Orange Eyed Blue Tiger Shrimp question....

[LDZ]

Hey all,  got a question about OEBTS.   I just got 10 at a local fish swap meet because I was told they live at the same parameters as neocardina and won't cross breed.  I wanted to put them into my established very heavily planted 15 gallon with a few ember tetras and a dozen orange neos and a small Betta who leaves my adult and juvenile shrimp alone and the neo population is still growing.  When I got home and did more research I have discovered that the orange eyed shrimp are actually blind.   Is it morally ok to have them in a tank with a predator fish because they can't see him?  I don't have any other option other than a 2 gallon established tank with no animals in it. Would that be ok for them?  Should I just re-home them.  I did pay alot of money for them and I hate to give them away but I don't want to be cruel either.   Thank you for your advice 💜🦐🐌🐟

[Lennie]

Hey LDZ,

If you loved them and willing to keep them, keep them in a low light tank. They seem to be not blind, but has visual impairment. So they seem to do well in a low light environment. Maybe lower your light, add lots of plants, especially floating plants so they have a better sight in a dimmed tank

 

Here I'm sharing more detailed research I came by:

"Melanie Kirchbeck, on the other hand, in a histological and comparative study(Kirchbeck, et. al., 2019) found that the eyes of OE and normal tigers alike had all the necessary features required for vision, i.e., lamina, medulla, rhabdome and lobula, respectively, medulla externalis, m. internalis and m. terminalis, as well as the crystal body. Compared to animals that live predominantly in the dark and rely rather less on their visual properties, neurophilic lamina and crystal body are usually rather weak to absent, but this was not the case in the OE.

A shrimp eye has so-called ommatidia, i.e. several "single eyes", which are arranged in a cone shape. Depending on the incident light, there is a differently well-developed pigment layer between them - the melamine, which serves to shield strong light conditions, so that the shrimp can still see "sharply" and is not blinded. The absence of this intraommatidial pigment in the OE tigers was conspicuous, although individual functionless remnants of it were noticeable in the study.

Thus, animals with Orange Eyes do not have the natural light protection in the eyes like other shrimp. This therefore results in glare when they are exposed to a strong light source. Although the overall image is still recognizable to them, they lack the ability to see it sharply. Conversely, however, they are able to see better at dusk and in the dark, because the residual light has a better effect on all the individual eyes and enables sharper vision. M. Kirchbeck therefore came to the conclusion that OE shrimps do have a visual problem, but that this can be positively influenced in the aquarium by dimmed aquarium lighting."

https://www.garnelio.de/en/blog/shrimp/hollow-eyes-orange-eyes-handicap-or-blemish

 

Also, I didn't know about the orange eyes and eyesight issues. Thank you for letting me know.

[Lennie]

btw, I forgot to mention, I am not sure how good "neocaridina parameters range" term would work as Neocaridinas can do well in very wide ranges. It sounds a bit confusing.

This is what a very reputable shrimp breeder guy has for his tiger shrimp here:

PH 6.50 - 7.0
Tds 250-300 ms ( 190-200 ppm )
Gh 7-10 
Kh 0-2 

Temp:20-23C

Edited August 13 by Lennie

[LDZ]

Thank you for the info 😊

[nabokovfan87]

https://aquariumbreeder.com/blue-tiger-shrimp-detailed-guide-care-diet-and-breeding/

This is one of my go-to sources for shrimp information.

On 8/13/2023 at 1:13 PM, LDZ said:

I don't have any other option other than a 2 gallon established tank with no animals in it. Would that be ok for them? 

I would try to setup na bigger tank in future when you can. Larger tank is more dilution, which means more stable parameters long term.