GRADING OF YOUR CRS

Crystal Shrimp Quick Reference (Black or Red)

Grade	Description
SSSS	Royal White Crystal Shrimp (not gold bee) -  Hybrid from Crystal Shrimp Only to be a Queen of High Quality     Off Spring for Breeders. -  No Red or Black Spot or Stripe at all / Pure White / A very slight red or black (depending upon the parents) may be seen faded just beneath the carapace.
SSS	-  The Highest "color form" grade consisting of just one marking known as a Mosura "crown" or "flower" above the head (carapace).  May have a very small dot near the tail.  (see photo below)
SS	Higher Quality Colors but will have around 3 colored stripes known as a Hinamaru (the more white, the more valuable).  (see photo below)
A-S	Good Quality, good looking shrimp but is going to have more than 3 colored stripes.  May have some translucent areas. (see photo below)
C-B	Lowest Quality but a great shrimp for beginner breeders or if it's going to be just a pet in a fish tank.  It is really undefined and may be anywhere from slightly translucent to a more solid color, just not in a higher grade quality of sharpness.  (see photo below)

Overview

The grading of the Crystal Red Shrimp has sometimes created more confusion than concrete answers. Not only are there many different grades but there are also several different color patterns, features, terminologies and other factors which can dictate one grade from the next. Being well educated with the grading of the Crystal Red Shrimp is very important if you decide to acquire, keep and breed this species.

There are numerous factors which can dictate the grade of a Crystal Red Shrimp. One of the most important factors is the intensity of both the white and red coloration on the specimen. If the white coloration is not full and shows signs of transparency then this can downgrade a specimen. When obtaining Crystal Red Shrimp from another breeder it can sometimes be common for a specimen to lose its fully opaque white coloration when newly arrived and also if it is an older specimen. It is recommended to purchase non-adult Crystal Red Shrimp if you do not want to risk potential color loss in adults after shipping. Adult Crystal Red Shrimp can be very picky when being introduced to a new environment.

Color patterns are also a very important factor when grading a Crystal Red Shrimp. Patterns like Hinomaru, Tiger Tooth, No-Entry Hinomaru, Mosura and more can dictate one grade from the next. At the bottom of the page is a guide to the common features/terminologies which are associated with certain grades. It is highly recommended that you are well educated with the grading terminologies of Crystal Red Shrimp if you decide to keep this species.

Please note that there of course has not been an "official" Crystal Red Shrimp Grading Guide. This version was created in order to help hobbyists better understand the grades and their respective terminologies that are associated. As more information develops on this ever changing Crystal Red Shrimp species this page will be updated.

Many thanks to Henry Hua, Gabe Hernandez & Kangshiang for the photos!

SSS Grade Crystal Red Shrimp

The SSS Grade Crystal Red Shrimp has the most white coloration out of all of the grades below it. It is sometimes refered to as a "Mosura" grade Crystal Red Shrimp. It follows the typical rule in Crystal Red Shrimp Grading that the more white coloration the higher the grade. However, there are many features which can make one SSS grade specimen considered even higher grade than another SSS Grade. One SSS Grade can be higher than another dependent upon features including the different red patterns on the head, eye coloration, leg coloration and even antennae coloration. As the grading gets higher there are more factors which can make a single specimen more prized than another of the same grade. Please read about the grading terminologies located on the bottom of the page.

SSS Grade Mosura with "Flower"

SSS Grade Mosura with "Crown"

Additional SSS Grade Photos

SS Grade Crystal Red Shrimp

The SS Grade Crystal Red Shrimp has more red coloration than the SSS Grade. The additional red coloration is located on the mid portion of the body, typically on the top. The SS Grade is usually given when there is a "Hinomaru" which is a red circle on the back which in fact signifies the sun in the Japanese flag. There are different varitiations of the Hinomaru including a No-Entry Hinomaru which is a white line through the red circle, and a Double Hinomaru feature which occurs when there is a second red circle on the body typically right at the end of the back at the tail. In the various photos below you can see the different types of SS Grade Crystal Red Shrimp. Please read about the grading terminologies located on the bottom of the page.

SS Grade Double Hinomaru with No-Entry Sign

SS Grade Hinomaru with No-Entry Sign

SS Grade Hinomaru

S Grade Crystal Red Shrimp

The S Grade Crystal Red Shrimp has even more red coloration than the SS and SSS Grades. The additional red coloration is located more along the sides of the body versus the SS Grade which has red mostly on the top portion. The S Grade Crystal Red Shrimp is a more popular grade due to the lower price and also because it is considered to have a more even white/red coloration. Some do not prefer the majority white coloration that the SS and SSS grade provide, let alone the high price they can demand. The S Grade can also be ranked as S+ given certain characteristics like solid red and white coloration as well as special features including Tiger Tooth and V-Band. The grading of Crystal Red Shrimp from S+ grade and below is very dependent on color solidity. Nice fully opaque white and red coloration can make the difference between an A Grade and S Grade. It is very important to inspect each specimen thoroughly. Please read about the grading terminologies located on the bottom of the page.

