# Snowball Shrimp



## haddaj04 (Oct 24, 2011)

I recently acquired 50 Snowball Shrimp from a seller on ebay and was wondering about these particular types of shrimp. I don't really see a lot of information about them. I know they are in the same family as RCS and have just about the same care requirements but that's where my knowledge of them stop.

Are they as prolific as RCS?
Are they more valuable?
Why aren't they as common as RCS?
What happens if you cross them with RCS?

Any other general information about them would be awesome. I've kept RCS in the past but had to tear down my tank since I was deployed to Iraq. I have had a moderately planted 10 gallon cycling for a while now that I was going to keep Endler fry in but decided to get back into shrimp and wanted to try something new.

Also, this shipment is due in on Wed, I want to try my hand at shipping/selling shrimp so if anyone would like to be my test dummy I'll be more than willing to give you some free shrimp and a couple Black Bar Endler fry (all you'd have to pay is the priority shipping rate in whatever box I could fit them in). I want to get the shrimp and let them relax from their first journey and check their overall health before I send them out. I'll keep you guys updated when my shipment arrives. 

Thanks in advance for any information and guidance I get.

-Joe


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

1) Yes, I would say pretty close to the order of RCS and the great thing of snowballs is you don't have to cull them for colors. lol.
2) Avg price in my area is $4 a piece
3) I think after RCS everyone went after the Crystal Shrimp money
4) No idea. They are close to RCS and ppl say they will crossbreed as they are neocardina but they are a different subspecies.

I have them with my crystals right now, doing fine in 6pH, 5gH, 0kH 70F, 180TDS water. Have a few berried right now. I did have some babies but had a tank problem, switched them all over so not sure if they made it or not. I'll know in a few weeks if I see baby snowballs before the others drop, so I don't know a lot about baby survival rate, etc at the moment, and recently got some more girls to balance out my girl to boy ratio, but they seem pretty hardy.


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## haddaj04 (Oct 24, 2011)

Thanks for the information, it makes me a little nervous to see the lack of info about these guys. They don't seem very common yet if they are like RCS they should be pretty prolific.

How long have you had your Snowballs for? Where did you get them from?


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## haddaj04 (Oct 24, 2011)

I've gotten a couple PMs already asking for free shrimp. Whomever can help me out with the best information about these shrimp will be the one who gets a couple free ones along with some endler fry if they want.

Just really want to know what I'm getting myself into.


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## Alpha Pro Breeders (Jan 26, 2010)

Here a link to some info on them.

http://www.planetinverts.com/Snowball Shrimp.html


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## Geniusdudekiran (Dec 6, 2010)

Some other good links:
http://www.theshrimpfarm.com/shrimp/snowball-shrimp.php
http://www.theshrimptank.com/dwarf-shrimp-species/snowball-shrimp.htmlhttp://www.arizonainverts.com/speciesinfo/snowball.html
http://www.aquariumdomain.com/viewFreshwaterInvertSpecies.php?invert_freshwater_id=20. 

Also, the guys at the LFS said that they don't grow quite as big (not sure about this, never heard this anywhere else) and that they breed just as quickly, if not faster than RCS. But those guys are crazy, I take any info they give with a grain of salt.


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## haddaj04 (Oct 24, 2011)

Thanks for the links, I've already seen a couple of them thru my google search but there were some new ones as well so I appreciate it.

Do either of you have any actual experience in keeping these shrimp? 
Any reason they aren't as common as RCS?


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

haddaj04 said:


> Any reason they aren't as common as RCS?


This reason is due to their coloration. While RCS will generally be red, at lowest grade, even without massive culling. The snowball shrimp will remain clear with very tiny bit a blue. Many of the pictures you see of them darker blue are photoshopped or caused by MASSIVE culling. Thus, while they do breed just as well as RCS and yellows, their color will never be as pronounced as say, a tank full of painted fire reds.


