Shrimp Taxonomy

[Jess]

I realise that this probably seems like a silly question, but I'm pretty new to all this so please bear with me xD

I was wondering if someone could help clarify how certain types of shrimp are related to each other.

For example, from what I've been reading, I've come to understand that Caridina cantonensis are commonly called "Crystal Red Shrimp" but then there are a whole heap of variations with different names? Like Pandas and Bluebolts?

Also, Red Cherry Shrimp are the standard for of Neocaridina heteropoda, but they also come in yellow, brown and blue colourations? And are Sakura and Fire-red shrimp just a higher "grade" of the standard red colouration?

Again, I'm really sorry if this is a dumb question, but I thought I'd better get my head around this basics before I buy any more shrimp :o

[Matt_95]

Caridina cantonensis has many varieties that have arisen from random mutations, the wild type is similar to a low grade CBS, the CRS mutation came from these, I am not sure how all the other mutations arose but they're all the same species, just different colours. The correct way to write it would be Caridina cantonensis var. "crystal black."

It's the same for Neocaridina heteropoda, they all arose from the wild type of shrimp which are brown, the red mutation came first I beleive, these individuals were bred to achieve the most red shrimp, the correct way to write it would be Neocaridina heteropoda var. "red." Yes, the sakura and fire reds are line bred red cherries to achieve red legs, intense colour and better coverage.

[Sprae]

So there's no scientific identifiers for "Taiwan Bees" like bluebolts, pandas and KK?

[Matt_95]

They would be Caridina cantonensis var. "panda" ect. Var. is short hand for variation.

[Jess]

Oh I see, thanks Matt!

It would be great to eventually see a list of the different species and their variations in the Library section, or somewhere else on the forums

[Loach]

We are working on it :)

[Jess]

Awesome, sounds great!

[shrimpsider]

Maybe in the meantime, this can help you (however, I still have to update it for the neocardina revision of Blue Pearl / Snowball): PDF http://shrimpsider.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/shrimp_crossbreeding_table_1-4.pdf

[Jess]

Wow, that's brilliant! Did you do that all yourself? Thanks for sharing!