S+ Grade Tiger Tooth

S+ Grade V-Band

S Grade 3 White Band

S Grade 4 White Band

A Grade Crystal Red Shrimp

The A Grade Crystal Red Shrimp is a more popular grade for beginners in the Crystal Red Shrimp breeding arena. The A Grade has characteristics of blotchy and transparent red coloration and poor solid white coloration as well. A lack of any special features/patterns is typical of an A Grade specimen. The distribution of the red and white coloration can differ where some can have three white bands and some can have four white bands. The A Grade is a great beginner grade and are very inexpensive compared to higher grades. As stated before, it is important that you inspect each specimen well because an A grade can be improperly labeled as an S grade if not careful.

A Grade 3 White Bands

A Grade 4 White Bands

B Grade Crystal Red Shrimp

The B Grade Crystal Red Shrimp is typical of poor distribution of red and white coloration with an almost complete lack of any fully white bands. Some would say it is an ugly grade but I suppose it is in the eye of the beholder. This is another great beginner shrimp and also a great shrimp for breeders who are interested in practicing selective breeding. The irony is that it can sometimes be hard to find low grade Crystal Red Shrimp like the B Grade since not many people are fans of its pattern/coloration.

C Grade Crystal Red Shrimp

The C Grade Crystal Red Shrimp is typically where it all started. The very first Crystal Red Shrimp looked closely like this. Over time the white coloration was bred out and became more prevalent than the red coloration. You can see how the red coloration is almost 100% with very little white except for a coulple of strips. This is almost exactly what the red colored variety that Hisayasu Suzuki first discovered in his batch of wild Bee Shrimp looked like. Very little recognition is given to this grade given the fact that it is the origin of the mainstream Crystal Red Shrimp. There have been attempts to breed the red 100% with no white but lately it has not been as popular to do so.

Grading Terminology & Features

Mosura "Flower": A Flower-like pattern on the side of the head of a SSS Grade Mosura. Exactly where the "flower" term originated from is unknown as it does not seem to resemble a flower too much. Found in SSS Grade Crystal Red Shrimp.

Mosura "Crown": A half-circle Crown-like appearance located around the top and sides of the head. Found in SSS Grade Crystal Red Shrimp.

Double Hinomaru: Instead of one circle there are two. A large circle in the back (with no-entry sign) and another small circle towards the tail. Found in SS Grade Crystal Red Shrimp.

No-Entry Hinomaru: Occurs when a white dash appears in the middle of the red Hinomaru circle. The white dash gives the appearance of a No-Entry sign commonly found in traffic signs. The white dash can go all the way through the sides of the circle or can be contained inside as well. Found in SS Grade Crystal Red Shrimp.

Hinomaru: Hinomaru is when there is a distinct Red Circle in the middle section of the Crystal Red Shrimp top back portion. Hinomaru means "sun disc" in Japanese and is symbolic of the red circle which symbolizes the Sun in the Japanese Flag. There are also different variations of Hinomaru as stated above, i.e. Double Hinomaru and No-Entry Hinomaru. Found in SS Grade Crystal Red Shrimp.

Tiger Tooth: The Tiger Tooth marking is located on the lower half of the middle red section of an S+ Grade specimen. There are two red downward dashes. In between those two dashes is a white "Tiger Tooth". There must be a white portion between the two red dashes in order for the Crystal Red Shrimp to be considered to have a Tiger Tooth. If the area between the dashes is clear then it is not considered Tiger Tooth. The lack of a second red band would in fact create a V-Band instead. Found in S+ Grade Crystal Red Shrimp.

V-Band: The middle red section is shaped as a pseudo "v" shape signifies V-Band. Found in S+ Grade Crystal Red Shrimp.

Crystal Red Shrimp QUICK Grading Guide

Crystal Red Shrimp QUICK Features Guide

TAKING CARE OF YOUR CRS

They grow up 2.5 cm in size and live in temperatures up to 27 °C (81 °F), surviving best at 20–25 °C (68–77 °F) with a pH level of 6.5–7.2. The shrimp are quite sensitive to fast changes of the water parameters, especially when it comes to nitrogenous waste, or nitrite. Soft, slightly acidic water is the ideal breeding environment; breeding in harder alkaline water is not as successful. They reproduce between the ages of 4.5 and 5 months with a size of at least 2.2 cm. The sexes are hard to differentiate, especially on juvenile shrimp.

Crystal red shrimp maybe crossbreed with other bee shrimp as well as bumblebee shrimp and it can cross breed with tiger shrimp, which are also of the Caridina genus but to keep gene pools clean, it's highly recommended not to.

