Dark Red Ex KingKong

Name: Dark Red Ex KingKong
Brand: Shrimp Zone
SKU: SZ-DREXKK-STD
Price: 15.0 AUD
Availability: InStock

Caridina · IntermediatePhoto vs. what ships

The photo shows a high-grade or best-looking adult from the batch. We ship unsexed juveniles, 0.6–1.2 cm — too young to tell male from female. They arrive pale from the trip and colour back up within days.

Buffered (RO water)

$15.00 / juvenile shrimp

Juveniles are young shrimp — they travel best at this size, and many strains only show their full colour as they mature. After display-ready adults? Contact us.

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Quantity

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Description

Dark Red Ex KingKong Shrimp (Caridina) | Extreme Grade

At a glance

A solid dark red shrimp — deep wine red all over, with no clear patches showing through.

Arrives young and lighter. The red darkens and the shell thickens as they grow.

These are the “Extreme” grade — the darkest, most solid end of the King Kong range. Grading here simply means how completely the red covers the shell.

Caridina — wants soft, slightly acidic water and a tank that has been running a while, so not a first shrimp. Numbers in the FAQ.

Description

Dark Red Ex KingKong is a Taiwan Bee-line Caridina cantonensis at the solid, opaque, dark-red end of the King Kong spectrum — a deep wine-red shell with no windows or patterning. As a Taiwan Bee-type it's an advanced shrimp that rewards an established, stable tank rather than a brand-new setup.

About the photo. We ship unsexed juveniles, so treat the pictured adult as the target, not the arrival. The red darkens and the shell thickens toward full opacity as the shrimp matures — juveniles start lighter and more translucent.

Colour & Care

Two things to expect:

Solid dark red: A deep, opaque wine-red with no clear windows — the darker, more saturated King Kong look, which deepens further with maturity.
Soft-water Caridina: Wants soft, acidic, stable water (an active/buffering substrate helps) and a mature tank — less forgiving than Neocaridina.

Grading

King Kong grading is about how solid and how dark the red is — how completely the colour covers the shell with no clear "windows." These are graded to the Extreme (Ex) end of that scale: densely coloured, dark, and opaque. Colour still deepens with maturity, so a lighter juvenile today says nothing about the adult it becomes.

The photo shows a high-grade or best-looking adult from the batch. We ship unsexed juveniles, 0.6–1.2 cm — too young to tell male from female. Shrimp arrive pale from the trip and colour back up within days. For detailed water parameters, tank setup guides, and our 100% Live Arrival Guarantee, see our FAQ.

Guarantee & dispatch

Live arrivalClaim within 8 h

Claim within 8 hours of delivery with photos and a short video, ideally of the sealed bag. Your choice of a refund of the livestock value, free replacements, or store credit — all at no cost to you.

Mon & TueDispatch days

0.6–1.2 cmUnsexed juveniles

10+ of one lineColony starter

Unsexed juveniles at ten all but guarantee both sexes — about 1 in 500 odds of a single-sex group, against 1 in 8 at four — and a group settles faster than a pair. Our 10+ and 20+ prices are built around that. Give them longer than Neocaridina — Caridina breed more slowly on buffering soil and reward stability over tinkering.

We don't ship live shrimp to WA, TAS or NT — message us for further enquiries: Messenger, Instagram or WhatsApp.

Full guarantee policy →

Water parameters — Caridina

TDS

100 – 150 ppm

Total dissolved solids — the quickest single number to check. Ours is what they are raised in: match it on arrival, then keep it steady. Swings hurt more than the number itself.

4 – 6 dGH

General hardness — the calcium and magnesium they build shells with. Too little and moults fail; too much and shedding gets hard.

0 – 1 dKH

Carbonate hardness — the buffer that stops pH drifting between water changes.

5.5 – 6.5

Set by your substrate and KH far more than by dosing. Hold it steady inside the band rather than chasing a number.

Temp

20 – 24 °C

Cooler slows moulting and breeding; warmer speeds everything up and shortens lives. Stay inside the band.

Tank

30+ L

The minimum for a settled colony. A bigger tank holds its water steadier, so we recommend larger groups in larger tanks — stability is what keeps shrimp alive.

Buffered RO water on an active substrate — near-zero KH is correct here, not a fault.

Full care & acclimation guide →

FAQ — before you buy 8 quick answers

What actually turns up in the bag?

Unsexed juveniles, 0.6–1.2 cm — about the size of a grain of rice, and too young to tell male from female. Shipping at this size gives the best survival and the easiest adaptation to your water, and you always end up with both sexes. Adults are available on request at roughly twice the juvenile price.

Will they look like the photo?

Not on day one. The photo is a high-grade or best-looking adult from the batch; the shrimp you receive is young and still filling in. The colour packs in with each moult, the white thickens, and on the patterned lines the tone the white takes on — blue, green, orange or pink — arrives with maturity. The body's base colour, red or black, never changes. Every shrimp is an individual, so no two carry exactly the same pattern.

Why is there no grade to choose?

Because nothing on this line is worth sorting at the size we ship — the differences are down to age, or to your tank, not to the shrimp. Every animal in the bag meets one standard, and the Grading panel above says why. Where we do split a line into Entry, Mid, High and Collector, the grade describes appearance only, never health.

Can I keep them in my water?

If your tank matches the water card above, yes. Caridina want soft, slightly acidic water, which in practice means purified (RO) water with a shrimp mineral added back, over an active buffering soil that holds the pH down, in a tank that has been running a while. A near-zero KH is correct here, not a fault. A step up from a first shrimp, and a very stable one once the tank is right.

Full care & acclimation guide →

They arrived pale and barely moving. Is that normal?

Yes. Every shrimp arrives pale from the trip and colours back up within hours to a few days. Float the bag, then drip your tank water into it slowly over an hour or two before releasing them; the change in water should happen gradually. If any animal is dead on arrival, photograph it in the unopened bag and contact us within 8 hours of delivery — the Live Arrival Guarantee covers it.

Live Arrival Guarantee & DOA policy →

How do they travel?

Express post only, bagged with oxygen and insulated, dispatched on Mondays and Tuesdays so no animal sits in a depot over a weekend. Someone needs to be home to receive the parcel on the day — live animals cannot go to a PO box, a parcel locker or a safe-drop. We cannot send live animals to Western Australia, the Northern Territory or Tasmania.

Shipping policy →

How many should I start with?

Ten is the sensible minimum for a colony that breeds: with unsexed juveniles it all but guarantees both sexes, and a group settles faster than a pair. Our volume prices are built around that. Mixing colours of the same genus in one tank is fine to look at, but they will interbreed and the offspring drift back toward wild colouring — one colour per tank if you want to keep the line.

What do I do in the first 24 hours?

Lights off, bag closed. Float the sealed bag in the tank for 10–15 minutes so the temperature matches — darkness lowers stress.

Drip, don’t pour. Drip tank water into the bag slowly. A sudden change in TDS, GH or pH is the number-one cause of losses in the first week.

Something wrong? Photograph and video the unopened bag and email us within 8 hours — the Live Arrival Guarantee covers a replacement or a refund of the livestock value.

Full care & acclimation guide →