How to set up a colour shrimp tank, A to Z
Neocaridina are the easiest shrimp to start with, but most failures come down to three mistakes: the wrong substrate, an uncycled tank, and mixing two colours. The six-step Jack Shrimp process, with the reasoning behind each step.
How to set up a colour shrimp tank, A to Z
Neocaridina are the easiest shrimp to start with, but most failures come down to the same three mistakes: the wrong substrate, adding shrimp before the tank has cycled, and mixing two colours. This is the exact process we run at Jack Shrimp Farm, with the reasoning behind each step.
One colour per tank. That is the entire secret to keeping a colour colony beautiful for years.
Every colour strain is one species
Fire Red, Blue Dream, Yellow, Orange Rili, Green Diamond — all of them are Neocaridina davidi, one species, differing only in colour selectively bred out of the mottled brown wild-type animal. They are not separate species and not hybrids. The consequence that matters: they interbreed freely, and because wild-type colour is dominant, a mixed tank reverts to mottled brown within 2–3 generations. It is not reversible in practice.
Strain map — every colour comes from ONE species
Every commercial colour strain is Neocaridina davidi, selectively bred from the mottled brown wild-type animal. They are colour morphs — not separate species, and not hybrids.
- Red lineCherry → Sakura → Fire Red → Painted Fire Red → Red Rili
- Chocolate / brown lineChocolate → Bloody Mary, Black Rose → Carbon Rili
- Yellow lineYellow → Golden Back (dorsal stripe)
- Orange lineOrange Sakura → Orange Rili
- Green lineGreen Jade / Green Diamond — blue plus yellow pigment
- Blue Dreamfrom Carbon Rili — NO red genetics
- Blue Jelly / Blue Velvetfrom Red Rili — still carries red
The two blues look alike but come from different lines. Housing them together brings red genetics back and the colony goes wild-type.
Ideal water parameters
This is the real-world band for a tropical room, not a figure copied from a temperate-climate care sheet. Inside it there is a sweeter spot if you want to dial things in: pH 7.0–7.5, GH 6–8, TDS 180–220, KH 3–5. But a tank sitting at GH 4 keeps and breeds them perfectly well — below GH 4 is where failed moults start. GH supplies the calcium and magnesium for moulting: too little and you get the 'white ring of death', where a shrimp cannot finish its moult. KH stops the pH falling. And stability still beats perfection — a colony held steady at GH 5 outperforms one chased up and down around GH 8.
Six steps to a colour shrimp tank
Choose an INERT substrate — not Bee shrimp soil
This is the number one beginner mistake. The active buffering soil sold for Bee/Taiwan Bee shrimp is designed to pull pH and KH down, the exact opposite of what Neocaridina need. Use an inert substrate: river gravel, sand, or an inert shrimp gravel, laid 3–5 cm deep.
Mix the water, set GH and KH
Dechlorinated tap water is fine if GH and KH fall in range. If your water is very soft, remineralise to roughly GH 6–8, KH 3–5, TDS 180–220 ppm — but do not obsess over the number: a tank sitting at GH 4 runs fine as long as it stays put. Measure TDS before the water goes in — don't guess.
Fit a gentle bacterial filter
An airlift-driven sponge or bio filter is the safest choice: gentle flow, no risk to shrimplets, and the media surface itself is where the bacteria and biofilm grow — the colony's baseline food source.
Seed the bacteria and cycle for 3–4 weeks
Run the tank empty until ammonia and nitrite read zero and stay there for several days. While you wait, add catappa leaves, wood and moss so biofilm has time to establish.
The bacterial duo for a cold-water shrimp tank: Gray Powder handles the culture — seeding and holding the beneficial bacteria, growing the biofilm the shrimp graze on, steadying biological filtration and easing stress at introduction, during moults and after water changes. Yellow Powder adds bacteria, vitamins and protein for colour and steady breeding. Use both together.
Adding shrimp to a tank that hasn't finished cycling is the most common way people lose a colony. Two weeks saved, a whole tank lost.
Acclimate by slow drip
Drip acclimate over 45–90 minutes so the shrimp adjust to your TDS and pH, then release them gently and leave the light off for an hour or two. A female dropping her eggs after shipping is a normal stress response, not disease.
Feed lightly, change water regularly
Feed every 2–3 days, only as much as they finish in 2–3 hours. Change 10–15% weekly with water matched to the tank's parameters, and siphon the substrate so nitrate doesn't creep up.
