TGA Blue zebra shrimp - Neocaridina davidi

The Blue Zebra shrimp lives up to its name. The pretty blue transparent Neocaridina davidi "Blue Zebra" have in addition to their blue body coloration a dark blue top color, which is arranged in bands on the abdomen. As a color form of the Blue Dream, the Blue Zebra dwarf shrimp fits very well in an aquarium with other Blue Dream shrimp. You can also mix them with all other shrimp of the black line (Black Sakura, Black Rili, Blue Black Rili, Chocolate, Bloody Mary, Blue Dream, Blue Sapphire etc.) without any problems. Then you risk no wild colored shrimp, but the beautiful zebra pattern may disappear with time.

The female Blue Zebra dwarf shrimp are a bit more intensively colored and grow with up to 3 cm larger than the smaller and also slimmer males. You can recognize adult females by their brighter egg spot on the neck or of course by eggs under the abdomen, which they carry there until the hatching of the young.

Egg-bearing females of the Blue Zebra Neocaridina maintain their spawn under the abdomen for about three to four weeks. After that, the Blue Zebra female releases between 20 and 40 baby shrimp that resemble their parents in appearance - only in tiny. Since the adult Blue Zebra Neocaridina do not chase their offspring, you can leave the juveniles in the parent aquarium for rearing.

Like all Neocaridina, the Blue Zebra variant tolerates water values from soft to hard - after all, Neocaridina also live in very different habitats in nature. A certain amount of humic substance in the water can help with molting and keeps the germ density in the aquarium water low.

The Blue Zebra is not particularly picky about food either. This Neocaridina dwarf shrimp will eat leftover fish food, dead plants, biofilms and algae coverings, but also likes vegetable food such as dried nettle leaves, scalded spinach, Hokkaido squash, green dried walnut leaves or brown autumn leaves. Brown foliage should always be present as a permanent food in the shrimp aquarium. Special shrimp foods for omnivorous dwarf shr imp are also readily eaten by Neocaridina. Twice a week you should feed a high quality protein food for dwarf shrimp, which helps the females to form eggs and the juveniles to grow.

The Blue Zebra Dwarf Shrimp gets along well withother shr imp. As a peaceful group animal, the Blue Zebra always needs at least 10 to 20 conspecifics. Ideally, and because the Blue Zebra Shrimp is still a very new color variety, we recommend a uniform group with the same pattern of markings. Please note that the Blue Zebra Neocaridina as a very new color variant can still scatter considerably in the offspring and you really have to select carefully to get a stable group with the zebra pattern.

With small and peaceful, not too curious fish you can also socialize the Blue Zebra shrimp as Neocaridina. Also with adult crayfish and very small freshwater crabs, with mussels and peaceful snails the socialization should work. With dwarf crayfish, on the other hand, it can come to failures, because they can partially chase the shrimp, depending on their character. In any case, the Blue Zebra Neocaridina needs sufficient hiding places in fine plants and in moss cushions in the community aquarium , as well as shrimp caves or other shelters in the aquarium. Especially the offspring should find enough hiding places, so that the baby shrimps are not preyed upon by the other inhabitants in the aquarium.