Orange-Based Galaxy Black Tiger | Hornet

A black shrimp banded with glowing orange.

Arrives young and pale, the orange faint on the bands. The orange and the legs both deepen over the following months.

Four price levels, set mainly by how many clean tiger bands each one already carries. Every shrimp comes from the same true-Hornet stock.

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

The Orange-Based Galaxy Black Tiger, known as the Hornet, is the dark counterpart to our Wasp lineage. The body is jet black and stays black. The white tiger bands wrapping it take on a glowing orange tone, which is what "orange based" means in the hobby name, and it is a hard tone to stabilise. Bred here using 100% true Hornet males.

About the photo. The shrimp pictured is High or Collector grade. We ship unsexed juveniles (too young to tell male from female), so the photo shows what they grow toward. The band count is already set at that size, and shell, orange tone and leg colour fill in as they grow. Adults are available on request.

What to expect as they mature:

• Tiger bands: White bands wrap the abdomen. A few spots on the cheeks are normal. This line is judged on the bands, not on head spots.
• Shell thickens: Juveniles have thinner shells. With each moult (the shed of the old shell as the shrimp grows) the shell builds density. A thick shell looks shiny and solid, a thin one dull with see-through patches, and thickness is one of the markers of a Collector-grade adult.
• Orange tone builds: The black body never changes. The white bands start pale, sometimes plain white, and the orange on them deepens with each moult as the shrimp matures. It is not fixed at birth and builds over time.
• Spider legs: The body pattern carried onto the legs: black patches with white, as on the body. The white on the legs takes on the orange tone too, though it is small and subtle. Leg colour follows the shell, so the higher grades show it first and every grade fills in with age.
• Purple sheen: A metallic purple over the black that shows most on the higher grades and in a tank whose water has aged, meaning an older tank with fewer water changes and very stable water. It comes and goes with moults and conditions, which is normal.

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

A Hornet is graded on four things. Unlike a Boa, the pattern is already set at the size we ship and shifts only a little with age.

• Tiger bands. The number and neatness of the white bands around the body. Entry has 1 to 3 bands, Mid 3 to 4, High 4 to 5 and Collector 5 to 6, and the higher the grade, the cleaner each band.
• Colour. The black base stays as it is. What is graded is the depth of the orange on the white bands and the metallic purple sheen over the black. Both show more on the higher grades.
• Shell thickness. Entry and Mid usually carry a thinner shell, High and Collector a dense, solid one.
• Leg colour. It 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 comes in Entry, Mid, High and Collector grades. Every shrimp ships from the same true-Hornet stock. The higher grades already carry more bands, more colour and a thicker shell.

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.