Snow Amana shrimp - offspring - Caridina multidentata var. "snow"

The Snow Amano shrimp (Caridina multidentata "Snow") is the first color breeding of the Amano shrimp from Japan, Taiwan, Korea and Madagascar. Here it concerns a color variant, which was bred out in an aquarium plant according to information of the shrimp breeder purposefully from a color mutation.
Our Snow Amanogarnelen come from Taiwan. Unlike the white Amano shrimp already shown in the hobby, this color is not temporarily achieved by certain feeding and keeping them in the dark, so the animals should remain permanently white.

We subjected the Snow Amanos to a three-month long-term test at our aquarium facility in Mannheim, Germany, with different water values and feeding, and they remained permanently white. We therefore assume that the Snow Amanos tend not to change color to the wild color.

Amano shrimp get their name from Takashi Amano, the inventor of the natural aquarium and one of the first aquascapers. He used the Caridina japonica, previously known as Yamato shrimp or Yamato numa ebi, in his aquascapes as an algae eater. This made the large freshwater shrimp very famous, and they consequently received the name of the Japanese aquascaping master. No other dwarf shrimp eats algae deposits and even filamentous algae as effectively as the Amano shrimp. The white Amano is no exception!

White Snow Amano shrimp lack all dark color pigments. Their body is whitish transparent, possibly with very few white pigment dots, the egg spot of the females is also light. Males and females can only be distinguished by the thicker body shape of the females or by the egg spot and the eggs under the abdomen of the adult females.

Caridina multidentata "Snow" grow quite large: the fuller females reach up to 5.5 cm total length, the slimmer males about 4.5 cm. Because of the stately size and the liveliness of the Amana shrimp the aquarium should have at least 60, better 80 cm edge length. Larger is of course always possible!

The sociable Snow Amanos need the company of a group of at least 5 to 10 conspecifics. If you don't want to breed the white variety, you can also stock up your amano group with wild colored Caridina multidentata.

Snow Amano shrimp are as robust and adaptable as the wild form. You can keep them in soft to hard water and at 22 to 30 °C water temperature. Because the Snow Amano shrimp does not eat higher plants, you can keep these efficient algae eaters in nicely planted aquascapes and planted aquariums.

The behavior of the lively and rather fearless Snow Amano shrimp is very interesting to observe - they have little respect even for smaller fish and sometimes steal their food right from under their noses. During the mating swim the Snow Amano males give a lot of gas and fly through the water, when they are looking for the ready to mate female.

As an undemanding omnivore the Snow Amano shrimp is not really picky about food. Algae and brown leaves, food scraps and catfish sticks, special shrimp food, frozen food, ... Amanos like to take everything. Especially female amano shrimp need a lot of protein due to egg production. If their high protein needs are not met from the food, they may attack snails and very rarely even other aquarium inhabitants. A special protein food for dwarf shrimp like NatureHolic Proteinfeed or simply frozen food two to three times a week can help. 

Amano shrimp are uncomplicated to keep, but breeding is a bit more tricky. Because Snow Amano shrimp belong to the primitive reproductive type or prolonged type, the females carry up to 2,000 tiny eggs, from which equally small transparent larvae hatch. Amano shrimp larvae can survive in freshwater for only a few days. In nature, river currents bring them to estuaries where they grow up in brackish to seawater. There, the shrimp larvae feed on unicellular algae and microorganisms. Once the small Amanolar larvae have undergone metamorphosis to shrimp, they migrate back to freshwater. If you want to breed Snow Amano shrimp, you need a separate rearing aquarium with brackish water.

Snow Amano shrimp can be kept in sufficiently large aquariums with other dwarf shrimp such as Neocaridina. They also get along with small to larger, non-predatory fish and even crayfish, small freshwater crabs, snails and mussels.

Our food recommendation: The soft Mainfeed Softpads from NatureHolic are designed for daily feeding. They contain all the nutrients shrimp need for shell development, egg formation and growth. During production we pay attention to a gentle and environmentally friendly production, in which the vitamins and other valuable ingredients are preserved as far as possible.

Our plant recommendation: Use for planting NatureHolic InVitros. These are free of snails, planaria and other unwanted co-inhabitants. Also free of algae spores, bacteria and fungi.

Expert Tip: We recommend when keeping fish the NatureHolic 3 Phase Liquid. The care set offers the best all-round protection for your animals. It ensures optimal conditions for successful breeding and keeping.