Tiger Shrimp Breeding and Species Profile

Well today, you might recall the tiger shrimp we got last month. Here, in our small tanks, they are thriving at their best. Several of them then began carrying eggs.

Tiger Shrimp Species

Tiger Shrimp Profile

In origins Tiger shrimp are a species of Caridina cf. cantonensis sp. And they range in size from 1 to 1.2inches.

The tiger shrimp is native to Taiwan, As any other shrimps they are scavengers and algae grazers. We feed them powder supplements only, mainly they eat leftovers and dying plants. The supplements provide additional nutrition, for calcium, proteins, fibers and vitamins.

The tiger shrimp share the same properties of the bee shrimp, with slight variations in characteristics.

The striking color pattern of the Tiger Shrimp, which has a semi-transparent body and a dark brown to blackish blotch on the lower part of the upper shell, helps to distinguish it from other species. a lack of dark markings on the tail fin and a series of stripes in the same color on the first six abdominal sections and the back of the upper shell.

We can identify 3 main types in the wild, the red tiger, the super tiger and the regular tiger.

In Captivity those shrimps were bred to mainly give, Black Tiger, Tangerine Tiger, Red Tiger and Blue Tiger.

Tiger Shrimp Water Parameters

Tiger Shrimps can adjust to a wide range of conditions. They can survive in most home aquarium water environments but prefer softer acidic water.

As most shrimp, Tiger shrimps prefer a

• pH range of 6 to 7

• kH between 1 & 3

• gH between 6 & 8

• TDS between 180 & 220

• temperature is 19 – 24°C (~65°F – 75°F)

The most important thing to note, is copper and Nitrogen level to be always in check and the water parameters to stay stable as long as possible.

Tiger Shrimp Breeding

Tiger Shrimps will breed with other varieties of tiger shrimp, such as the blue or tangerine tiger, as well as bee shrimps.

The thing you should take into consideration when cross-breeding those shrimps are the genes.

Tangerine tiger shrimp is a Serrata tiger so they carry the backline, whereas the Red Tiger shrimp is from the Mariae genus so they don't carry the back line.

With this in mind, Serrata can be used to galaxy tigers so the cross would have to be Tangerine tigers and Taiwan bees to achieve that goal for example a Tangerine Tigers x Golden Bee might give some Crystal Black Shrimp. CBS and Black Tiger might give Snow white bee shrimp.

To produce Fancy red tigers you would have to choose Crystals or golden bees and cross them with Mariae tiger in this case red tigers.

Another thing to note is Gender differences, where The females are visibly larger (up to 1 – 1.2 inch or 2.5 – 3 cm) than the males (0.8 – 1 inch or 2 – 2.5 cm). Their underbelly looks more curved than their male counterparts, and they seem to be contrastingly darker in terms of colors.

So when you are breeding, watch out for the different sizes because if they are all the same you may just be dealing with a particular gender. It is very important that you have this sorted out on time because you need a good ratio of males and females to breed successfully.

In my experience it takes a little less than 2 months for a Tiger Shrimp to fully mature, and in an experiment I conducted with the recent batch we received it took around 32 days.

Aquarium Setup

The best aquarium setup we found for shrimps is a shallow aquarium with 10 Gallons of water, Akadama soil, Sponge Filter, Small piece of driftwood, Mosses, some slow growing plants.

Anything else, will interfere with the process. Snails and catfish will fight with the shrimps over food. Fish will eat shrimp larvae, other shrimps might interbreed or cause stress.

Finally, one of the best things you can do is offer supplementation for your shrimps. As per some studies, calcium, enzymes and zinc play a major role in modulating the overall immune function, coloration and molting of shrimps. As a result, you will have active Tiger Shrimps with better immune capabilities.

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