Room temperature is the right answer
You do not need a chiller, and you do not need to force the tank down to the 22–24°C printed on imported care sheets. Neocaridina is native to Vietnam, Taiwan and southern China, where wild water reaches close to 30°C in summer. A controlled culture study at 24 / 28 / 32°C is clear: 28°C is the optimum for growth, maturation and breeding, and it gave the highest survival too.
The number that actually matters is 30°C. Past it, females start dropping their eggs and the colony stops recruiting; at 32°C the entire clutch is lost even though the shrimp still mate normally. Warm water also holds less oxygen, so in a heatwave increase aeration, stock lightly, keep the tank out of direct sun, and change water cool and slowly rather than all at once.
The price of running warm at 27–29°C is a faster metabolism: quick growth and heavy breeding, but a shorter individual lifespan and thinner energy reserves. An air-conditioned room at 24–26°C does the reverse — longer-lived shrimp that breed more slowly. Both are valid. What kills shrimp is not 28°C; it is going past 30°C and letting the temperature swing.
Three shrimp groups, three different waters
- Neocaridina (colour shrimp)
- 24–29°C · pH 6.8–7.8 · GH 4–12 · KH 2–8 · INERT substrate
- Bee / Taiwan Bee (Caridina)
- 20–24°C · pH 5.8–6.8 · GH 4–6 · KH 0–1 · active acid soil
- Sulawesi shrimp & snails
- 27–30°C · pH 7.8–8.5 · GH 6–8 · KH 3–6 · alkaline substrate
Genetically, Neocaridina CANNOT hybridise with Bee shrimp or Sulawesi shrimp — different genera do not interbreed. But the three groups need three completely different waters, so they still cannot share one system. Read the table carefully: what separates Neocaridina from Sulawesi is NOT temperature — the two overlap at 27–29°C — it is pH and KH. Safe tankmates for colour shrimp: Nerite snails and small peaceful fish such as Otocinclus. Avoid anything big enough to swallow a shrimplet.
Blue Dream comes out of the Carbon Rili line and carries NO red genetics, while Blue Velvet / Blue Jelly come out of the Red Rili line and still do. They look almost identical, but housing them together reintroduces red genetics and the colony throws wild-type shrimp within a few generations.
The fastest way to kill a tank
Dissolved copper is lethal at roughly 0.06–0.08 mg/L. The real killers are copper-based fish medications, snail treatments, concentrated micro fertilisers, copper plumbing and pesticide-treated plants. Dietary copper, on the other hand, is essential — shrimp blood carries oxygen using copper-based hemocyanin. Note that copper adsorbs into silicone and leaches back out for months.
Frequently asked questions
My room sits above 28°C with no air-conditioning — is that a problem?
No, and that is closer to the species' natural condition. Neocaridina is native to Vietnam, Taiwan and southern China, where summer water reaches close to 30°C, and a controlled culture study found 28°C to be the optimum for growth, maturation and breeding, with the highest survival as well. The number to watch is 30°C — above it females drop their eggs and the colony stops recruiting. You do not need a chiller, just enough aeration, light stocking and no direct sun.
Can I keep two colours in one tank?
No. Every colour strain is the same species, so they interbreed freely, and because wild-type colour is dominant the colony reverts to mottled brown in 2–3 generations. Two colours means two tanks.
Can I use Bee shrimp soil for Neocaridina?
Don't. Active buffering soil pulls pH and KH below what Neocaridina need. Use an inert substrate: gravel, sand or inert shrimp gravel.
How long do colour shrimp live?
About 10–13 months for males and 12–15 months for females — 1–2 years in general, not the 3–5 years often advertised. A healthy colony replaces itself continuously, so you never really see it age.
Do they need an iodine supplement to moult?
No. What they need for moulting is GH — calcium and magnesium in the water. Leave shed moults in the tank; the shrimp eat them back for the minerals.
Is grade heritable?
Grade describes an individual's appearance — mainly opacity and colour coverage — not a genetic category. A high-grade pair still throws a spread every clutch, and males always look a grade paler simply because they are male.
What tank size should I start with?
20–30 litres or more. More water volume means parameters move less, and that matters more than anything else for a new colony.
How do you ship, and is arrival guaranteed?
We pack with pure oxygen and ship nationwide. Free nationwide air shipping on orders from 5,000,000₫, and free intra-city delivery on orders from 2,000,000₫. Live arrival is guaranteed — film one continuous unboxing video to claim a replacement.
Pick a colour to start with
We keep every major colour line acclimated and healthy — Fire Red, Blue Dream, Yellow, Orange Rili, Green Diamond, Bloody Mary and more.
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