English name: Orange Delight Shrimp
Scientific name: Caridina sp. "Orange Delight"
Origin: Indonesia
Size: 0.75 to 1 in / 2 to 2.5 cm (both sexes)
Water temperature: 78 - 85 °F / 25.5 – 29 °C
Recommended pH range: 7.0 - 8.5
Behaviour: non-aggressive
Difficulty: difficult
Breeding rate: low

Introduction to Orange Delight Shrimp

The Orange Delight Shrimp hails from the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. It is not very commonly kept and is quite difficult to care for. You should ideally have kept easy and medium difficult species before you attempt keeping this one.  

Geographical origin and habitat

As mentioned above, the Orange Delight shrimp comes from Sulawesi, one of the islands of Indonesia. The hobby currently gets Orange Delight shrimps form several different lakes on this islands.  

Physical appearance

A healthy and happy Orange Delight shrimp is bright to light orange. The body is adorned by white dots and 2-3 white dashes along the top. The pattern displayed by the Orange Delight shrimp is similar to one seen on several other Sulawesi shrimp species, but the coloration is not, and the white dashes can also be used to identify this shrimp from other Sulawesi Shrimp species.

If your Orange Delight shrimp turns brown, something is wrong and you need to investigate to find the source of the stress. A stressed Orange Delight shrimp will also spend most of its time hiding; sometimes not even coming out to eat.  

Keeping Orange Delight Shrimp

The Orange Delight shrimp will do best in hard water where the pH-value is kept in the 7.0 - 8.5 range. The water temperature should be 78 - 85 °F / 25.5 – 29 °C, preferably in the upper part of the interval. The levels of organic waste must be kept low. If you encounter a sudden spike in organic waste, it is okay to let the Orange Delight shrimps go without food for a few days while you handle the problem. It is safer for them to be without food than to live in unhealthy water conditions.  
As mentioned above, the Orange Delight shrimp is not easy to care for and you have to strive hard to mimic its native home in Sulawesi as close as possible. If the shrimp turns brown, starts hiding or refrains from eating, immediately check all water parameters. A healthy and happy Orange Delight shrimp spends a lot of time out in the open scavenging for food, even when the lights are on.    

Feeding Orange Delight Shrimp

Keeping your Orange Delight shrimp on a varied diet will decrease the risk of poor health. You can for instance give it more than one type of prepared shrimp food combined with algae water and blanched greens, e.g. lettuce, spinach and Brussels sprouts.

Do not feed your Orange Delight shrimp more food than what it will devour in 2-3 hours. A healthy and happy Orange Delight will eat even when the lights are on in the aquarium.

Sexing and breeding Orange Delight Shrimp

Unlike many other commonly kept shrimps, the Orange Delight shrimp is difficult to sex based on outer appearance. As far as I can tell, males and females look exactly the same.

One batch of eggs will typically contain 10-15 eggs. The female carries the eggs until they hatch and miniature shrimp emerge. There is no larval stage for this shrimp species. You can expect the eggs to hatch after roughly 20-30 days. It is often possible to see the eyes of the offspring inside the eggs.

The newly hatched offspring are very small and shy and will spend their time hiding; the aquarist might not even see them and might think that something has gone wrong with the batch.

The young shrimps will start displaying colours and patterns similar to the parents after one or two weeks.