# orange bee shrimp?



## Joseph (Aug 19, 2012)

Just picked up some "orange bee shrimp" that were on sale at Big Al's (Mississauga), but they don't appear to look like pictures I see (no stripes, more consistent orange colour). Being a newbie to shrimp, it's tough to make a knowledgable decission. Staff at the store didn't seem to be experts on shrimp.
Has anybody with experience seen this tank first hand? Are they in fact orange bee shrimp (Caridina cantonensis) ?

Thanks.


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## Dman (May 1, 2012)

I think there just orange neo cardinals, my brother saw them and that's what he thought they were


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

If it's orange neo then they shouldn't put the word "bee" in there. I'd appreciate store label the scientific name if it's not a commonly seen or easily told shrimp such as orange shrimps.


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## xriddler (Feb 16, 2012)

i also picked up the orange bee shrimp at big als scarb. I am pretty sure they are the neo cardinals as i do not see the same colouration as the true orange bee but they were small so maybe after a few days i can tell the difference?


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

Sunkist shrimp aka Caridina pf Propinqua...look like Orange ghost shrimp with humped back. BAs in Miss has them too...I looked at them on Monday.

Nice shrimps, but can't breed them unless you try to hatch the larvae in brackish water...lot of work to keep them alive...its been tried, but still without great success.


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

Anna's got it right, BA hamilton almost got me on those too back in the day. They misuse the orange bee name for them. They are a nice shrimp for a community tank and some of mine have lived years, but they won't breed for you.


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## prolific8 (Jan 10, 2013)

*orange*

definitely not the Orange Neo Caridina.


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## xriddler (Feb 16, 2012)

damn i think you are right they look like sunkist shrimp  

on the bright side i can still put my 50 cherry with them when i grab them soon


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## xriddler (Feb 16, 2012)

just making sure i have some pictures of my shrimp. Help me id them please?


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

looks like card. prop. to me.


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## xriddler (Feb 16, 2012)

i really think big als needs to talk to their suppliers about this. I think these shrimp are really cool but they need to be labelled and sold properly with the right name.


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## prolific8 (Jan 10, 2013)

*als*

I spoke to a Big Al's employee inquiring on the species/genus name for both the "orange Bee" and the "Blueberry Shrimp". She said that it was on their shipping invoice but was too busy to check. 
So they actually get the proper name from their supplier when it is ordered/invoiced/shipped. but they put the "pretty name" because it is likely to be more appealing to average customers.


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## xriddler (Feb 16, 2012)

i just told them about the shrimps. they are imported from an Indonesian supplier. they come as orange bee but of course they are sunkist. so i told him i spoke to shrimp enthusiast and that big als has a right to know that their supplier is not shipping out the right type of shrimp to them.


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

Before we go blaming the BAs and all LFS for not labelling shrimps with the proper names, we have to give them a break on this. Most Indonesian suppliers (not all, but quite a few) don't call these shrimps anything else but Bee shrimps...they aren't aware that these have been studied by experts in this field and been given Latin names for each species etc. To them its still a Bee shrimp.

Its the same for Bettas...Thailand breeders call HM (half-moons) but in actual fact the latin name is Betta Splendens and there are many others, but many are just labelled Wild Bettas.

So when they ship these shrimps out to North America, they just state they are Bee shrimps...Orange, Red, Yellow etc. Its really up to us as hobbyists to learn more about the shrimps we are interested in, and carefully look at the shrimp we are buying to see IF it is actually a Neo, or a Caridina, especially if you are putting them in an existing shrimp tank and you don't want hybrid cross babies.

Some times that is extremely hard because a few of the Neos all look the same color wise . Case in fact is the blueberry shrimp, or the Green Shrimp ( its not a Neo at all, its a Caridina Babaulti) it can also be a Malaya shrimp, which comes in a multitude of colors, and very hard to decypher because it resembles Red Cherry, or some of the darker Sakuras.

