Descripción
The Orange Sakura is a warm, even orange that in the best individuals covers the whole body from head to telson without a single transparent patch. It contrasts strongly against green and holds its colour well, which makes it an excellent choice for a first shrimp tank.
It is worth clarifying what Sakura means, because it causes real confusion in shops: it is not a species or a separate line, it is a grade of coverage. The whole scale describes how much opaque colour covers the body:
- Sakura: colour spread widely but with visible translucent areas.
- Fire: near-total, opaque coverage.
- Painted Fire: the highest grade, fully opaque including legs and face.
Grade sets the price but not the difficulty: a Sakura and a Painted Fire need exactly the same things and are equally hardy. If you are starting out, buying the highest grade gives you no care advantage, just a prettier animal.
Care is identical to the rest of the genus: no copper, minerals for moulting, a mature tank and no other Neocaridina variety nearby, or within three generations you will have brown shrimp.
Hábitat
An aquarium selection of Neocaridina davidi. The setup is the usual one for the genus: moss, fine-leaved plants, leaf litter, gentle flow and medium hardness.
It is worth stressing one point that matters especially here: stability. Shrimp die not so much from a bad parameter as from a parameter that changes suddenly. The commonest cause of deaths in an established colony is neither pH nor hardness in themselves, but a water change that is too large or too fast, catching them mid-moult.
Hence the practical advice: small, frequent water changes of 10 or 15 per cent rather than one large monthly one. And always adding the new water slowly.
If one day you find several dead shrimp for no apparent reason, a day or two after maintenance, now you know what happened.