With the ever-growing popularity of the Dwarf Shrimp hobby confusion continues to grow about a few phrases commonly used amongst hobbyists. One of the phrases that is used quite frequently and causes a bit of confusion is “Wild type”

Wild Type

In the Dwarf Shrimp hobby the term wild type refers to any species of shrimp that displays its natural colors and patterns that would be found in the wild.

This term is most commonly used with Neocaridina heteropoda. This shrimp has been selectively bred to display red (the Red Cherry Shrimp) and Yellow (the Yellow Shrimp). In the wild this shrimp has a brown coloring with clear to light brown patches, red and yellow are not found in the wild. So any Neocaridina that is brown is called “wild type”.

Misunderstandings

A shrimp that is called “wild type” does not mean they are from the wild. It just means they are displaying their natural colors and patterns. They COULD be directly from the wild or be MANY generations removed.

A shrimp that is called “wild type” does not necessarily mean it will have more vigor! In selectively bred shrimp vigor is often diminished over time due to constant inbreeding. Selective breeders will combat this by introducing shrimp that have not been inbred. But a “wild type” shrimp does not guarantee more vigor, there is a chance that the shrimp has come from a very shallow gene pool of shrimp that have been inbred for generations!