Shadow Black King Kong

A black shrimp whose white markings glow blue instead of white.

Arrives young, and the blue is unsettled at that age — it can look pale at first and deepen once they settle into your tank. The black itself is fixed and does not change.

One price, no grades. How blue they go depends on your water and lighting, so a pale one on arrival can end up just as vivid as a bright one.

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

Black King Kong is a Taiwan Bee staple; the Shadow mutation takes the usual stark white banding and turns it into a glowing, near-neon blue against the black shell. It’s a genuine colour mutation, not a photo effect, and it’s become a favourite pattern among Caridina keepers for exactly that contrast.

About the photo. We ship unsexed juveniles — the blue is still settling in at that age and will shift as they acclimate and mature. Treat the photo as the target, not the arrival.

The blue in this line behaves differently to the black.

• Not fixed like the black: The black sections of the shell are solid and stable; the blue is a dynamic trait that responds to its surroundings.
• Responds to your tank: Blue intensity moves with water parameters, substrate maturity, lighting and the shrimp’s stress levels — it can fade toward white or deepen toward radiant blue as the shrimp settles in and moults.

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.

The blue is still actively responding to tank conditions on the day it ships, so a juvenile that looks pale on arrival can turn out just as vivid as one that looks vivid already — grading on shipping-day blue would be grading our water, not the shrimp.

So Shadow Black King Kongs are one grade, one price — let your own tank bring the blue out.