# Leopard Tiger Shrimp (Caridina rubropunctata)



## Connudatus (Oct 24, 2016)

So I have been pining over these shrimp for some time and I have finally got my hands on them. 
(Video of my shrimps https://youtu.be/Wc6zArLw8LI )

I was wondering if anyone else has tried these guys and what advice they might have. I have scoured the net for information and have become very familiar with Google Translate. I've read just about any information a quick/in-depth Google search could tell you. What I'm looking for is first hand experience, or second hand I guess haha. In any case, I'd love to breed them, and would like to get that going soon. My tank is a 25 gallon cube. Water parameters are; temp 77°F, pH 6.7, kh 3°, gh 4°. I'm aiming to raise my pH to at least 7.2, and to get my gh up to 5 or 6°(this is for my other tank mates). There is a little wiggle room, but that's the goal at least.


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

Where did you get them? I'm thinking of getting caridina tiger shrimp, most likely tangerine, but these are nice too.


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## Connudatus (Oct 24, 2016)

FishRFriendz said:


> Where did you get them? I'm thinking of getting caridina tiger shrimp, most likely tangerine, but these are nice too.


I purchased the last few from a seller in Canada, shrimpfever. Elite inverts also plans to carry them, they plan on getting a breeding stock going but they can't seem to find them in stock anywhere to order from. If I can get them breeding I'll probably pass a few on to Elite inverts.


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## TropicalAquarist (Jun 9, 2015)

Very nice! I also ordered from shrimp fever a week ago, shrimp are good, fish-- not so much.

For optimal breeding, species only is the way to go...
I think your parameters are good, maybe lower temperature to 73-75.


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## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

I would question whether yours are pure blood wilds. Some of the markings suggest they might be hybrids to me.

As for care, I'd probably go with the specs mentioned here, since I would think the crustacean expert, Chris Lukhaup, would have commented if the params were way off.
Crustahunter » Caridina rubropunctata ??ng & Ðo, 2007

Or ask your supplier if they know the water parameters (pH, GH, KH, TDS, temp) of their natural collection location (and I don't mean, "oh they are just tiger shrimp so regular tiger params are fine" that some suppliers might say)

Otherwise, try and contact Chris Lukhaup for questions about uncommon wild species.


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## Connudatus (Oct 24, 2016)

TropicalAquarist said:


> Very nice! I also ordered from shrimp fever a week ago, shrimp are good, fish-- not so much.
> 
> For optimal breeding, species only is the way to go...
> I think your parameters are good, maybe lower temperature to 73-75.


I kinda agree about the temp. Sadly that's the lowest I can get it short of buying a water chiller. If anyone know of an inexpensive and small water chiller I might be game for that. My tank is mainly set up for Otocinclus, and they too might like slightly cooler waters. It would be better for oxygenation. That is however the only shrimp I'm gonna be keeping in that setup.



WaterLife said:


> I would question whether yours are pure blood wilds. Some of the markings suggest they might be hybrids to me.
> 
> As for care, I'd probably go with the specs mentioned here, since I would think the crustacean expert, Chris Lukhaup, would have commented if the params were way off.
> Crustahunter » Caridina rubropunctata ??ng & Ðo, 2007
> ...


According to the seller these are wild caught, I asked them myself. They were also kept in a species only tank before being sold. I asked them loads of questions before they arrived. Including the water specs he kept them at. 

I did read in a few different places what the parameters were at the single colocation location for this species. Sadly they specs were not consistent. I did also read from one of the Dutch (?) blogs that some has a friend in Hong Kong and they say that there are two types of leopard tigers, the Vietnam variety has more oval spots, the other more rounded. I don't recall where the other was from, maybe China? I'll have to check 
Chris's specs once I get out of class. 




Thank you all for the info, keep it coming.


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## DeftAnesthetik (Oct 4, 2009)

Ok. So I'm pretty sure this is my first post in over 5 years. LOL Got out of the hobby for a while.... I digress

Keen on hearing how things are working out for you on these. I will have a dozen of them tomorrow afternoon and am anxious to see if I can get them to breed. All I read is of people having little to no luck. That being said I have read what little info I could find and have seen water parameters ALL over the place. 

