We sit on both sides of this conversation. We sell shrimp from our own breeding room, and we still buy in new lines when we want to widen the gene pool or start a colour we don't yet keep — which means we ask these questions about as often as we answer them. Here is what we'd want to know before handing over money, and, just as usefully, what a good answer actually sounds like.
The single most reliable signal isn't a perfect reply to any one of these. It's a seller who answers all ten quickly, specifically and without getting prickly. A breeder who loves their shrimp loves talking about them, so hesitation, vagueness or irritation is itself the tell, whoever you are buying from.
1. What water are they kept in?
Shrimp are at their most fragile in the first week in a new tank, and the size of the jump between the seller's water and yours is what decides how hard that week is. Ask specifically for GH and TDS, and ideally pH and temperature too. You are not looking to match them to the decimal — drip acclimation exists to bridge a sensible gap — but you want to know how big the gap is, and whether the seller even measures it. A good answer is a set of numbers given without hesitation: "GH around 8, TDS about 200, pH 7.2, kept at 22°C." A shrug, or "just tap water, they'll be fine," tells you they're not tracking the thing most likely to kill their stock in transit.
2. How old are the shrimp?
Age changes what you're buying. Young juveniles travel and settle well and give you years ahead of them, but they're hard to sex and their colour hasn't finished coming in, so you're trusting the line rather than the individual. Adults let you see exactly what you're getting and pick out females, but they've less life left — cherries only live one to two years — and they feel a move more keenly. A good answer is honest and specific: "these are three to four month juveniles just colouring up," or "young sexable adults, not old stock." Be wary of anyone offering tired-looking older adults as a bargain lot; you may be buying the tail end of a colony rather than the start of yours.
3. Which line is it, and how long have they held it?
"Blue shrimp" is not an answer. Blue Dream and blue velvet are different lines with different depths of colour, and reds run all the way from washed-out culls up to Painted Fire Red. You want the seller to name the line precisely, and to say roughly how many generations they've kept it going. A line a breeder has fixed over years throws far more consistent, true-breeding offspring than one thrown together last season from a mixed tank. A good answer sounds like: "Blue Dream, I've run this line about three years now." How grade and line stack up, and why one seller's "Fire Red" can differ from another's, is covered in our Neocaridina grades guide.
4. Can I see photos or video of the actual shrimp?
The shrimp that arrive should be the shrimp you were shown — not a glossy image lifted off the internet that every seller of that colour recycles. Ask for a recent photo or, better, a short video of the actual tank you'll be buying from. A confident breeder sends one over cheerfully, often with a coin or a plant leaf in shot for scale. Reluctance, or images that look too polished to be a phone snap of a home tank, is a flag worth heeding. Pair this with our pre-purchase health checklist so you know what to look for in those photos: even colour, intact legs and antennae, and shrimp actively grazing rather than sitting hunched in a corner.
5. How do you grade, and what happens to the culls?
This one question tells you whether the colour you're paying for will hold. A breeder who grades — keeping the best-coloured shrimp to breed on and taking the off-colour ones out of the line — is selling you stock that stays bright. One who lets everything breed together is, whether they realise it or not, selling you a line already sliding back towards wild-type brown. A good answer describes selecting for coverage and depth and keeping a separate cull tank or rehoming the culls honestly. It's also perfectly fair to hear "I don't grade hard, these are a fun mixed colony" — as long as they're priced and described as exactly that, and not dressed up a grade or two above what they are.
6. What's your dead-on-arrival policy?
Even the best-packed parcel occasionally arrives with a loss, because the post is the post. What separates a seller worth buying from is that they stand behind it. A fair dead-on-arrival policy is clear and stated up front: photograph any losses within a set window after delivery — usually a few hours — often with the bag unopened or the count filmed as you open it, and they replace or refund. "No guarantees once it's in the post" is a hard no for livestock. What a fair policy looks like, and the packaging that earns it, is set out in our guide to how shrimp are shipped.
