Orange Rilli

An orange shrimp with a see-through middle — orange head, clear body, orange tail.

Arrives young. The three-part pattern is there from the start; the orange deepens as they grow.

One price, no grades. Every one has the pattern, but the bands are never perfectly neat — that is the gene, not a fault, and sorting for tidy edges is what makes these expensive elsewhere.

Neocaridina — the easier of our two shrimp families, hardy and quick to breed, and a good first shrimp. Numbers in the FAQ.

The Rili pattern is a genetic trait, not faded colour: pigment is switched off through the middle of the body, leaving a coloured head and tail either side of a clear midsection. It breeds true. The Orange Rili is that pattern in orange. The orange form was bred out of the red, so the colour deepens with age the way an Orange Sakura does.

Like any cherry shrimp they are hardy, breed readily and forgive a beginner’s mistakes.

About the photo. The shrimp pictured is one of the best-looking adults from the batch. Juveniles arrive with the pattern set and the orange lighter; the colour packs in and the break sharpens with each moult.

Honest expectations, before you buy:

• Our shipping standard: Every juvenile we ship shows the three-section pattern — orange head, clear middle, orange tail.
• The variation: The ratio and the edges will not be perfect. On some the clear section runs wider; on others the orange bleeds into the middle, or the edges are jagged rather than straight. That is the gene, not a fault.

A visually “perfect” rili takes relentless culling, which is what drives the price up elsewhere. We would rather sell the whole colony honestly.

So Orange Rilis are one grade, one price — robust unsexed juveniles, every one carrying the three-section rili genetics.