Chocolate Sakura

The Chocolate Sakura shrimp is a highly bred form of Neocaridina davidi, which originally comes from Asia and is found in Taiwan, China and Korea. Its color ranges from fawn brown to shiny black, although the females are usually darker. Our strain is particularly dark when compared to other Chocolate Sakura strains. If you want to have completely black animals, we recommend the “Black Rose” shrimp. Young Chocolate Sakura shrimp are initially transparent and often only become properly colored when they reach a body length of around 1cm. That’s why it makes sense to select, but only for larger animals.

Care in the aquarium

The Chocolate Sakura shrimp is a robust and undemanding species that can be kept in an aquarium of 10 liters or more. It prefers clean and well-filtered water. Due to its ability to adapt to a wide range of water parameters, it is ideal for keeping in soft to hard tap water as well as in remineralized osmosis water. What is particularly important is that the temperature of the water does not exceed 26°C for long periods of time, even in summer. In order for this sociable dwarf shrimp to feel safe, it should be kept in a group of at least 10 animals and in a well-planted aquarium. The plants, but also roots, stone structures or shrimp tubes offer it protection and places of retreat. The nature of the substrate is of secondary importance for the shrimp and it is one of the few Neocaridina color forms that show great coloring on both dark and light substrates. The Chocolate Sakura can be socialized well with snails, but also with peaceful, small fish.

Feeding

As a classic leftover recycler, the Chocolate Sakura shrimp feeds on biofilm and algae growth as well as detritus (dead plant material, carrion, leftover food). In the aquarium it can be fed with special types of shrimp food, leaves, algae powder and occasionally frozen food. Feed containing astaxanthin, but also nettle leaves, additionally support the color of the Chocolate Sakura. Ideally, there are always brown autumn leaves in the aquarium, which represent ideal permanent food for the animals.

Sexual characteristics and breeding

Sex determination is usually not possible in young animals, but only in sexually mature animals. Juveniles and males have a narrower underside of the abdomen, while sexually mature females have a wider underside that covers the swimming legs like a “skirt”. This widening of the abdomen serves to protect the eggs, which the female carries and cares between her swimming legs until they hatch. As with most dwarf shrimp, female Chocolate Sakura adults are slightly larger than males and are usually more opaque in color. All Neocaridina shrimp reproduce in fresh water and breeding in the aquarium is usually easy. After being berried for around 3 to 4 weeks, the female releases around 20-30 fully developed, transparent shrimplets, which initially feed on microorganisms present in the aquarium and can be fed with dust food.