Blue Pearl Shrimp

 Quick Care Facts

• Care Level: Easy   • Temperament: Peaceful   • Maximum Size: 2"
• Minimum Tank Size: 10 gallons   • Water Conditions: 68-80° F, KH 3-10, pH 6.5-7.5
• Color Forms: Blue, Transparent   • Diet: Omnivore   • Origin: Selectively bred in Germany
• Family: Atyidae   • Species: Shrimp   • Aquarium Type: Shrimp

Help Support AquariumDomain!      

• Your support keeps AquariumDomain advertisement free, lightning fast and fully optimized for both mobile and desktop browsing.

• Visit our Patreon page to learn about the exclusive benefits our Patrons receive!

The Blue Pearl Shrimp is a colorful selectively bred species of the wild Neocaridina cf. zhangjiajiensis of Southeast Asia. Ulf Gottschalk of Germany was able over a period of years to selectively breed two very attractive variants of the Neocaridina cf. zhangjiajiensis, resulting in the blue ice colored Blue Pearl Shrimp and the pure white Snow Ball Shrimp.

Thanks to the tedious breeding efforts of Ulf Gottschalk the hobbyist now has access to a brilliantly colored light metallic blue shrimp species that stands out from other dwarf shrimps species including other darker blue species. Without a doubt, the Blue Pearl Shrimp brings a brilliant blue appearance to the peaceful tropical community aquarium or shrimp nano aquarium that is truly beautiful and unique.

Blue Pearl Shrimp should be kept with peaceful freshwater fish species in either a planted aquarium or a community aquarium with plenty of plants, rocks or driftwood to provide them with cover when threatened and a place to forage for algae. Like most freshwater invertebrate species, the Blue Pearl Shrimp needs clean water with stable water parameters and very good filtration in order to thrive within an aquarium environment.

They do very well in community shrimp tanks or tropical community fish tanks with peaceful fish species. It is also important to not expose this or other invertebrate species to copper based medications as this can kill them. Blue Pearl Shrimp should not be housed with aggressive fish species or with community species such as loaches and puffers as they eat small shrimps in the wild.

Blue Pearl Shrimp feed primarily on freshwater algae, and are coveted for this as they make excellent tank cleaners. However, they will also consume detritus and uneaten foodstuffs that they come across in the aquarium substrate. If no algae is present within the aquarium, it is recommended to supplement the Blue Pearl Shrimps diet with algae tablets as algae makes up a very large portion of their diet in the wild and will help them maintain a healthy immune system. They can also be fed blanched vegetables, sinking pellets and other sinking commercial foods intended for bottom dwelling fish and invertebrates.

Blue Pearl Shrimp are one of the easier freshwater shrimp species to breed within the home aquarium environment. At approximately 2 to 3 months of age, Blue Pearl Shrimp will become sexually mature, and the females will begin to carry a clutch of yellowish eggs under their tail. If there are males present within the aquarium, the female will become impregnated and the clutch of eggs will hatch in about 1 month.

The eggs will be carried by the female until they hatch into miniature replicas of their parents, as the Blue Pearl Shrimp does not go through an intermediate plankton stage. At birth, the baby Blue Pearl Shrimp are very small and are easily eaten by fish or sucked up into filters. Therefore, they should be provided their own breeding tank with a sponge covered filter intake and no fish present that could eat the young.

The babies should be fed a diet consisting of algae, algae tablets, baby brine shrimp or crushed flake foods. It is important to maintain the water quality of the breeding tank to high levels and make sure that ammonia and nitrite levels remain very low.

It is important to note that as a selectively bred species, the Blue Pearl Shrimp has been engineered to produce the its blue coloration. What this means is that when they breed, they will produce offspring with the same light blue coloration as this is what they have been designed to do. Crossing them with another species of Neocaridina will not result in an attractive color morph, but will instead create very non attractive offspring that essentially defeats the purpose of even keeping a selectively bred species.