rm
Passport
- Family
- Shrimp and Yabbies
- Grows to
- 3 cm (1.2")
- Temperament
- Peaceful
- CareSuggested
- Intermediate
- SwimsSuggested
- Everywhere
- Keep
- In a group of 6 or more
- Water
- 19–24 °C (66–75 °F)
China
Care requirements
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On record for Tiger Shrimp: adult size, minimum tank, temperature, ph, hardness, carbonate hardness, minimum group, diet, care level, swim level.
Not on record for Tiger Shrimp: lifespan, tank length.
A figure that is not on record is left out rather than guessed. One marked Suggested comes from keeping knowledge rather than a page.
- Minimum tank 19 L / 5.0 US gal
- pH 6.5–8
- Hardness 4–10 dGH
- Carbonate hardness 1–8 dKH
- Diet algae eater/omnivore
Care notes written from general aquarium knowledge, not from the cited sources.
About
Tiger shrimp are the sensible way into Caridina. They carry dark vertical bars down a translucent body, often with an orange tail and startling orange eyes in the selectively bred lines, and they're noticeably tougher than the crystal and Taiwan Bee shrimp they share a genus with.
That toughness is the reason to start here. A tiger will tolerate a wider spread of hardness and pH than a crystal red, including water that leans neutral rather than acidic, so you can keep them without building your water from scratch.
They're active and visible in a way the fussier Caridina often aren't. A settled group spends its day out on the hardscape rather than hiding.
Tank setup
Give your tigers a mature planted tank and moderate, stable water. They sit between the extremes — happier softer and cooler than a cherry shrimp, far less exacting than a crystal red.
You can run them on an inert substrate rather than an active soil, which is a real practical saving. If your tap water is already soft and near neutral you may not need to treat it at all.
Keep the temperature down. Tigers do distinctly better cool, and warm water shortens their lives and dulls the barring.
Provide plenty of surface: moss, wood, botanicals and dense planting for the biofilm they graze.
Feeding
Tigers are unfussy scavengers that graze biofilm and algae continuously and take prepared food readily.
Feed a few times a week rather than daily, and only what's cleared within a couple of hours. Blanched vegetables, a quality shrimp food and the odd protein wafer cover everything they need.
They compete well for food, which is worth noting if you keep them with anything smaller or shyer.
Avoid: copper in anything. It reaches invertebrates through medications and plant fertilisers at doses that leave fish untouched.
Filtration and flow
A sponge filter and gentle flow suits them, as with any shrimp you might breed.
Guard any powered intake. Shrimplets are small enough to be drawn through almost anything unguarded.
Keep changes small and matched. Tigers forgive more than the crystals do, but a sharp swing in temperature or hardness still causes failed moults.
With plants
Tiger shrimp are completely safe with plants and improve a planted tank by working detritus out of it.
Moss is the most useful addition. It holds biofilm and it hides shrimplets from anything that would eat them.
Their tolerance for near-neutral water widens the plant list compared with a dedicated Caridina tank, so most popular species will do well alongside them.
Health
Failed moults are the usual killer and the usual cause is a mineral shortfall. Soft water still needs enough dissolved minerals for a shrimp to build a shell.
They handle transport better than the higher-grade Caridina but still deserve a slow drip acclimatisation over an hour or more.
Watch the barring. In a tiger shrimp the stripes fade under stress before the animal shows anything else wrong, which makes them a useful indicator of the tank's state.
Breeding
Tigers breed readily in conditions that suit them, and the young emerge as miniature adults with no larval stage to negotiate.
They will hybridise with other Caridina, including crystal reds and the Taiwan Bee lines. The offspring are often muddled and unsellable, so keep one Caridina line per tank unless you're deliberately experimenting.
They will not interbreed with Neocaridina, so a cherry colony in the same tank stays genetically separate. Whether the two want the same water is a different question, and usually the answer is no.
Tank mates
Avoid14
- Convict Cichlid Convict Cichlid reaches 15 cm and will eat adult Tiger Shrimp.
- Jewel Cichlid Jewel Cichlid reaches 15 cm and will eat adult Tiger Shrimp.
- Kribensis Kribensis reaches 8 cm and will eat adult Tiger Shrimp.
- Oscar Oscar reaches 35 cm and will eat adult Tiger Shrimp.
- Panda Garra Panda Garra reaches 9 cm and will eat adult Tiger Shrimp.
Only with care33
- Chinese Algae Eater Chinese Algae Eater is aggressive and Tiger Shrimp is peaceful.
- Least Killifish Least Killifish is small enough to leave adult Tiger Shrimp alone, but will still take shrimplets.
- Scarlet Badis Scarlet Badis is small enough to leave adult Tiger Shrimp alone, but will still take shrimplets.
- Agassiz's Dwarf Cichlid Agassiz's Dwarf Cichlid is a risk to Tiger Shrimp: shrimp and yabbies and sth american cichlids - dwarf are a pairing to watch.
- Angelfish Angelfish is a risk to Tiger Shrimp: angelfish and shrimp and yabbies are a pairing to watch.
No conflict is recorded with the other 61 species in the database, so nothing to flag.