintenance

Like Galaxy pinto shrimps it also likes completely clean water. So, fill your tank withRO/DI water remineralizing that with shrimp minerals for getting the right parameters.

This beautiful shrimp will not survive in temperature more than 90 degrees and less than 45 degrees Fahrenheit. To keep them thriving, maintain 64-78 degrees Fahrenheit temperature and soft acidic water.

A Matten Filter will be great for them like the galaxy pinto shrimps. As a substrate, you can use Brightwell Shrimp Soil.

They are peaceful in temperament so you can keep them together with other shrimps and breed to get more offspring like the parent shrimps.

Breeding

Though you have the option to produce a new pattern in the offspring, it is not that easy to replicate a pattern. So, if you do not want to toil so hard after it, you can collect this rare shrimp from the shrimp retailers.

Diet

If your tank is enough mature the Galaxy Nanacy Pinto shrimps will graze and consume biofilms, algae, etc. themselves.

Besides, you should provide a balanced diet to your shrimps that will be rich in minerals and nutrients. You can include protein, veggies, and high-quality food supplements, algae pellets, spirulina, etc. in their diet to ensure proper growth, immunity, and coloration.

And just like for the other shrimps, feed them considering their need to maintain the water quality and required parameters.

Want To Get Them?

As these shrimps are very rare, I am pretty sure you won’t find them in most of the fish stores. If you want the best-quality Red Galaxy Nanacy Pinto, then I’ll highly recommend FlipAquatics. They are very reliable, offer live arrival guarantee, and help you throughout the whole process!

Some Facts That You Should Take Care Of For All These Shrimps

Besides these care and maintenance I’ve discussed for each of these rare shrimp, there are some common facts that you should take care of disregard of any species.

• Tank decoration is very important for the breeding of every shrimp. I’m not talking about any fancy decoration. You have to just ensure enough hiding places for your shrimps to give them a secure feeling. Otherwise, they won’t breed.

• Live plants, driftwood, rocks/stones, tubes, cholla wood, and ceramic shrimp tubes, etc. will be great to give your shrimps a sense of security when they get stressed from outside views( that maybe people, cats, dogs, or anything) or lights and want to hide behind something.

• Java Moss, dwarf hair grasses are useful to allow the shrimp fry to forage and hide when they feel a threat.

• The presence of copper is always a threat for your shrimps. So, make sure Copper does not get infused in your tank water with water pipe or fish medications or in another way. Treat a sick shrimp in a hospital tank if needed.

• Though you will find many peaceful fishes as the tank mates for your shrimps if you want to breed these rare shrimps more successfully, stick to a single-species tank.

• Add shrimps in proportion to the size of your tank. Do not make your tank overcrowded. And do not stick to the minimum recommended tank size. If possible, manage a larger tank to and maintain the water quality easily and provide your shrimps enough place to graze on.

Where Will You Get These Shrimps?

Although you will not find these rare and beautiful shrimps locally, you can easily find them at online shrimp retailer websites of freshwater shrimps. You will have to just order them and they will send your desired shrimps right to your doorstep, that too with a live arrival guarantee! What more do you want?

Beside delivering shrimps they will also supply you aquarium plants, shrimp foods, filters, substrate, and whatever supplies you may need to keep these freshwater rare shrimps.

Flip Aquatics is the largest online retailer of freshwater shrimps of the USA where you will find all these rare shrimps. They offer live arrival guarantee and will help you throughout the whole buying process. As these rare beauties are not cheap, it is very important to get them from a reliable source like Flip Aquatics.

Conclusion

Therefore, considering how much you can care and handle these rare and delicate freshwater shrimps, pick the best ones to complement your freshwater aquarium. Their cheerful and attractive appearance in your aquarium will make you forget your hard work and expense.