By default I think most people want to treat these like Tiger shrimp since they look similar but those stories are the ones that either don't have follow up or end in dead shrimps. This is from the guy I am getting them from

"I keep my leopard under the same parameter for all my wild tigers; ph around 6.4-6.6, GH 3 , KH 0-1 and temp around 22-24c, I think i only have around a dozen or so of the left and i don;t see any berried ones. They are quite a bit harder than other tigers and bee shrimps to breed."

"...fairly new discovery from vietnam where from come from mountain streams where water is quite soft - gh is almost zero in their habitat."

His parameters are different from what I used to keep my tigers at. ( 7.2pH 20C GH 6-7 KH 2-3 ) These are the parameters I see most people who have tried and failed at breeding them run (or close, I don't like to heat tanks unless its a must)

I did stumble across another site (German IIRC) that said these need to be LOW pH 5.5-5.8

I had been cycling a tank for blue/princess bee's that is close. pH6.0 GH 3 KH <1 21c TDS 125 I did a water change yesterday since I feel these guys are going to want the TDS down, like WAAAY down currently sitting in that 100 range give or take a bit.

So that's where I am with this. Looking forward to getting my hands on them and seeing if I can get these little guys to propagate well.

I'll do my best to report what I can, Please do the same. =D


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## DeftAnesthetik (Oct 4, 2009)

These are what I got today. Sadly he only had 9. I did get a berried one though =D
Hopefully she doesn't drop them from the move over. When I made the pickup I was informed these may not be true leopards but was guaranteed that they came in from Vietnam.


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## Connudatus (Oct 24, 2016)

I was sent 9 as well. They arrived 36 hours late and that has caused problems for me. I lost two in the first 36 hours, and then a third and fourth a few days after. Right now they seem good. One of the females is now saddled. I am having trouble getting them to eat anything other than algae and biofilm. They don't seem to like any of my borneowild, and initially they liked my fluval stuff but now they seem less interested. I'll keep posting, but I've not had much change in the last few days.

I will say that some of yours look like the wild type but that there is one I can see that looks more like a super tiger hybrid. Keep me posted on how your do. I look forward to sharing this journey.


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## DeftAnesthetik (Oct 4, 2009)

Woke up to find 2 bodies this morning. The adults seemed pretty lethargic yesterday compared to the smaller younger ones. I too think some of these may be tiger hybrids with the markings I see. Unfortunate as I was hoping to work on getting a pure colony going. But fortunate as it gives me a step ahead on a planned breeding project  I still have the berried one and she is pretty active so I think she will make it. There is one adult that's pretty lazy and I don't think it will make it. There also was a molted shell in there so that's a good sign. 

As you can see in the pic the top one has only spots and the bottom is more speckled with banding. 

There are a few images online that show both as rubropunctata but who's to say that aren't hybridized as well. It would be really nice if someone with first-hand knowledge and experience could confirm if you can have either set of markings on pure wild ones or not.

Oops missed the food part. Generally I've relied on biofilm as my primary food source. I've been dosing 2ml of stabilty into the breeder box and I did move a small price of mossy driftwood from the main tank in there for them to graze on. It's hard to find food that doesn't contaminate the water more than I like. Most commercial foods I just view as a "treat" and only dish out every 3-5 days. The powdered and liquidized bacteria is pretty much a must at this pH or at least I feel it is from what I've read.


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## Connudatus (Oct 24, 2016)

Having a small hydra outbreak. Treated with hydrogen peroxide. My shrimp went nuts right after. They seem to be quite sensitive to anything new. Was able to get a few good photos of them. I think one of them may be having a hard time. They don't have much in their gut track. Gonna have to keep an eye on them. I have a feeling there is probably something extra this shrimp need inorder to flourish that isn't yet known to the hobby.


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## DeftAnesthetik (Oct 4, 2009)

Try blood worms. Was feeding my newts and decided to toss in a few. They all went nuts. Some are even hordeing. Ha ha. 
Mine have been getting happier and happier. Still the largest one seems lazy though but it's eating now. Female is still berried and another molted as well. 
These guys have some odd behavior. They appear to be somewhat territorial and don't like to get to close to one another. Could be the small space. I'm just not quite ready to drop them into the main tank yet though.

As of this morning every single one seems to have a lot more energy and are moving about quite a bit. I am gonna try to find the time to get the good camera and tripod out instead of using my phone. I really don't think mine are true leopards. The berried one has shifted color from brownish to mostly bluish with some light banding almost like a blue bee and the other large adult has galaxy markings and orange eyes. Most of the smaller ones look like you could possibly be leopards but have both stripes and spots. I'm scratching my head as I can't find any image of any shrimp that looks quite like these. Galaxy and beauty shrimp kinda come close but not quite. So yeah... Looking more and more like I have hybrids of some sort either that or its something new that isn't documented but I find that less likely to be true. Will post good pics asap.


