Family: Atyidae
Blue Dream Shrimp — the deep royal-blue show morph of Neocaridina davidi, bred from chocolate lines. Reaches 2-2.5 cm, easy care at 18-26 °C, breeds freely in freshwater; color intensifies on dark substrate.
Blue Dream Shrimp is the deep-sapphire show morph of Neocaridina davidi, developed in Europe and Taiwan by crossing chocolate-brown lines and selecting the darkest, most velvet-blue offspring over many generations — a pedigree that explains why blue dream is often sold alongside chocolate shrimp and occasionally throws brown juveniles. Premium specimens show an intense, opaque royal blue that holds from head to tail with no transparency. Under the blue coat it is the same bulletproof species: 2-2.5 cm, 18-26 °C, pH 6.5-8.0 and a wide hardness tolerance, grazing algae and biofilm from dawn to dusk. It is one of the most photographed shrimp in the hobby precisely because the color deepens on a dark substrate under full-spectrum light. Breeding matches the rest of the species — freshwater, simple, prolific — but serious breeders cull any brown offspring to keep the line pure. A school of blue dreams cruising a moss-covered log is among the signature images of the modern planted aquarium.
Either it is an off-color throwback from the chocolate bloodline — cull those and the line stays clean — or water stress is dulling the blue. Check temperature under 26 °C and nitrate under 20 mg/L first.
Three levers: dark substrate, a quality full-spectrum light, and color foods with spirulina or astaxanthin fed over several months. Genetics is the ceiling — only buy from lines that are already deep blue.
They will live together peacefully, but they will interbreed — and the offspring drift back to wild brown within a few generations. Keep one color per tank if you want either line to stay pure.
No — same species, same toughness. They are among the best 'fancy' shrimp for a first-time keeper because their care is identical to the bulletproof red cherry.
Around one to two years per individual, but a colony is effectively immortal — new babies replace the old continuously in a stable tank, so the blue shimmer never leaves the aquarium.