A Box of [Salt]water

I have, in general, mixed feelings about ornamental shrimp in the aquarium setting.  There are certainly beautiful ones, such as the Fire Cleaner Shrimp, the Bumblebee Shrimp and the symbiotic Pistol Shrimp, but there are also harmful ones that eat coral, like Camel Shrimp and Peppermint Shrimp. 

Recently, I was looking on some random Japanese aquarium site and came across a shrimp known (in Japanese anyway) as the Reddobishurinpu Hakata.  Doing a bit more digging thanks to Google Image Search, I came up with a Dutch forum, that dubbed it a “Red Bee Shrimp.”  I quickly looked this up, and to my disappointment, they turned out to be Freshwater :(.  This is great for freshwater folks, though I’m not certain where to find them.  They’re GORGEOUS though, and are simply selectively bred regular Bee Shrimp (Caridina sp).  Rumor has it that this was a shrimp bred long ago by a Japanese villager who noticed that there were some Bee Shrimp who were more red than usual.  Selective breeding is AWESOME.  Check out the comparisons below.

Normal Bee Shrimp

It’s different-colored-brotha, the Red Bee Shrimp!