Keeping Blue Dream shrimp: colour, trade names and offspring

Blue Dream is used for a blue colour form of Neocaridina davidi. Start its care with keeping Neocaridina. The additional purchase question is which strain you are getting and what its offspring look like. One dark blue photograph does not answer that.

Blue appearance is not a pedigree

Blue Dream, Blue Velvet, Blue Diamond and Blue Jelly are not used consistently everywhere. Garnelenhaus, for example, describes both dark and paler Blue Dream and warns about confusion with Blue Jelly. UF/IFAS lists several blue names under one species. Do not infer a separate species or guaranteed breeding outcome from a label.

Ask for recent images of multiple animals from the offered group under ordinary lighting. Look at body, legs, transparent areas and any other colour marks. These features help describe the offer but cannot establish genetic origin without ancestry information.

Decide your aim before purchase

• Mainly want to watch blue shrimp? Assess the actual animals and suitable care without expecting perfectly consistent offspring.
• Want selective breeding? Ask how long the strain has been kept separately, what variation its young show and whether other groups were added.
• Already have blue shrimp? The same label does not necessarily mean the same strain. Keep newly obtained groups separate if preserving your line matters.

During selection, record each animal’s group and compare similar ages under the same lighting. A pale juvenile is not proven to be the wrong species; a photograph of one unusually dark parent does not describe all offspring. We provide no guaranteed percentage of blue juveniles.

Sudden colour change alongside reduced activity or deaths is a different question from selection. Check conditions through the problem approach. Do not use colour products or extra food as a substitute for investigation.

Sources and scope

• UF/IFAS: Cherry shrimp, Neocaridina davidi
• Garnelenhaus: Blue Jelly oder Blue Dream?
• Garnelenhaus: Neocaridina colour lines and reported crosses

The university source lists these blue names among N. davidi colour forms. Garnelenhaus describes hobby usage and crossing observations. Those observations are not used as DNA tests or guarantees of colour percentages.