Orange Eyes Black Kingkong | Black Devil

A solid jet-black shrimp with glowing orange eyes.

Arrives young with the black still filling in and the eye colour still coming up. Both deepen as they grow.

One price, no grades. There is no pattern to sort on — about 95% of each generation lands on the same solid black.

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

The Orange Eyes Black Kingkong — the Black Devil — is a Caridina bred for one thing: a dense, light-absorbing jet-black shell behind glowing orange eyes. Years of selective refinement have locked that combination into our SZ line, and it now holds in roughly 95% of every generation.

About the photo. The adult in our main image is what this line matures into. We ship unsexed juveniles — their pigment density and eye colour are still filling in, so treat the photo as the target, not the arrival.

What to expect as they grow into the line:

• Jet-black shell: Dense, light-absorbing black across the whole body — no pattern to read, just depth of colour.
• Orange eyes: A rare recessive mutation alters their ocular pigment, so the eyes throw back amber and neon orange instead of dark melanin.
• Purple in the woodpile: An outcross to premium OE Metallic Purple King Kong stock deepened the shell’s metallic richness — and left a small chance of purple offspring.
• Busy on the glass: The OE mutation reduces visual acuity; they compensate with their antennae, tasting the water and reading vibrations. Expect constant sweeping.
• Breeds true: Around 95% of each generation lands on the same jet-black shell; the remainder shows slightly larger translucent patches.

We grade by the traits that genuinely vary within a batch — pattern density, colour saturation, how far colour wraps around the shell. Where those differences are visible in the tank from day one, we sort them and price each tier for what it actually is.

This line doesn’t hand us that spread — no pattern to score, only solid black coverage, and around 95% of every generation landing in the same place.

So Black Devils are one grade, one price — the top of the line, straight out of the gate.