Blue Bolt Shrimp

Caridina cantonensis

Also known as: Taiwan Bee, Blue Bolt, Caridina Taiwan Bee

Water Parameters

• Temperature: 20–25°C
• pH: 5.5–6.5
• Hardness (GH): 71–107 ppm (4–6 dGH)

Values above are general hardness (GH). For carbonate hardness (KH), the buffer that keeps pH stable, see the water parameters guide.

Care Summary

A Taiwan Bee shrimp, selectively bred from the bee shrimp (Caridina cantonensis) into a gradient of pale blue-white head to deep sapphire tail, and one of the most prized and most demanding dwarf shrimp in the hobby. It is an advanced animal for one reason: water. Blue bolts need soft, acidic, very low-mineral conditions, typically pH 5.5 to 6.5, GH 4 to 6, and a carbonate hardness (KH) of zero to one, which in practice means RO water, a remineralising bee-shrimp salt, and an active soil substrate that pulls the pH and KH down, in a mature and scrupulously stable tank. They are small, slow-breeding relative to Neocaridina, premium-priced, and acutely copper-sensitive. For an experienced keeper who enjoys dialling in water chemistry they are a jewel; for anyone else they are an expensive way to learn how unforgiving Taiwan bees can be.

Tankmates

A Taiwan Bee, the most demanding of the common Caridina, with the opposite needs to the hardy Neocaridina: it wants soft, acidic, mineral-light water (RO water remineralised with a bee-shrimp salt over an active buffering substrate), with the carbonate hardness held near zero. It is not kept with Neocaridina, which want hard water, and the two do not interbreed anyway. Defenceless and killed by copper, it belongs in a dedicated, mature, stable, planted shrimp tank, at most alongside the tiniest gentle fish such as chili rasboras, which will still take shrimplets. Keep a single line, as Taiwan bees cross readily with other bee and Taiwan Caridina.

Compatible with

• Chili Rasbora
• Ember Tetra
• Celestial Pearl Danio
• Otocinclus
• Nerite Snail

Avoid keeping with

• Betta
• Large Cichlids
• Loaches
• Dwarf Pufferfish
• Assassin Snail
• Guppy

Common Problems

• sensitivity to anything but soft, acidic, low-mineral water, which usually needs RO and remineralising
• copper poisoning from medications or fertilisers
• colony loss from small parameter swings or an immature tank
• moulting failure if carbonate hardness creeps above zero to one
• high cost and slow breeding compared with Neocaridina

Sources: seriouslyfish.com, shrimpscience.com · Last updated: 2026-10-05