Black Fancy Tiger High Grade
An opaque black base with crisp white banding running head to tail — and no two animals alike. This is a Tiger × Bee hybrid, culled hard to hold full-body patterning; most of any spawn never reaches the level you are looking at.
No two are alike — that is both the beauty of this line and the reason it costs what it does.
A man-made line with no wild original
The Black Fancy Tiger does not exist in nature. It is a cross between the tiger shrimp (Caridina mariae) and the Bee/Crystal group (Caridina cantonensis) — every individual on earth was born in a glass tank. In the trade, any Tiger × Bee cross is called a Tibee; the Fancy Tiger is a sub-line within that group, selected over many generations for patterning that covers the whole body rather than appearing in patches. Put simply: every Fancy Tiger is a Tibee, but not every Tibee is a Fancy Tiger. The Chinese trade calls it 花虎, 'flower tiger'; the German trade calls it Schwarze Tigerbienengarnele, 'black tiger-bee shrimp'. Both names describe exactly what it is.
Where the tiger half comes from
A Fancy Tiger has no wild ancestor of its own — it is a hybrid. But understanding the wild tiger is what explains why a Fancy Tiger tank is allowed to run at a higher pH than a bee tank.
How to recognise a high-grade Black Fancy Tiger
Real-world water parameters
This is the band nine vendors and breeders across Europe, the US and Taiwan converge on for Fancy Tigers — and there is one notable difference from bee shrimp: the pH sits HIGHER. High-grade bees run 5.8–6.5; Fancy Tigers run 6.2–6.8. The reason is the tiger half of the animal: field measurements at the type localities record the tiger (C. mariae) living at pH 7.0 and 40 µS/cm conductivity, while the bee (C. logemanni) sits at pH 6.0 and 33 µS/cm — two genuinely different environments, not a mis-copied care sheet. Because a Fancy Tiger is a cross between the two, it tolerates a slightly wider window than a pure bee. Ammonia and nitrite must be zero, nitrate under 10 ppm. But the old rule still governs: stability beats perfection.
KH 0–2 — low, but it does not have to be an absolute zero the way a high-grade bee tank does. Carbonate both raises pH and PINS it, so while there is KH in the water the soil cannot pull the tank into the acid range; worse, an active soil buffers by neutralising exactly that carbonate, so every degree of KH you add burns soil lifespan. In a Caridina tank THE SOIL IS THE BUFFER, NOT THE WATER. Mix RO with a GH+ remineraliser only — not GH/KH+. The bonus: at around pH 6.5 most ammonia speciates to the far less toxic ammonium ion, NH₄⁺.
GH 4–6 is the calcium–magnesium window for moulting, and it is LOWER than Neocaridina (6–12). Never chase a failed moult by pushing GH above 6: below GH 4 the shell cannot form, but above 6 it forms too thick and hard to shed. If you must move GH, move it no more than 2 points per day. With a Fancy Tiger there is a further reason to keep GH right: opacity is what the shrimp is worth — the black must be opaque and the white bands must be opaque — and that opacity is built from the minerals in the water.
The 25°C ceiling — and the truth about Vietnamese room temperature
On Fancy Tigers we speak more cautiously than we do on the bee page, because the literature is different here. A 25°C ceiling is stated explicitly by several trade sources for this line, and it is not an idly copied number — it recurs across European Caridina specialists. On the other hand, the tiger half makes this animal hardier than a pure Crystal Red: wild tigers live in warmer and harder water than wild bees. The practical conclusion for a Vietnamese keeper: aim for 24–25°C; 25–27°C is workable if you compensate with 24/7 aeration and light stocking, but understand you are running at the edge; and do not let the tank sit at 28°C if you want the colony to breed.
- 20–24°C
- The band European vendors quote for this line — only reachable with a chiller or a cold room
- 24–25°C
- The quality band: whitest banding, steadiest breeding — the realistic target
- 25–27°C
- Workable at Vietnamese room temperature — but already ABOVE the 25°C ceiling many sources give, so 24/7 aeration, light stocking and mature soil are mandatory
- 28–30°C
- Danger zone: the colony stops breeding and attrition starts
- Above 30°C
- Hard ceiling
What kills shrimp in warm water is not HEAT, it is OXYGEN. Going from 24 to 30°C, the water's oxygen-carrying capacity falls only about 10% (8.42 → 7.56 mg/L) — but the shrimp's demand, as an ectotherm, rises 50–100%. Two curves moving in opposite directions, and where they cross is where a colony dies. So: 24/7 AERATION is the single highest-value purchase for a Vietnamese Caridina keeper without a chiller — more valuable than premium food. Shrimp do not reliably surface-gasp the way fish do, so low oxygen stays invisible right up until you are counting bodies.