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## DeftAnesthetik (Oct 4, 2009)

Found out the "good camera" isn't so good anymore. Did the best I could to get some with my phone. 
I put all of them into my main tank other than the berried female and the one I don't think is going to make it. These are them. 
Im still unsure if these are leopards

*** SATURDAY MORNING ADDITIONS **

I got some time to play with the camera and figured out my settings a bit better, I have not had this camera out for a few years and am a little rusty but I'm getting there again. 

The one I was worried about didnt make it which is unfortunate as it was the biggest one of the lot and had some interesting patterns but the rest are still going strong. The pics are of 2 different ones. I also got a top shot of the berried female. What do you think. Leopards or not?


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## DeftAnesthetik (Oct 4, 2009)

No news is good news??? Ha ha. 
Finally done playing the waiting game. As of last night my female is no longer carrying eggs. She has been hiding pretty good the last few days but I did catch a few glimpses and the eggs had turned whiteish and I could see tiny shrimp shaped bodies. =D Now I get to spend time scrutinizing every speck that moves hoping the babies are surviving. 
Again I still cannot confirm these are leopards. I did find a couple of images from Silane that are very, VERY similar but they were called Ocelot shrimp. 
At some point I will try to find another source for leopards and do the comparison. Until then I'll just get good pics when I can and hope for people to chime in their opinions.


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## Connudatus (Oct 24, 2016)

Unfortunately I have not had the best of luck. I have lost all but three of my shrimp. My conclusion is that they really don't ship well. My water has been quite stable with the exception of the hydra outbreak, but even that didn't rock the boat much. However, the three I have left are super active and seem healthy, they were the smallest that came in my shipment. I have one female (which is in the photo below) and two males. The males have a nice yellow color with clear redish maroon spots. Unfortunately the female is not as pretty. I have included a photo of the female at night where she is backlit by my moon lights, her saddle is clearly visible here. In the full color photo she is trying to remove a bubble from between her swimmerettes. I'm really hoping she berries soon. I was planning to get some friendly fish, bit am holding off till this is resolved.


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## DeftAnesthetik (Oct 4, 2009)

Hmmm. The patterns of mine are very similar to those recent photos. Although my males are the clearer ones with some reddish tint and my females are mostly brownish/blue. 
I've seen a few shrimplets but not many. They are still pretty tiny though. I do have another berried female. ? Going to be interesting since this is a mixed tank with BKK, PRL, PBL, some K12+/Maro red and blacks, Tibee mischlings as well as a few golden/snow whites. 
I let my tds creep up to about 150 and they got way less active. Did a water change to get back to the 120 mark and the tank is crazy active now. My pH has been 5.95 in the mornings and creeps up to about 6.15 by the end of the day. Temp is 22-23.
When I can start to see some more of the little guys I'm going to get them in their own tank and attempt to get closer to the parameters suggested by crusta hunter and see how they fair. I will also see how they do in tiger parameters. But for now I can say they seem to be doing quite well in bee parameters.


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## Connudatus (Oct 24, 2016)

I have good news. My female is now berried. It happened at around 7:30 pm 4/27. I got to watch a lot of it. I've never seen shrimp breed so aggressively. The males are brutal, even now at almost 1 in the morning they continued to swarm the already berried female. I will do my best to post pictures and possibly videos later. I am super tired and it is hard to get good shots of these guys with this sort of activity.


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## Connudatus (Oct 24, 2016)

I finally managed to get a few good photos of the female. Had to turn the lights off for a few hours then turn the back on to get some good stuff. Once I finish editing the video of the post breeding I will post that as well, unfortunately I did not capture the exact event.

https://youtu.be/Wp5BBK6yBDw fanning eggs


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## Connudatus (Oct 24, 2016)

https://youtu.be/HC6ja8Gieh8

In the video above you can see that the males we're still going after the female even though she has just become berried(30ish minutes after being berried). It was way more aggressive than this a few hours ago before she berried. They kept up this harassment for at least 6 hours after this video. 

Everything has calmed down now. They are all doing well, eating like pigs and have full bellies. Now I just have to wait 30-40 days to see if she holds her first clutch.


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