In the case of the Sunkist (often called Orange Bee, Mandarin, Orange Soda) it is a Caridina pf Propinqua (even that name has changed again  )
The key to remember with this particular shrimp is it has a *Humped *back...not flat or straight like the Neo/Babaulti shrimps. It looks a lot like a Ghost shrimp but Orange. Its bigger than the normal Neo too.

Its a very nice shrimp overall and can be kept safely with other Neos because it cannot cross with them, and also does not hatch live babies like Neos/other Caridinas, it has a larvae stage which needs Brackish water to morph into baby shrimplets.

You can always ask to see the shrimp close up (have them pop one in a bag first) and/or like me keep a small magnifier handy so you can really look at it, before buying it.

Most Neos look like they are walking on tippytoes with they tails in the air, Babaulti's have a very distinct straight profile from tail to head, absolutely no bends in the body and tend to be fatter looking shrimps, and the Sunkist/Orange Bee looks like someone broke its back and bent it.

Go look at the Ghost shrimps, they are the same...humped in the middle of the body. So keep that in mind next time....if it has a Hump, its NOT a Neo.

Hope this helps.

We will put something in place this year to help newbie shrimpsters identify most of the available shrimp species.


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## xriddler (Feb 16, 2012)

I called big als and did not complain but simply just inform them that they have been ordering orange bee but was not receiving the true orange bee and they should talk to their suppliers about it. I think retailers have a right to know what product they are selling and not get in trouble for selling the wrong product to end users. Hopefully they will inform the suppliers of the differences in species or we will always see sunkist shrimp as orange bee shrimp and never get a chance to buy the real thing.


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

Yep, they are "_Caridina cf Propinqua_". I saw them in BA Mississauga.
They are a little bigger than neocaridina and have more oblong body.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

I have to agree with Bettaforu. If nothing else, a store like BAs really does not have a great deal of time, or even staff with the expertise, available to put into making certain the animals they sell are always properly identified, though it would be nice, and in a perfect world, it should be so. But where is there a perfect world ?

I think they really do have to rely on their suppliers. Clearly, the suppliers don't always know what they're selling, as Bettaforu said. Even if they're fairly sure what a given batch of animals is, any shipment of shrimp or fish might easily contain something else as well, because many critters look so similar, especially when they're still juvies. Shrimp so often lose colour with stress.. a bag could be one of several colour variants, as well as not all one kind. I know I got two really aggressive Machrobrachiums that were NOT Blue Claws, along with some Blue Claws. As juvies they looked so similar even I didn't notice until I saw one full grown, and saw it's claws were so much larger and brown, not blue. Wretched thing ate my Snowball shrimps.

Kuhli loaches are notoriously hard to tell apart and often show up as mixed species and the same happens with lots of livestock, as well as new species that aren't even properly classified as yet. For wild caught, a few mystery critters might be simpe bycatch, if farmed, maybe some got into the wrong pond or improperly labeled, or some other type of mistake. Ever present, annoying, but pretty much unavoidable human error. By the time the shipment arrives at the store, what are they supposed to do with them if they're not what was ordered? I don't think they can return fish or shrimp once they've arrived, right or wrong.

So when we buy, I think it is truly up to us to do a bit of research and find out what it is we are buying. If what's in the tank doesn't look quite right or you're not sure, or the staff can't answer questions, try taking a quick pic and see if you can find out what it is online. Better to miss a deal than end up with something you really don't want.

Fwiw, if it turned out that a person bought 'Orange Bee shrimp' thinking they were truly a Bee shrimp, only to find they were not, I think BAs would have to offer at least a store credit if you returned them and pointed out the mistake. If true Bees are what you're keeping, you wouldn't even have proper tank parameters to keep those shrimp. If it were me, I'd certainly expect at least credit or exchange in the case of misidentified livestock, particularly where the parameters for keeping the two species are so very different.

Be nice if Al's would give cash refunds, but they don't and it's their choice, and it is clearly posted in their stores what their policy is.


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