Description
The Yellow Fire is an intense lemon yellow that looks spectacular against dense planting and dark substrate. It is the variety that contrasts best with the green of a planted tank, which is how it carved out a place alongside the Red Cherry.
It shares parameters, behaviour and care with the rest of Neocaridina davidi: no copper, minerals for moulting, never mix varieties. But it has one practical quirk worth knowing before you buy.
It is the variety that loses colour fastest on a poor diet. The yellow depends on pigments the shrimp obtains from food, and in a tank with barely any biofilm and generic feed it fades within weeks until it is almost translucent. It is not sick: it is badly fed.
The fix is simple and cheap: spirulina-based foods, dried Indian almond or beech leaves on the bottom, and a mature tank with colonised surfaces. With that the yellow stays intense for life.
There is a line called Yellow Golden Back, with a paler dorsal stripe running along the back. Same species, same care, but selected separately: mix the two lines and you lose the stripe within a few generations.
Habitat
Like the other varieties, it descends from Southeast Asian stream populations, in temperate water with dense vegetation and a leaf-littered bottom.
In the aquarium what it looks for are biofilm-covered surfaces: mosses, roots, decaying leaves and any corner with a biological film. That is both its larder and its shelter during the moult, when it is most vulnerable.
And here it connects with the colour question: that biofilm is part of what maintains the yellow. A sterile, very clean tank with no leaf litter is precisely the worst place for a Yellow Fire, however counter-intuitive that seems.
Medium hardness, stable temperature, gentle flow. It lives perfectly well without a heater between 18 and 24 degrees.
Habitats
🌊 Water parameters
What about your tank?
Enter your tank's values to see only the compatible species that fit them. Litres apply to fish.
Compatible fish
General guidance based on water parameters, behaviour and known exceptions; always review the individual animals' and aquarium's specific needs.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 24–26 °C.
They share water: pH 7–7.5 and 26 °C. They only meet at the very edge, so the tank has to hold that value.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 22–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 22–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 22–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7 and 22–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 25–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 24–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 22–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 20–25 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 24–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 18–24 °C.
They share water: pH 7–7.5 and 18–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 22–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 22–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 22–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 24–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7 and 24–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7 and 20–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.2 and 22–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 20–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 18–22 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 18–24 °C.
They share water: pH 7–7.5 and 22–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7 and 26 °C. They only meet at the very edge, so the tank has to hold that value.
They share water: pH 6.5–7 and 22–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 22–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5 and 24–26 °C. They only meet at the very edge, so the tank has to hold that value.
They share water: pH 6.5–7 and 23–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 23–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 20–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 23–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 22–26 °C.
Compatible invertebrates
General guidance based on water parameters, behaviour and known exceptions; always review the individual animals' and aquarium's specific needs.
They share water: pH 7–7.5 and 20–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5 and 20–24 °C. They only meet at the very edge, so the tank has to hold that value.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 22–26 °C.
They share water: pH 7–7.5 and 22–26 °C.
They share water: pH 7–7.5 and 22–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 20–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–6.8 and 20–24 °C. They only meet at the very edge, so the tank has to hold that value.
They share water: pH 6.5–6.8 and 20–24 °C. They only meet at the very edge, so the tank has to hold that value.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 18–26 °C.
They share water: pH 7–7.5 and 20–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 18–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 18–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 18–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 18–26 °C.
They share water: pH 7–7.5 and 22–26 °C.
They share water: pH 6.5–7.5 and 18–26 °C.
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They share water: pH 7–7.5 and 18–26 °C.
Sources
- GBIFGBIF Secretariat (2026). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset. https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei. Consultado vía GBIF.org, 2026-08. Neocaridina davidi.
Taxonomy verified as ACCEPTED unless stated otherwise.
'Yellow Fire' is a colour variety obtained through breeding, not a taxon. GBIF recognises the species Neocaridina davidi; the variety has no entry of its own and never will.
The care values (pH, temperature and hardness) have no citable source: none of the accepted sources publishes invertebrate profiles. Seriously Fish has none and PlanetCatfish does not respond. A source for invertebrates is still to be agreed.