Red Rilli

A red shrimp with a see-through middle — red head, clear body, red tail.

Arrives young. The three-part pattern is there from the start; the red 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 Red Rili is that pattern in red. The Red Rili was stabilised around 2010 as a cherry-shrimp variant; ours is bred for a heavier, deeper red at the head and tail — closer to a Bloody Mary’s red than the thin, patchy red common on the mass market — so the break between red and clear reads sharper.

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 red 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 — red head, clear middle, red tail.
• The variation: The ratio and the edges will not be perfect. On some the clear section runs wider; on others the red 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 Red Rilis are one grade, one price — robust unsexed juveniles, every one carrying the three-section rili genetics.