The honest answer: not required to keep them ALIVE. Effectively required to hold opaque banding and steady breeding, because the recommended ceiling for this line sits below southern Vietnamese room temperature for most of the year. Cooling fans buy about 2–3°C in local conditions (the 4–5°C often advertised is optimistic — high humidity blunts evaporative cooling), must run on a temperature controller, and top-up must be 0-TDS RO or TDS climbs daily. For high-grade stock and dedicated breeding tanks we recommend a chiller. And to be clear about one myth: a deep substrate does NOT cool a tank.
In a Caridina tank, the soil is the buffer
Active buffering soil is mandatory, not optional. It is a cation-exchange clay: it releases H⁺ along with humic and fulvic acids, holds pH around 6.0–6.5 and strips KH out of the water. Never use an inert substrate — gravel or sand as you would for Neocaridina. Without buffering soil the pH drifts above 7 and breeding stops almost completely. Fresh soil leaches 2–8 ppm ammonia, so run the tank EMPTY for 4–8 weeks before adding shrimp; the extra time is not for the filter, it is for biofilm and microfauna to establish — which is what shrimplets actually eat. And do not deep-vacuum the soil: its exchange capacity is finite, and the mulm on top is food.
A free way to check whether your soil is still alive: measure the TDS of your MIXED water in the bucket, then measure the TDS IN the tank. A working soil always pulls the in-tank number below the mix. That gap is a live readout of the soil's remaining capacity. When the gap closes to zero and pH starts drifting past 6.8–7.0, the soil is finished — alongside GH creeping up on its own, unstable readings after every water change, deaths concentrated around moults, and granules that crumble to mud between your fingers. Realistic lifespan: about 12–18 months on RO, and possibly only 6 months on tap water (published figures range from 6 months to 3 years — the 12–18 month number is our own judgement).
The Black Fancy Tiger line at a glance
- Line
- Black Fancy Tiger — Chinese trade name 花虎, 'flower tiger'
- Scientific name
- Caridina sp. "Black Fancy Tiger" — a hybrid line with no formal species name
- Origin
- Man-made: tiger shrimp (C. mariae) × bee group (C. cantonensis). Does not occur in the wild
- Position in the group
- A selected sub-line within the Tibee (Tiger × Bee) group
- Grade
- High grade — opaque black base, crisp white bands, full-body patterning
- Base colour
- Opaque black with no translucent zones
- Patterning
- Tiger-derived white banding, different on every individual
- Adult size
- about 3cm
- Clutch size
- 15–30eggs
- Incubation
- About 4–5 weeks (around 30 days)
- Breeds true?
- NO — offspring come out across the whole pattern range, mostly below high grade
- Difficulty
- Advanced — not a first shrimp tank
- Housing
- Dedicated tank, never with any other Caridina
What 'high grade' means on a Fancy Tiger — and why nobody defines it the same way
With Crystal bee shrimp there is at least an international ladder to hold on to. With Fancy Tigers there is not. Surveying the major vendors in the US, Europe and Taiwan turns up at least three parallel grading systems with no conversion between them, while retail prices for nominally the same shrimp span more than tenfold. Rather than pretend a common standard exists, we publish all three so you know what you are reading when you look at somebody else's listing.
- A → S → SS → SSS
- The letter scale. WARNING: on Fancy Tigers, A is the LOW end — the exact opposite of how you read the bee ladder
- G3 → G2 → G1 → G0
- The numeric scale. G3 lowest, G0 highest
- Standard → High → Premium
- The descriptive scale — the one we use, because it does not pretend to more precision than exists
- What all three actually measure
- An OPAQUE black base (not see-through), crisp genuinely white bands, patterning covering the whole body head to tail, no translucent zones
For this line the warning has to be louder than usual: there is NO standard grading scale for Fancy Tigers. Surveying the major vendors turns up at least three parallel systems with no conversion between them, and retail prices for nominally the same shrimp running from roughly $6 to $100. The most dangerous part is the letter A: on the bee ladder A is a middle grade, but on the Fancy Tiger letter scale A is the LOWEST. People have bought the wrong shrimp over that single letter. And to be explicit: the C→SSS ladder with its Mosura and Hinomaru names belongs to Crystal bee shrimp — it does NOT apply to tigers and it does not apply to Fancy Tigers. So the Jack Shrimp rule is unchanged: THE PHOTOGRAPH GOVERNS, and the grade word is shorthand for that photograph.
