Descripción
The Green Jade is one of the more recent varieties and among the least seen in shops. Its olive green ranges from pale jade to almost dark depending on the individual, and it is a rare colour among freshwater shrimp, which makes it appealing to anyone who already keeps reds and blues.
It is just as hardy as any Neocaridina, breeds just as readily and needs exactly the same things: no copper, minerals for moulting, a mature tank and no other variety of the genus nearby.
What sets it apart is that its colour is noticeably less stable. Being a young selection, the line is not as fixed as the Red Cherry, which has been refined for decades. Each brood produces a fairly wide spread, from deep green individuals to nearly transparent ones with a greenish tint.
That has a practical consequence: buy a large group and be patient. With ten shrimp and no selection, in a year you will have a mediocre colony. Systematically removing the palest ones, in the same time you will have a line that starts to be worth something. It is the variety that most rewards those who select and most punishes those who do not.
Hábitat
An aquarium variety of Neocaridina davidi, the Asian species of temperate streams and dense vegetation. It needs the same setup as its sisters: moss, fine-leaved plants, leaf litter and gentle flow.
Something particular and counter-intuitive happens with substrate. Shrimp adjust their tone slightly to the background, so over pale sand the green reads better but the individual lightens, and over dark substrate the shrimp saturates more but contrasts less. There is no right answer: it depends on whether you care more about the animal's colour or the overall visual effect.
If you are selecting a line, always do it over the same background. Comparing shrimp raised over different substrates leads you to cull animals that were not worse, just in another tank.