Wild Form Neocaridina Shrimp (Neocaridina davidi), Tank-Bred!

If you’re new to keeping freshwater dwarf shrimp, the Wild Form Neocaridina Shrimp (Neocaridina davidi) is the easiest to keep.  This species has been naturally developed into multiple red (cherry), yellow, blue, orange, green, maroon, dark brown, black, and white forms with multiple variations and combinations of each.  While all of those varieties have proven to be very resilient and sustainable, the wild form is certainly the most durable.  

The Wild Form Neocaridina Shrimp is very attractive in its own right.  Its base color is typically a semi-clear tan to brown with a marbling of various natural brown shades, often with a very defined light tan stripe down its back.  This shrimp will reproduce easily and constantly, replenishing and drastically growing its population, especially in aquariums with no predators of the shrimp fry. 

This shrimp is a scavenger and is very useful in planted and nano aquariums.  The bulk of its diet is biofilm, algae, and decaying plant matter so it will work diligently to clean up the waste in any aquarium.  It feeds constantly, so it displays constant activity.  In a less mature aquarium, it should be fed high quality flake and mini pellet dry foods with high algae/spirulina/plant content.