Caridina cf. babaulti Rainbow Shrimp (6 Freshwater Shrimp)

Rainbow Shrimp (6 Freshwater Shrimp)

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Palaemon hendersoni

Another small (1/2") algae-eating shrimp. As with the emerald grass shrimp, this shrimp is also variable in color.

Survive in aquariums: Yes
Survive in warm ponds: Yes
Survive in cold ponds: No
Plant eating capacity: Low
Algae eating capacity: Moderate

Rainbow shrimp are similar to ghost shrimp except that they live a lot longer. They are about an inch long but can grow to three inches (they later changed that to two inches). Mine never grew larger than an inch but the store claims that they grow to three inches. Whereas ghost shrimp typically do not live more than a few months in an aquarium, rainbow shrimp may live for years. They do not touch the live plants. They prefer to eat leftover fish food followed by algae. Rainbow shrimp are supposed to eat brush algae. They are great little shrimp. Similar in appearance to ghost shrimp, they have a darker gut and sell for about $2 each instead of $1 per 10 that ghost shrimp cost.

I am currently trying to uncover their scientific name. The store does not know. Although some aquarists believe the rainbow shrimp to be the wood shrimp, I know this is not true, at least for the shrimp that I have. My local aquarium store, where I worked for a few months, also carries wood shrimp. Wood shrimp are big with "fans" on their fronts. Rainbow shrimp are almost identical to ghost shrimp but for their increased longevity and ability to darken in color. They do have a tan stripe down their back like wood shrimp. They also can change color and are often dark like wood shrimp. However, they are much smaller and do not have fans. Rainbow shrimp may be a relative of wood shrimp. Mine can be clear, brown, or dark red depending on the background. The tan back stripe is evident when they are in the brown or red phase but almost vanishes when in the clear phase. They go clear usually when among plants. When on the large driftwood in their tank, they are completely camouflaged to match the wood. If you do not know what you are looking for, you do not see them!

A German aquarist suggested that my rainbow shrimp may be Caridina/Neocaridina sp. "zeylanica". After seeing the photo of this species at this German site, I think that this may indeed be the species that I have. So, they would be a relative of Amano shrimp but definitely not the same thing. I hope someone can eventually clear this up!

I have never seen any of my rainbow shrimp carrying eggs (unlike the ghost shrimp) nor have I ever found baby rainbow shrimp. So, it is most likely that they do require brackish water to breed or at least conditions that my tanks do not have.
Information used with permission from Robyn.

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My rainbow shrimp and confusion:

I had three of them in my 20 gallon tank since 3/98. On 1/15/99 and 1/16/99, we had a 42 hour power outage due to an ice storm. The normally 72 degree F tank dropped to about 54 degrees F for most of that time. One shrimp died but the other two survived. Another shrimp died around 5/22/99, presumably of natural causes. The last two vanished sometime in June of 1999. They must have decomposed out of site. So rainbow shrimp can live at least 15 months. On 7/31/99, I bought three more so I will keep posting here on their progress. One died on 1/19/00. The other two were alive and still about an inch long as of 11/29/00. They became a reddish brown with a tan stripe down their backs. They eat using pincers. By early 2001, only one rainbow shrimp was still alive, and he or she was 20 months old!

On 3/16/01, I got two more "rainbow shrimp." These however look different. Instead of being reddish brown with the tan stripe, they are clear with a dark digestive tract. The tank next to them was labeled as japonica meaning Amano shrimp but those looked the same as my "rainbow shrimp" except for more dots on their sides. Neither of these shrimp look like the photos I have seen of either Amano shrimp or japonica. So, my store and most shrimp "experts" have got this all super confused. To make it more confusing, the two best sites in the links section that have photos show a photo of the wood shrimp that looks like my rainbow shrimp. Note, there are no fans in the photo of the "wood shrimp." The real wood shrimp has fans and is much larger and does not look like my rainbow shrimp or the photo on the site. My head is spinning! To make things even more bizarre, after a few months in my 20 gallon tank, the new rainbow shrimp changed appearance to look like my one older rainbow shrimp so I guess they are the same species! One of their photos is above.

On 6/1/01, I got four more rainbow shrimp for my newly re-done 50 gallon tank. The three remaining rainbow shrimp in the 20 gallon joined them on 6/16/01 so I now have seven (if they are all still alive) rainbow shrimp in my 50 gallon tank! The 20 gallon tank is being redone from scratch and had four rainbow shrimp added. On 11/3/01, I removed the first rainbow shrimp to die in the 50 gallon tank. Unlike shed exoskeletons, the shrimp was orange and when squished, guts came out instead of just collapsing an empty shell. So, a shrimp died.

I bought four shrimp for my twenty gallon tank on 7/8/01 that were labeled as rainbow shrimp but looked nothing like my rainbow shrimp that I have in my other tank. These four were clear with brown spots along the side. There were three tanks at the store. One was marked rainbow shrimp, one was marked Amano shrimp, and one was marked Japonica shrimp. From what I have read, Amano and Japonica are the same shrimp. The prices were about $3, $9, and $7 respectively. The shrimp that look like my old shrimp were in one of the other tanks not marked as rainbow shrimp. The other two tanks had identical looking shrimp. I think the people at the store messed up the labels. No one there knows anything about the shrimp's true identities (scientific names)! I thought the ones I got may be Amano shrimp. They use their hands to eat like the ghost and rainbow shrimp do. Later, these new shrimp changed colors at various times and then appeared to look like my other rainbow shrimp but I am still not sure! On 2/1/02, I bought two real Japonica shrimp for comparison.