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## Geniusdudekiran (Dec 6, 2010)

As far as I can tell, the reason why they are not as commonly kept is somewhat paradoxically the fact that they are simply not as commonly kept; they're just harder to find. In other words, newbies to the hobby, as someone previously said, get some RCS, and then move straight on to CRS. Because they're easy to find. Seems to me that the only people who seem to buy them is people who either have a breeder rack, run a store, or are just weird like you and me and just want to keep them and breed them. I know it's not a real tangible answer, but I think that's all there is to it.


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## joon (Jul 17, 2004)

i got the same question with green, blue, orange and yellow shrimps 
i think all of them selling for $2-3
and RCS is $1 
even my lfs selling rcs for $1


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## Geniusdudekiran (Dec 6, 2010)

diwu13 said:


> This reason is due to their coloration. While RCS will generally be red, at lowest grade, even without massive culling. The snowball shrimp will remain clear with very tiny bit a blue. Many of the pictures you see of them darker blue are photoshopped or caused by MASSIVE culling. Thus, while they do breed just as well as RCS and yellows, their color will never be as pronounced as say, a tank full of painted fire reds.


Think you have mixed them up with blue pearl shrimp?


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## Geniusdudekiran (Dec 6, 2010)

Two more helpful sites:

http://www.petshrimp.com/snowballshrimp.php

http://shrimpspot.com/snowball.aspx

Very cool looking, especially the saddles on the females.


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## haddaj04 (Oct 24, 2011)

@diwu so the highest quality Snowball Shrimp will have blue in them? I was wondering if they had different quality measures like RCS (Fire Red, Painted, etc) and CRS do.

@genius Haha I see, so it's more of a coloring and personal preference issue. The reds do look nice in a green planted tank, I just wanted to try something new.
Have you ever interbred your Snowballs with an RCS? Will they just produce the normal "ugly" wild looking shrimp?

@joon do you keep Snowball shrimp or was that a stock photo? And wow that's a lot of RCS!


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## joon (Jul 17, 2004)

both of my pics in my basement now 

snowball is as easy to keep and breed as rcs

but they cant breed as many as rcs in the same 20 gal tank

i dont know why


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## Geniusdudekiran (Dec 6, 2010)

haddaj04 said:


> @genius Haha I see, so it's more of a coloring and personal preference issue. The reds do look nice in a green planted tank, I just wanted to try something new.


No, I don't have any, I was just saying that we both seem to like them, unlike many others.


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## haddaj04 (Oct 24, 2011)

@genius well I appreciate all your info, if you'd like some of mine (when I get them) and don't mind being my test dummy on shipping shrimp for the first time just let me know.


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## Geniusdudekiran (Dec 6, 2010)

Cool. I'll see if I can make some space LOL


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## madness (Jul 31, 2011)

Another reason that they may not be as common is because most people already have neos that they don't want to mix with them.

If none of the neos mixed with each other I would have every single type but when you need a second (or third, or fourth, etc.) tank to house them then you have to pick and choose.


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## go9ma123 (Oct 5, 2007)

It's more likely people do like red, thats all!
I had 12 of these shrimps and I now have about 40-50 shrimps in my 10g tank.
They are easy, just like cherry shrimps.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Geniusdudekiran said:


> Think you have mixed them up with blue pearl shrimp?


Yup. Exactly what happened. Sorry D:


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

just looked at my snowballs that are in with my crystals, 2 are growing up and look more like blue pearls. Sort of neat and from reading, seems that the blue pearls are selective snowballs anyways that show more blue. Don't have room to move them, so they're staying and we'll see what happens in a year. lol.


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## Newman (Jul 3, 2010)

madness said:


> Another reason that they may not be as common is because most people already have neos that they don't want to mix with them.
> 
> If none of the neos mixed with each other I would have every single type but when you need a second (or third, or fourth, etc.) tank to house them then you have to pick and choose.


which is why I'm going to someday setup a bunch of bowls for various Neo breeds


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