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People interested in high grade CR are sometimes keen to collect so called ‘red line’ shrimps. This expression refers to the fact, that some high grade CR have SSS patterns through selective breeding of low grades. Besides, it’s assumed to prove that no Snow White shrimp has been crossed in to improve patterns and grades.

In addition to the red line concept, some breeders’ names are a guarantee for high quality: Suzuki, Shirakura, Ueno, Hakata and Ebi-Ten are well known Japanese breeders who have been working for long time on shrimps. Also ASSA, a Japanese breeder association, stands for CR with deep color density. In Germany, some CR are sold under the label ‘Japannachzuchten’ (=offspring of Japanese lines) or new line names like ‘Ebi-Ishi’ – but what’s all this really worth it?

The truth is most German folks buy high grade shrimp from Asia, spawn them and sell them. Often, you even do not know if you get rejected second choice shrimps – or even some which have been crossed with unknown stock. See: the label ‘Japannachzuchten’ is nothing more than a marketing tool since you cannot prove the genetical background but only trust your reseller.

A comment on a difficult topic.

A couple of rough days have passed by and after being involved in several discussions on a shrimp breeder association, I have had time to check the internet for some more information about the in Germany so called ‘Princess Bee’. I stumbled across several forums and also found a closed thread on this shrimp species as well as a selling embargo in TSO forum. It forbids more concrete mass selling.

Although web translators most often return very funny and insane phrases, I was able to understand that the main point was: Who and under which circumstances is allowed to catch, trade and breed this shrimp?

The members of another forum were not so happy about the fact that the name ‘Princess Bee’ (also: Tép ong Huế or Honey Vietnamese Shrimp) was given by a foreign scientist and – in addition – that these shrimp were available in Europe already. The first report on this shrimps is from may 2009, posted in a well known Asian forum by a guy from Vietnam.

So after two years in the hobby I know that new dwarf shrimp species on the market are like a money-printing machine for the greedy ones. Who cares about the animals?

P. S. Have a look: Is this a Red Princess Bee?

Everybody interested in the genetics of Taiwan Bee, should check out this thread in shrimpnow (click here) where some really interesting pictures have been showed. It seems that King Kong, Panda and red Ruby are not so far from Tigers and Tiger Bees.

I have been told by an Indian shrimp keeper, that cardina hordgarti are called ‘Green Rocket Shrimp‘ in trivial there. I really love this name! He keeps his in 26 degree Celsius in a well planted tank.

Green Rocket Shrimp (caridina hodgarti)

While Blue and Black Tiger shrimps have been bestsellers in 2008 – like King Kong and Panda have been in 2009 – we now are eager to know which shrimp will be the favorite in 2010. There are some newbreeds already shown to a wider public: Black Fire, Blue Fire (which was perhaps a good photoshop work only) and Chocolate Shrimps – all of neocaridina type. Although this shrimps are new on the market, they did not initiate a rush.

Preferences for a certain shrimp species or color type rely on regional and social background. While most beginners prefer easy to breed and intense colors (f.e. red, yellow and green neocardina), advanced keepers most often like restrained patterns and colors, say Tiger or Bumble Bee shrimp, too.

I suppose the #1 shrimp in 2010 must have interesting pattern and coloration, so mono colored shrimps drop out. We have had black shrimp in pool position for some time, so if I look into my crystal ball, I suppose new colored Tiger shrimps in red, yellow or green with fat tiger stripes, selected Blue Bee as a first blue-and-white shrimp as well as the beautiful Princess Bee from Vietnam will be the most wanted shrimps in 2010. Let’s wait and see; life is a guessing game.

When talking about shrimp keeping, most people talk about breeding shrimps too. But in fact, simple reproduction is not breeding. Breeding means to select offspring to meet criteria for better genes. This also means to reject a great number of shrimplets  which don’t meet the breeding target. A serious breeder will not sell shrimps he rejected; this is an unwritten code of honour. Otherwise, the market is overstock with low quality shrimps.