The Orange Eye Blue Tiger Shrimp, often abbreviated OEBT, is one of the most striking and unusual invertebrates in the freshwater hobby. It was developed from blue colour-form Tiger Shrimp through selective breeding, resulting in a shrimp with a vivid steel-blue to dark blue body still bearing the characteristic vertical striping of the Tiger Shrimp lineage. Its most remarkable and defining feature, however, is its brilliant orange eyes — a trait that is entirely unique among commonly kept Caridina shrimp and creates an extraordinary contrast against the blue body.
The OEBT is prized by collectors both for its unusual eye colour and for the purity and depth of its blue body coloration. High-quality specimens display deep, even blue across the body with clearly visible dark striping and bold, saturated orange eyes. The combination is genuinely unlike any other shrimp available in the trade.
Despite its exotic appearance, the OEBT is not significantly harder to keep than standard Tiger Shrimp. It tolerates a broader pH and GH range than Taiwan Bee variants, though it still benefits from soft, slightly acidic to neutral water conditions. It is an active, energetic grazer that forages over all surfaces in the aquarium. It breeds readily in suitable conditions, though the blue body and orange eye traits may not be expressed fully in all offspring without careful selective breeding. This is an ideal species for intermediate keepers ready to progress beyond standard Neocaridina shrimp.
