Are Cherry, Sakura and Fire shrimps the same species?

[Xianghao]

Actually is there a species difference between cherry and sakura? in fact recently i saw another name in LFS fire shrimp.. is there really a difference or is it marketting gimmick? personally i feel they are all the same just that maybe those shrimps packed as sakuras happen to be redder or maybe they have better genes? seniors please enlighten

[spinex]

I think sakura and cherry shrimps are the same. I bought cherry and sakura at the same time and put them in a tank. A few weeks later, The sakura color faded, cherry and sakura became same color. In general, the males ones are lighter color.

Then I start to feed them CRS food, Mosuru brand, the color get betters. It came with a bottle of solution suppose to make CRS white better, then I hand itchy, dosed some to try. The color got better after a few days. And now, I dose Mineral Plus whenever water change.

Now both my sakura and cherry look like the same color, hardly can tell them apart.

[meerkat]

Have to agree the similarity between cherries and sakuras. Should be from the same species I think. Saw a LFS selling sakuras and comparing to my cherries they sure look the same to me

[d2sign]

Red cherry shrimp (Neocaridina Heteropoda var. Red) is a selectively bred species, the red coloration was slowly bred out from the wild Neocaridina Heteropoda to achieve the all red coloration. Similar to CRS (Caridina cantonensis sp. "Red") where they are selectively bred from wild bee shrimp (Caridina cantonensis sp. "Bee").

As for "Sakura", the redness are more concentrated than red cherry, hardly to see the transparent lines compare to red cherry. Since no one can confirm that "Sakura" is actually red cherry but IMO, "Sakura" is an S grade red cherry. It's common that you will have some "Sakura" mix with red cherry when you buy in bulk, It's like buying B grade CRS in bulk and you found there's a few A grade inside.

Not sure about fire shrimp. Another confusing name from seller I guess.

[d2sign]

Try to do a search from some Taiwan forum and find out this grade system for cherry shrimp (Sorry it's in chinese), don't think is official but quite interesting.

They actually name them as 玫瑰蝦, 火焰蝦, 極火蝦, which is Cherry shrimp, fire shrimp, extreme red shrimp (sakura?)

1.B級玫瑰蝦---一般水館看到的那種不是很紅,體型不大也不會很紅. 市價約是1隻3元-5元. 約是1.2公分-1.5公分

2.A級玫瑰蝦---比B級稍微大一點紅一點. 約是1.2公分-2公分

3.特A級玫瑰蝦--比A級要大要紅的許多,但還不到火焰蝦的等級. 約是1.5公分-2.5公分

4.一般火焰蝦--體型介於A級跟特A級之間,紅度比前3種都要紅, 約是1.2公分-2.5公分

5.S級火焰蝦--體型也是介於A級跟特A級之間,這個等級已經很棒了, 顏色血紅,稍微會透光. 約是1.5公分-2.5公分

6.SS級火焰蝦--體型大,蝦殼不透光,顏色非常血紅,這種等級養起來很過癮了! 約是2公分-3公分

7.極火蝦----體型大尤其以母蝦最美,蝦殼不透光,連腳都是血紅色的喔!!! 顏色非常的血紅,或是非常的橙紅,運氣好的甚至可以抓到紅到發紫的夢幻極火蝦(通常可遇不可求) 約是2公分-3公分

source from http://www.aquashop.idv.tw/forumd/thread-40037-1-1.html

[Spid]

Actually is there a species difference between cherry and sakura? in fact recently i saw another name in LFS fire shrimp.. is there really a difference or is it marketting gimmick? personally i feel they are all the same just that maybe those shrimps packed as sakuras happen to be redder or maybe they have better genes? seniors please enlighten

Yup they are of the same species, be it cherry, sakura or fire.

They are being graded too like what bro sign mentioned.

[d2sign]

Hey spid, why don't show us your extreme red sakura here? hehe.

[Spid]

Hi sign, I have uploaded some pictures accompany with little information about these sakuras in my shrimp site which is under my signature.

Feel free to take a look.

[d2sign]

Thank for the link, your sakura are superb! Must take you a long time to develop the deep red. Nice!