Orange Eyes Dark Red Kingkong | Red Devil

A velvet-red shrimp with glowing orange eyes. Where the red stops, the shell is clear glass rather than white.

Arrives young with the red and the eye colour still deepening. Both come on with maturity.

Two grades, Red and Dark Red, set by how far the red has already deepened when we pull them. Same parents behind both.

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

The Orange Eyes Dark Red Kingkong — the Red Devil — is a Caridina bred to two extremes at once: red pigment dense enough to deepen into a heavy velvet dark, and eyes that glow amber-orange against it. There is no white pigment anywhere in the line, so the shell reads as red and clear glass rather than red and white.

About the photo. The adult in our main image is the target, not the arrival. We ship unsexed juveniles whose pigment density and eye colour are still developing; both deepen with maturity.

Two mutations do the work here — and the second one changes how they behave.

• No leucophores: White pigment cells are bred out completely — any gap in the red is fully transparent, a “stained glass” effect that lets light through the joints.
• Over-pigmentation: The red is concentrated enough to read as a dark velvet canvas that absorbs light and makes the eyes pop.
• Orange eyes: A rare recessive mutation replaces the usual dark melanin — the eyes reflect amber and neon orange.
• Built to forage: The same OE mutation reduces visual acuity, so they lean on their elongated antennae, constantly sweeping the tank floor for biofilm.

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.

With the leucophores bred out there is no white pattern to measure here — what varies is the red itself. Red carries the full genetics with the pigment still bright and even, the velvet yet to build. Dark Red is the over-pigmented end of the line — red concentrated into a dark velvet that absorbs light and throws the orange eyes forward. The orange eyes and the glass-clear gaps are the same on both.

So Red Devils come in two grades, Red and Dark Red — one line, sorted by how far the red has deepened.