BREEDING YOUR CRS

By Kenshin

Breeding CRS, Tiger shrimps, Bumble Bee shrimps, Sri Lanka dwarf shrimps (or any other species that follow under the same requirements) are not hard at all.  It is just a little time consuming when you first start and once everything is fixed, it is a breeze. 
Here are some tips:

Keeping/Breeding C or B grade CRS/Tiger shrimps/Bumble Bee shrimps/Sri Lanka dwarf shrimps are much easier than higher grade since they are not as sensitive as higher grades.

However, all of the shrimps species mentioned above require slightly acidic water.  pH of 6.50 to 6.90 (*sometimes 7.0*) is highly recommended.  Lower grade CRS or Tiger/Bumble Bee/ Sri Lanka dwarf shrimps will still thrive and breed even at the pH of 7.0 as long as the water is soft (low amounts of calcium, magnesium, and sodium ions within the water).

Water has to be very soft (low kH and low GH of around 1 to 3).

Temperature has to be constant all year long - around 70 - 78 F (which is around 21 – 26 C). This tends to be “the” major problem in the summer time, so a cooling fan or chiller is needed to cool down your aquarium.  A cooling fan set at a low power setting is sufficient enough to cool down a 20 gallon long tank as long as it is blowing on top of the water within the aquarium.  Just make sure to top off the water that is being evaporated away from the fan.  Higher grade CRS/Black Bee shrimp are super temperature sensitive.

Do not feed these shrimps a high protein diet food.  Around 30% to 35% (sometimes around 40%) is perfect.  The food with lots of iron and minerals is the best as it helps to bring out their color.  I tend to only use spinach once a week or once every other week.  If spinach is used, please make sure the spinach is organic (no pesticides or insecticides whatsoever) and use only baby spinach leaves.  This is very important because “normal” spinach that is sold out there have been sprayed with either/both of these chemicals, pesticides or insecticides.  Just by using hand washing on the leaves under running tap water is not enough to remove it since these chemicals contains wax-like substances to make sure the chemicals stay on the leaves even when it rains.  So to insure safety for your shrimps, try to stick with organic vegetables.  Boil it for a couple of minutes under boiling water.  After boiling, just cool down immediately in cold water and rinse it several times. Then just drop 1 or 2 spinach leaf into your aquarium (depending on how many shrimps you have in your aquarium) and watch your shrimps feast on it.  If they do not finish within 1 hour or so, please take it out and throw it away (and that goes for any kind of food you give them as well).  Frozen spinach is also recommended.  Since frozen spinach has undergone the process of high pressure boiling, all you just need to do is rinse 1 or 2 leaves and just drop it into your shrimp tank(s).  I tend to feed a variety of food to my shrimps.  I feed them the following:  Hikari Crab Cuisine, Shirakura Ebi-tama, Nutrafin Max – Spirulina Algae Flake food, and normal goldfish flakes. 

Have some moss and plants for them to forge on.  It also controls the nitrate and ammonia level.  Try your best not to use Anubias or Crypt plants, but if you have them just please try your best not to trim the plants (leaves and stems) inside the shrimp tank.  Especially never cut the rhizome of the Anubias plant and plant it back right away in your shrimp tank.   Freshly cut rhizome/roots/stems/leaves from Anubias and Crypt. Plants (especially Anubias) leak a toxic substance to your tank. If the shrimps forge on it, they tend to die within several days. Or if you observe your shrimps swimming like crazy in your tank after you trim the rhizome of the Anubias plants, then you know you will have to take out the Anubias plant and carry out 80% water change right away.  However, if you have great filtration/circulation in your tank, then it "should" not be a problem depending on the size of your aquarium but I will still recommend to carry out a water change just to be on the safe side. Do not use fertilizer if it contains copper for it is toxic to shrimps in general if the shrimps are housed in an aquarium already.  If you still want to use fertilizer, then I would recommend just using Seachem Flourish and cutting the doses stated in the bottle by half or more, depending on how much plants you have and the growth rate of the plants themselves.  Java moss, peacock moss, string moss, Christmas moss, Fissiden sp. moss, or any other moss would work.  If you have driftwoods or stones, tie your moss onto it using threads or very thin fishing line.  Over time, your moss will grow very nicely (forming shapes) and your shrimps will have other grazing areas including areas for them to hide as well.

Ammonia has to be absolute zero, and nitrate has to be at a minimum.  These shrimps love clean water so 30% to 50% water changes weekly is highly recommended.

CRS/Black Bee shrimps and Tiger shrimp cannot be housed together because they will interbreed and their interbred hybrid offsprings will look nothing like their parents but tend to resemble their "Tiger" parental shrimps.  Because of that you will not get anymore pure CRS species which means all of the money you have spent on high grade CRS will go down the drain.

Know what to feed your Shrimp!
What do I feed my Crystal Red Shrimp (or any other high dollar shrimp) SHRIMP FOOD!