7. How will they be packed and posted?
Good packing is most of whether shrimp arrive lively, so it's fair to ask how yours will travel before you commit. You want to hear breather bags, or ordinary bags with a generous air gap, a scrap of moss or a leaf in each bag for cover and something to grip, the lot inside an insulated box, on a next-day tracked service — plus a heat pack if it's cold out. A seller who's thought this through answers without pausing. One who plans to drop them in a padded envelope on a two-day service hasn't, and it's your shrimp that pay for the saving.
8. How long have you been breeding?
Time isn't a guarantee of honesty, but it does mean stable lines and the common problems already met and solved. Ask, and listen more to the "how" than the number of years. An established breeder will have a track record and probably a waiting list between broods; a newer one who plainly cares, measures their water and grades honestly can be an excellent buy, sometimes at a friendlier price. Treat this as one input among the ten rather than a pass-or-fail gate — plenty of good keepers are only a season or two in.
9. What do you feed them?
A considered answer here signals a considered keeper. You want to hear that the shrimp live mostly off biofilm in a mature tank, topped up with a quality staple a few times a week and the odd bit of blanched veg or a little protein — fed little and often, because overfeeding is the surest way to wreck a shrimp tank. It also tells you what to carry on with at home, so the move changes as little as possible for the shrimp. "Whatever fish flake is going spare," or a blank look, suggests animals kept as an afterthought rather than the main event.
10. Why are you selling these?
The best reason in the hobby is the happy one: a colony that's bred so well it has outgrown its tank. That's surplus from strength, and it's exactly what you want to be buying into. Be a little more careful with "clearing the tank out" or "getting out of shrimp," which can be entirely innocent but can also mean a colony that's crashing, a disease the seller would rather not mention, or a line they've given up improving. A good seller answers plainly — "they've boomed and I've nowhere left to put them" — and doesn't bristle at the question.
The real test is the whole set
No single answer makes or breaks a seller. It's the pattern that counts. A breeder who fields all ten of these quickly, specifically and warmly is telling you they know their shrimp and have nothing to hide, and that's worth far more than saving a few pounds on the cheapest listing you can find. The ones who go quiet, vague or defensive are answering you just as clearly, in their own way.
When you're happy with the answers, our guide to where to buy cherry shrimp in the UK covers the channels — specialist breeders, local shops and the online marketplaces — and how each stacks up. Our own colony is rebuilding at the moment, so we're between broods; if you'd like first refusal on graded stock when it returns, you can join the restock waitlist, and we'll happily answer all ten of these ourselves.
FAQ
What should I ask before buying cherry shrimp?
At a minimum: what water they're kept in (GH and TDS), how old they are, which line it is and how long the seller has held it, whether you can see photos of the actual stock, how they grade and cull, their dead-on-arrival policy, and how they'll be packed. The answers matter less than the manner — a seller who replies quickly and specifically to all of it is almost always the safer buy.
How do I know if a shrimp seller is trustworthy?
Trust is built from specifics. A trustworthy seller gives you real numbers for their water, sends recent photos or video of the actual shrimp, has a clear dead-on-arrival policy, and grades honestly rather than selling culls as top grade. Vagueness, stock images and "no guarantees" are the warning signs. Buying in person or by collection, where you can see the colony for yourself, removes most of the risk in one go.
Is it better to buy shrimp from a breeder or a shop?
Both work, and it depends what you're after. A dedicated breeder usually has better-fixed colour lines, will talk you through their water and grading, and can show you the parent colony. A shop lets you see the shrimp before buying with no shipping stress, though genetics and staff knowledge vary a lot. For a specific high-grade line, a breeder tends to win; for a casual starter colony, a good local shop is fine.
What water parameters should I ask a shrimp breeder about?
GH and TDS first, because those shift most in transit and matter most to moulting and shell health, then pH and temperature. You're checking two things: how far their water sits from yours, so you can plan your acclimation, and whether the seller measures at all. A breeder who reels off their numbers is keeping a stable tank; one who has never tested is leaving the outcome to luck.