Family: Atyidae
King Kong Shrimp — a selective-bred morph of Caridina cantonensis with a fully jet-black opaque body. Needs soft acidic water at 20-26 °C (pH 5.8-6.8, 3-8 dGH), stable nitrate near zero; breeds in freshwater but slowly, best for dedicated shrimp keepers.
King Kong Shrimp is a high-grade selective-bred morph of Caridina cantonensis, the Hong Kong hill-stream atyid whose famous red-and-white 'Crystal Red' form revolutionized the shrimp hobby after Japanese breeder Hisaaki Suzuki stabilized it in 1996 from bee shrimp × tiger shrimp hybrids. The King Kong Shrimp wears a fully jet-black opaque body — one of the darkest shrimp in the hobby, occasionally with tiny white antenna tips or a faint white tail glow. Like every cantonensis-line shrimp it demands soft, acidic, ultra-stable water: 20-26 °C, pH 5.8-6.8 and 3-8 dGH, ideally over active soil that buffers the chemistry, with nitrate kept near zero through gentle filtration and small, regular water changes. It grows to 2-2.5 cm, grazes biofilm and specialized bee-shrimp foods, and breeds in freshwater — but slowly and sensitively: the female carries only 20-30 eggs, larvae are smaller and slower than neocaridinas, and swings in parameters trigger molting failures. This is a connoisseur's shrimp — dazzling in a dark, mossy tank, but happiest with a keeper who measures rather than guesses.
Three causes, in order of likelihood: the shrimp is still young (juveniles often look muddy before their full black develops), the water is drifting warm or nitrate is creeping up, or it is genetically a lower grade. Stable soft water and patience fix the first two — only the third requires culling.
Buy from a line that is already black, keep nitrate low, feed protein-rich bee-shrimp food, and select the darkest juveniles each generation for your breeding group. Darkness is heritable — but only if you keep selecting for it.
Same water, peaceful coexistence — but they interbreed freely, and the offspring are unpredictable mixtures that ruin both lines. Dedicated keepers run one cantonensis morph per tank.
Parameter shock — the new water differed in temperature, GH or TDS from the tank. In soft-water setups, match every change to within 0.5 °C, 0.5 dGH and a near-identical TDS. Change less water more often rather than large volumes.
No — every King Kong is aquarium-bred; the morph does not exist in nature. Its ancestor, Caridina cantonensis, comes from Hong Kong and Guangdong hill streams, and even wild stock of that species is rare in the trade today.