Blue/Green Galaxy Boa

A black shrimp with a thick white hood over its head and shoulders, and legs that look painted.

Arrives young, showing only a hint of the metallic sheen. It comes through and intensifies as they mature — blue on some, deep green on others. The white hood thickens over the same period.

Four price levels, set by how much white covers the head, how clean the body pattern is and how thick the shell is. All already visible when they arrive; the dearer ones simply have more of it.

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

The Blue/Green Galaxy Boa is a high-end Caridina defined by two traits at once — the thick white “hood” spreading across the head and carapace and down the cheeks, and a metallic mutation that keeps working after that pattern sets. The black body never changes. As these shrimp grow and moult, the white pattern over it shifts into a luminous metallic blue or a deep emerald, depending on the individual. Other sellers list the same line as the Black Base Galaxy Boa; we name it for the colour you end up seeing.

About the photo. The shrimp pictured is High or Collector grade. We ship unsexed juveniles, selected for early signs of metallic potential — treat the photo as the target, not the arrival. Coverage thickens, the body stripe sharpens and the metallic shift builds over successive moults. If you want the metallic look straight away, contact us about adults.

Five traits define a true Boa, and each keeps developing after arrival.

• The hood: The defining hallmark — white spreading over the head and carapace, down to the cheeks.
• The body stripe: A thick “fishbone” stripe running down the back and reaching close to the edge of the belly — either a clean, straight-cut “boa” look or a saw-edged “jagged” look. Both are correct; the fewer breaks in it, the better.
• Shell thickness: A thick shell looks shiny and solid. A thin one looks dull, with see-through patches.
• Colour on the pattern: The black base stays black. What changes is the tone of the white: at the size we ship there is already some blue in it, and it deepens and spreads from the head across the whole body pattern with age — blue on some, green on others. The strongest, most metallic tone typically arrives after a female has carried eggs (been “berried”) for the second time, at roughly three to four months old. Males colour up less than females.
• Spider legs: The body pattern carried onto the legs — black patches with white, and the white takes the same tone the body does, only subtler. Leg colour follows shell thickness, so the higher grades show it first.

Two things that are normal, not faults: the pattern keeps expanding and shifting as the shrimp ages, so a Boa looks better with time; and every shrimp arrives pale from the trip, colouring back up within hours to a few days.

We grade by the traits that genuinely vary within a batch. On a Boa five things vary, and all five are readable at the size we ship, so this line sorts into four grades.

• Head coverage — how much of the head is white. Mid sits around 40–50%, High up to about 80%, Collector 95% or the full head.
• Body pattern — thick, in the boa look or the jagged look. The higher the grade, the fewer breaks and flaws.
• Shell thickness — High and Collector are thick throughout; Entry and Mid can be a mix of thin and thick.
• Colour — the higher grades show the blue or green tone earlier and over more of the pattern.
• Leg colour — grows in with age on every grade. High and Collector already show strong spider legs at the size we ship; Entry and Mid may show none when young and may never fill the legs completely.

Entry is the lightest head coverage and the most flaws in the pull, shell and legs a mixed bag — the same genetics at the lowest price. Mid is 40–50% head coverage with some flaws, a sound Boa base. High is up to 80% coverage with minimal flaws, a thick shell and strong legs from day one. Collector is the top of the pull — a near-full white head, the cleanest pattern and the fullest legs, in limited numbers.

Grading is done by eye at shipping size, on what the shrimp shows then. Shrimp rarely move a grade as they grow, but water matters: poor water costs colour and shell.