The names that get mixed up — and how to read them
So where does the price of a Fancy Tiger come from, if the grading is not standardised? Four things, and all four are visible in a photograph once you know what to look for: (1) the OPACITY of the black base — a low-grade animal still has translucent zones you can see through against the light; (2) the crispness and whiteness of the bands — they should cut cleanly into the black, not blur or grey out; (3) patterning distributed over the whole body rather than one good section; (4) and the most expensive factor, invisible in any photo: the cull rate behind that one animal.
Why this line costs what it does: 13% — 6% — 3%
This is the most important section on the page, and it is the exact opposite of the PBL page. A Fancy Tiger does NOT breed true. That is not a failing of any particular breeder — it is what a hybrid line is: the patterning recombines every generation, and every individual is banded differently, like a fingerprint. Which leads directly to why 'high grade' costs what it does. One breeder published the retention rates from their own colony: only about 13% of the offspring were kept at first grade, 6% at second, 3% at third. Most of a spawn never reaches a shelf under the name Fancy Tiger. When you buy a high-grade animal, what you are really paying for is every other shrimp in that batch.
- Tiger shrimp — C. mariae
- Wild species, Guangdong and Hong Kong. Colour morphs: OEBT, Super Tiger, Blue Tiger
- Bee / Crystal — C. cantonensis
- The wild group from the same region, ancestor of Crystal Red, Crystal Black, PRL and PBL
- Tibee = Tiger × Bee
- The umbrella term for any cross between those two groups. The hybrids ARE fertile
- Black Fancy Tiger
- A selected, pattern-stabilised sub-line of Tibee — the line on this page
- Taitibee = Tibee × Taiwan Bee
- The next step, introducing Taiwan Bee genetics
- Pinto, Galaxy, Fishbone
- Further selections from that branch, each with its own pattern vocabulary
- The practical conclusion
- Everything on this branch interbreeds — so each line needs its own tank if you want to keep its name meaningful
A Fancy Tiger will hybridise with essentially everything in the ornamental Caridina world: Crystal Red, Crystal Black, Taiwan Bee, tigers, OEBT, Super Tiger, Tangerine Tiger, Tibee, Taitibee, Pinto, Mischling. The hybrids are fertile, so the damage does not stop at one clutch: a few generations later you have a tank of nameless shrimp that cannot be sold and cannot be walked back. So a Fancy Tiger tank is a dedicated tank — exactly one line, not even 'just one for fun'. Safe tankmates: Nerite snails and small peaceful fish such as Otocinclus.
Because a Fancy Tiger does not breed true, the question that decides a pure-line bee purchase — 'what colours does this colony throw?' — is replaced here by a different one: 'where did the parent stock come from, and what proportion makes grade?'. Our Fancy Tiger colony is kept in a dedicated system with no other Caridina line anywhere in it, and everything that reaches the shelf is hand-graded against the four criteria above. If you want them to look at rather than to breed from, say so — there is far cheaper lower-grade stock and we will point you at the right thing.
It throws a spread of patterns — it does not breed true
A female carries roughly 15–30 eggs and incubates for about four to five weeks (around 30 days), hatching straight into fully formed shrimplets with no larval stage. Keep a colony of at least 8, ideally 20+, in a minimum of 20 litres, on a sponge or airlift bio filter, with 10–30% weekly water changes. The critical breeding condition is pH rather than temperature: run above the recommended band and you get fewer spawns, smaller clutches and dropped eggs. And to repeat the point that sets your expectations: the offspring will come out across the whole range of patterning, most of it below high grade. If you are breeding, have a second tank ready for the animals that do not make the cut — do not put them in with another line. One detail that alarms newcomers: for 24–48 hours after a moult the shrimp look pale before the colour returns. That is normal.
