Petshrimp.com -- All about shrimp

Egg-carrying Malawa shrimp can get very dark. There is a male in the background. Males are pretty much transparent with just slight markings.

This young female has rather subdued coloration with the white stripes mostly missing.

Common Name:	Malawa Shrimp
Scientific Name:	Caridina pareparensis parvidentata
Size:	up to ca. 2.5 cm
Temperature:	wide range, but best kept at 70°F-82°F
Water Parameters:	Very adaptable shrimp. Can live under a wide range of water conditions.
Food:	Biofilm, fish food (flake, pellets etc)
Origin:	Southern Sulawesi, Indonesia. Malawa spring near Bowonglangi.
Larval Development Type:	Completely Suppressed: Larvae assume a benthic lifestyle after hatching, i.e. they are miniature versions of the adults. There is no planktonic larval stage.

The Malawa shrimp, named after the spring in Sulawesi from which it hails, is one of many interesting shrimp that have been entering the hobby from the island of Sulawesi in recent times. Although it is not as colorful as many other Sulawesi shrimp, it is still a valuable new edition to the hobby. In contrast to the other Sulawesi shrimp, and similarly to the Sri Lanka dwarf shrimp, this shrimp is never imported and thus cannot be found in stores. The Malawa shrimp was first brought to Germany by Rainer Masche, who personally collected the animals and transported them back to Europe. Hence, this species is extremely rare in the hobby (even in Germany) and new to North America (as of August 2008). I have been keeping and breeding this shrimp since the beginning of 2008 and the time has come to spread the Malawa shrimp in the hobby.

The Malawa shrimp has many things going for it. Besides having attractive markings and an active, unafraid nature, it also does not interbreed with any other species currently in the hobby. It is quite productive if given good care and very adaptable to various water parameters. In spacious aquaria it can be kept with the already wide-spread red cherry shrimp (RCS) as it can live under the same conditions and does not interbreed with RCS.

The body coloration of the Malawa shrimp can be quite variable under various conditions. Although they usually look like the first two pictures above, they can also turn dark with deep black markings or only faintly display the white stripes on their backs. The males are more or less transparent although some have some faint black markings. The young are transparent until they reach adult size.