Metallic Purple Galaxy Black Tiger

A black shrimp with crisp white stripes and a metallic purple shimmer.

Arrives young with the shimmer barely showing. It comes through as they mature, and on the higher grades the white bands take on a subtle green or blue tone with age.

Four price levels, set mainly by how many clean tiger bands each one already carries and how much shimmer it already shows. The same parents sit behind every level.

Caridina — wants soft, slightly acidic water and a tank that has settled in. Numbers in the FAQ.

The Metallic Purple Galaxy Black Tiger is a Caridina with a black body, crisp white tiger bands and a metallic purple sheen over the black. Ours are bred from master Mint Tiger males, whose recessive trait can give the white bands a green tone — the expression we reserve the “Mint Tiger” name for.

About the photo. The shrimp pictured is High or Collector grade. We ship unsexed juveniles, so treat the main image as the target, not the arrival. Banding sharpens, the sheen spreads, the spider legs fill in, and on the higher grades the white takes on its tone with maturity. Adults are available on request.

What develops as they grow.

• Purple sheen: A metallic purple over the black that shows most on the higher grades and in a tank whose water has aged — an older tank with fewer water changes and very stable water. It comes and goes with moults and conditions; that is normal.
• Tone on the white: The black base never changes. On the higher grades the white bands take on a subtle green or blue tone as the shrimp matures — subtler than on a Boa or a Hornet, and easy to miss under weak light.
• Spider legs: The body pattern carried onto the legs — black patches with white, the same as the body. How solid it is follows the shell, so the higher grades show it first, and it fills in with age on every grade.

Every shrimp arrives pale from the trip and colours back up within hours to a few days.

A Metallic Purple Galaxy Black Tiger is graded on the same four things as our Hornet, and as on the Hornet the pattern is already set at the size we ship; it shifts a little with age, but not by much.

• Tiger bands — the number and neatness of the white bands around the body. Entry 1–3 bands, Mid 2–3, High 3–4, Collector 4–5, and the higher the grade the cleaner each band.
• Colour — the black base stays as it is. What is graded is the metallic purple sheen over the black and, on the higher grades, the tone the white bands take on with maturity. Where a Hornet’s bands turn orange, this line’s turn a subtle green or blue.
• Shell thickness — Entry and Mid usually carry a thinner shell; High and Collector a dense, solid one.
• Leg colour — grows in with age on every grade, but High and Collector already show strong spider legs at the size we ship. Entry and Mid are hit and miss, and may never fill the legs completely.

This line is offered in Entry, Mid, High and Collector grades. Every shrimp ships from the same parents; the higher grades simply carry more bands, more sheen and a thicker shell already, and are the ones that go on to show the green or blue tone.

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.