Breeding Red Rili Shrimp (Neocaridina davidi)
Breeding the original Red Rili morph of Neocaridina davidi from red Cherry stock, with a clear midsection: sexing, conditioning, colony setup, berried females and shrimplet rearing with pattern culling.
Overview
The Red Rili is the original Rili pattern, selected from red Cherry stock of Neocaridina davidi, with a bright red head and tail and a translucent middle section. It develops directly and breeds easily like other Neocaridina; the breeding focus is maintaining the clean red-and-clear split rather than fertility.
Sexing
Females are larger, more opaque red and wider-tailed, and a maturing female shows the ovary saddle behind the head. Males are smaller, slimmer and more translucent. The red is usually deeper in females.
Conditioning
Maintain both sexes in an established tank and feed a varied, moderate diet of biofilm, algae, blanched vegetables and occasional protein. Females mate right after molting, so the reliable triggers are stable water chemistry and steady feeding.
Breeding Setup
- Minimum tank volume: 20 L for a colony
- Temperature: 20-26 C (68-79 F)
- pH: 6.5-7.8; GH 6-12 dGH; KH 2-8 dKH
- Sponge filter to keep shrimplets safe
- Moss and plant cover for molting shrimp
- Stable parameters for continuous reproduction
Spawning & Berried Females
The berried female holds 20-30 eggs and fans them with her pleopods to keep them clean and oxygenated. Per Wikipedia the eggs hatch in about 2-3 weeks. Keep parameters steady during incubation, as a stressed female can abandon the clutch.
Shrimplet Care
Shrimplets are tiny adults that graze biofilm and detritus from day one and need dense cover and no predators. Red depth and the Rili split firm up with age, so grade growing juveniles and remove poorly patterned ones.
Common Challenges
Avoid copper-based medications. The Rili pattern is unstable and throws solid-red and reverted shrimp each generation; cull individuals that lose the clear midsection. Crossing with other Neocaridina morphs drives reversion to wild brown over a few generations. Neocaridina davidi and Caridina cantonensis are separate genera and do not interbreed.