The 'white ring of death' — a white gap between carapace and abdomen where a shrimp cannot finish its moult — is untreatable and only preventable. It almost always follows a large water change or a GH swing. Below GH 4 the shell cannot form at all. So: change 10% weekly or 10–20% monthly, DRIP it in rather than pouring, and respect three limits — TDS moving no more than 10–25 ppm per day, GH no more than 2 points per day, temperature no more than 2–3°C per day. Top up evaporation with 0-TDS RO, never with remineralised water.
The Caridina acclimation protocol — step by step
1 · Open the parcel immediately, lights off
Do not leave the sealed box for later. The shrimp have been in the dark for more than a day. Photograph the unopened bags before opening — that is your evidence if a claim is needed.
2 · Equalise temperature first
Float the sealed bag for 15–20 minutes. A sudden temperature step is more dangerous than sitting at a less-than-ideal temperature. The safe limit is 2–3°C.
3 · Decant shrimp and bag water into a separate container
Not into the tank. A clean bowl or bucket, held at tank temperature.
4 · Drip for 2–3 hours
At 1–2 drops per second. Run two cycles: drip until full over 30–60 minutes, pour most of it away, then drip to full again — this pushes the mix above 75% tank water. For high-value Taiwan Bee morphs, extend to 3–4 hours. Beyond two hours, add a small airstone to the container.
5 · NET the shrimp across — never pour bag water in
This is the rule you do not break. Bag water carries accumulated ammonia, bacteria from a crowded transport environment, and completely different parameters. It goes down the sink.
6 · Leave them alone
Lights off for the rest of the day, NO food for 24 hours, NO water change for the first 7 days. Shrimp sitting still for several hours after introduction is normal, not dying.
Something most sellers will not say out loud: the death that causes the most disputes does NOT happen at unboxing. Rehousing commonly triggers a moult, and if the receiving tank's GH is wrong that moult fails — the shrimp dies 24–72 hours later having looked perfectly fine on arrival. Which is why the receiving tank must be ready BEFORE you order, not prepared on the day. Bee shrimp also travel less well than Neocaridina: a safe window of 18–24 hours in an air-filled bag and 36–48 hours on pure oxygen, against 24–36 and 48–72 for Neocaridina. We stop feeding 24–48 hours before packing — the single most effective way to limit ammonia in the bag.
The matching set-up
Feed 2–3 times a WEEK, not daily, with 1–2 deliberate fasting days. Portion: a fingernail-sized pinch per 10–20 shrimp, cleared within 2–3 hours — anything left at 4 hours comes out and the next portion goes down. Overfeeding is the number one cause of death: it produces ammonia, drives bacterial blooms that crash oxygen, and feeds planaria, hydra and Vorticella. Put another way, planaria and hydra are not bad luck — they are a readout of surplus food. If they appear, cut feeding before reaching for chemicals. Rotate foods: shrimp pellets, blanched vegetables (courgette, kale), dried catappa leaves — variety matters more than the protein percentage on the label. Bacteria powders such as Bacter AE must be dosed at 1/8 to 1/2 of the label amount, 2–3 times a week: the manufacturer's dose causes bacterial blooms and oxygen crashes.
Dissolved copper kills shrimp at very low concentrations. The real culprits: copper-based fish medications (a fish dose runs 2–3× the shrimp-lethal level), snail treatments, concentrated micro fertilisers, copper plumbing and pesticide-treated plants. Dietary copper, by contrast, is essential — roughly 40% of a shrimp's body copper sits in haemocyanin, the molecule that carries oxygen in its blood. Needed from food, not from water.
The set-up for a Bee shrimp tank is fundamentally different from a Neocaridina tank, and the three items below are requirements rather than upgrades. The active soil holds pH and consumes KH — without it nothing else matters. Gray Powder handles the culture: seeding and holding the beneficial bacteria, growing the biofilm the shrimp graze, and easing stress at introduction, during moults and after water changes — far more important here than in a Neocaridina tank, because shrimplet survival depends on that biofilm. Yellow Powder adds vitamins and protein. The bio filter runs on an airlift, so it filters and aerates at once — and as noted above, aeration is the best money you can spend keeping these at Vietnamese room temperature.
Do not order until the tank is ready
A Caridina tank needs 4–8 weeks running empty on active soil before the first shrimp goes in — not the two weeks most care sheets quote. This line additionally needs a DEDICATED tank with no other Caridina in it. Message Jack Shrimp before you set up; advice is free, and we would rather lose an order than let you lose a colony.
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