Pure Black Line

Name: Pure Black Line
Brand: Shrimp Zone
SKU: SZ-PBL-STD
Price: 16.0 AUD
Availability: InStock

Caridina · IntermediatePhoto vs. what ships

The photo shows a high-grade or best-looking adult from the batch. We ship unsexed juveniles, 0.6–1.2 cm — too young to tell male from female. They arrive pale from the trip and colour back up within days.

Buffered (RO water)

$16.00 / juvenile shrimp

Juveniles are young shrimp — they travel best at this size, and many strains only show their full colour as they mature. After display-ready adults? Contact us.

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Quantity

Buying several, or after a particular grade?

Description

Pure Black Line Shrimp (Caridina) | Single Grade Colony

At a glance

A black-and-white shrimp bred to breed true — their babies come out black and white too, with no surprise all-white ones.

Arrives young. Some carry a faint warm tint at this age that clears as they grow, and the leg colour fills in last.

One price, no grades. Other sellers charge more for the whiter patterns. We don't — the pattern is just a look, not a better shrimp.

Caridina — needs soft, slightly acidic water, so a step up from a first shrimp. Numbers in the FAQ.

Description

Pure Black Line (PBL) is our stable, no-golden-genes black-and-white line that breeds 100% true and never throws snow-white offspring. A crisp white against deep black is a harder genetic target than red-and-white, so this line is held to the same shell-quality baseline as our PRL.

About the photo. We ship unsexed juveniles. It’s common to see a slight warm or yellowish tint at this age, clearing up as they mature and moult, with leg colour continuing to fill in over that time.

Colour & Care

Pattern and quality are two different things on this line.

Pattern is a look: S runs more black (V-band, Tiger Tooth), SS is roughly even (Hinomaru), SSS and SSS+ (also written SSSS) are mostly white (Mosura, Flowerhead) — none of it measures quality.
Quality is structural: What matters is white opacity, jet-black depth and leg colour — every shrimp is held to the same standard regardless of pattern.

Grading

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.

Some sellers charge more for SSS and SSS+ simply because it’s whiter. We don’t — pattern doesn’t track quality here; opacity, black depth and leg colour are held to the same standard across every pattern this line throws.

So Pure Black Lines are one grade, one price — you’re not paying extra for a pattern name.

The photo shows a high-grade or best-looking adult from the batch. We ship unsexed juveniles, 0.6–1.2 cm — too young to tell male from female. Shrimp arrive pale from the trip and colour back up within days. For detailed water parameters, tank setup guides, and our 100% Live Arrival Guarantee, see our FAQ.

Guarantee & dispatch

Live arrivalClaim within 8 h

Claim within 8 hours of delivery with photos and a short video, ideally of the sealed bag. Your choice of a refund of the livestock value, free replacements, or store credit — all at no cost to you.

Mon & TueDispatch days

0.6–1.2 cmUnsexed juveniles

10+ of one lineColony starter

Unsexed juveniles at ten all but guarantee both sexes — about 1 in 500 odds of a single-sex group, against 1 in 8 at four — and a group settles faster than a pair. Our 10+ and 20+ prices are built around that. Give them longer than Neocaridina — Caridina breed more slowly on buffering soil and reward stability over tinkering.

We don't ship live shrimp to WA, TAS or NT — message us for further enquiries: Messenger, Instagram or WhatsApp.

Full guarantee policy →

Water parameters — Caridina

TDS

100 – 150 ppm

Total dissolved solids — the quickest single number to check. Ours is what they are raised in: match it on arrival, then keep it steady. Swings hurt more than the number itself.

4 – 6 dGH

General hardness — the calcium and magnesium they build shells with. Too little and moults fail; too much and shedding gets hard.

0 – 1 dKH

Carbonate hardness — the buffer that stops pH drifting between water changes.

5.5 – 6.5

Set by your substrate and KH far more than by dosing. Hold it steady inside the band rather than chasing a number.

Temp

20 – 24 °C

Cooler slows moulting and breeding; warmer speeds everything up and shortens lives. Stay inside the band.

Tank

30+ L

The minimum for a settled colony. A bigger tank holds its water steadier, so we recommend larger groups in larger tanks — stability is what keeps shrimp alive.

Buffered RO water on an active substrate — near-zero KH is correct here, not a fault.

Full care & acclimation guide →

FAQ — before you buy 8 quick answers

What actually turns up in the bag?

Unsexed juveniles, 0.6–1.2 cm — about the size of a grain of rice, and too young to tell male from female. Shipping at this size gives the best survival and the easiest adaptation to your water, and you always end up with both sexes. Adults are available on request at roughly twice the juvenile price.

Will they look like the photo?

Not on day one. The photo is a high-grade or best-looking adult from the batch; the shrimp you receive is young and still filling in. The colour packs in with each moult, the white thickens, and on the patterned lines the tone the white takes on — blue, green, orange or pink — arrives with maturity. The body's base colour, red or black, never changes. Every shrimp is an individual, so no two carry exactly the same pattern.

Why is there no grade to choose?

Because nothing on this line is worth sorting at the size we ship — the differences are down to age, or to your tank, not to the shrimp. Every animal in the bag meets one standard, and the Grading panel above says why. Where we do split a line into Entry, Mid, High and Collector, the grade describes appearance only, never health.

Can I keep them in my water?

If your tank matches the water card above, yes. Caridina want soft, slightly acidic water, which in practice means purified (RO) water with a shrimp mineral added back, over an active buffering soil that holds the pH down, in a tank that has been running a while. A near-zero KH is correct here, not a fault. A step up from a first shrimp, and a very stable one once the tank is right.

Full care & acclimation guide →

They arrived pale and barely moving. Is that normal?

Yes. Every shrimp arrives pale from the trip and colours back up within hours to a few days. Float the bag, then drip your tank water into it slowly over an hour or two before releasing them; the change in water should happen gradually. If any animal is dead on arrival, photograph it in the unopened bag and contact us within 8 hours of delivery — the Live Arrival Guarantee covers it.

Live Arrival Guarantee & DOA policy →

How do they travel?

Express post only, bagged with oxygen and insulated, dispatched on Mondays and Tuesdays so no animal sits in a depot over a weekend. Someone needs to be home to receive the parcel on the day — live animals cannot go to a PO box, a parcel locker or a safe-drop. We cannot send live animals to Western Australia, the Northern Territory or Tasmania.

Shipping policy →

How many should I start with?

Ten is the sensible minimum for a colony that breeds: with unsexed juveniles it all but guarantees both sexes, and a group settles faster than a pair. Our volume prices are built around that. Mixing colours of the same genus in one tank is fine to look at, but they will interbreed and the offspring drift back toward wild colouring — one colour per tank if you want to keep the line.

What do I do in the first 24 hours?

Lights off, bag closed. Float the sealed bag in the tank for 10–15 minutes so the temperature matches — darkness lowers stress.

Drip, don’t pour. Drip tank water into the bag slowly. A sudden change in TDS, GH or pH is the number-one cause of losses in the first week.

Something wrong? Photograph and video the unopened bag and email us within 8 hours — the Live Arrival Guarantee covers a replacement or a refund of the livestock value.

Full care & acclimation guide →