Fire Red Cherry Shrimp
Fire red shrimp are not a naturally occurring species, but rather the product of selective breeding. The consensus is that it was developed from the red cherry shrimp, which in itself is selectively bred from the wild freshwater shrimp Neocaridina heteropoda, a native to Asia that has no red color.
Some individuals in captivity showed some red, and by selecting those shrimp with the reddest and most saturated color, breeders began to produce a shrimp with progressively more red on its body, to the point where the red color covers very close to 100 percent of the shrimp’s body. In addition, fire red shrimp can grow slightly larger than the red cherry shrimp.
Characteristics
Some have noted that they are slower moving and generally less active than the normal variety of red cherry shrimp. They are content to graze all day on the substrate, ornaments, plants, and any decoration covered in bio-film, including algae. Watching them is reminiscent to watching a herd of grazers on a pasture. It has also been suggested that the fire red shrimp is not purely derived from the red cherry shrimp but instead was developed through crossbreeding with other species. This belief is in the minority, and since this information is not readily available from the original breeder(s), we can’t currently confirm for sure which one of the two is in fact the origin of this beautiful shrimp.
Naming
The fire red shrimp may also be found under other names such as Taiwan fire red, painted fire red, and Sakura shrimp, which has been described by others as the predecessor to the fire red. The different names given to this shrimp have come about in an effort to distinguish the amount of red cover on each successive selectively bred generation of shrimp.
Color
The goal of breeders is to produce shrimp without any translucent parts, as these are considered the highest grade. Shrimp of such high grade are referred to as painted fire red shrimp. This shrimp possesses what is termed a thick fire-engine-red color. The term “thick” in shrimp color nomenclature can be likened to painting a surface with a brush. If the paint does not cover well, you will see through the paint on the first coat. But after a second coat, you will not see the lower layers of the surface any longer and are left with a solid, thick color.
You can loosely imagine this shrimp’s color as having been hand painted with very thick paint or maybe multiple coats of red paint, and therefore no transparent parts are visible. Their color can vary from fire engine red to a fluorescent orange red. Continuing with the paint analogy, those with the fire-engine red tend to be glossy, while those with the orange red have a flat finish.
- Name : Fire Red Cherry Shrimp
- Temperature : 21-23
- pH: 7.2-7.6
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