It’s about time we talk about the Purple King Kong now due to its hype. Pretty much this shrimp’s popularity level is as high as dogecoin right now. Purple King Kong looks amazingly beautiful with that bit of mystery in it. Many years ago, on one trip to Taiwan, I have already seen this shrimp somewhere back in 2015, during the era of the birth of Pinto shrimps.

You can read more about Pinto shrimps in the hyperlink above. During the time when Nanacy a.k.a Taiwan Pinto was in trend, there were tints of purple in the Black Nanacy shrimps. They appear in small quantity and were sold at a very premium price. They were ranging at an estimate of about 3k – 5k USD each and I’ve seen hobbyist purchasing them with cold hard cash with my own eyes. That is Escobar’s level of shrimp keeping.

Shortly, when the trend of Galaxy shrimps came in, these Purple King Kong died down due to one reason. Its color can only be retained in certain water parameters during that time. So, when hobbyist transfer their shrimps into their tanks, they won’t be able to see this purple hue on them.

Since the end of 2020, Purple King Kong started to resurface again and had gained popularity quickly. This time, the only difference is that the color has been stabilized in its lineage. Even when you transfer them into a tank with different parameters, the color would still be stable. Its offspring percentage is also really high at 90%. The price of Purple King Kong has also dropped to more realistic levels where its more affordable now at a range of 250USD to 300USD per piece. Not only does the purple hue now appears on the black shrimp, but it also shows in the red shrimp as well. Joseph would call the red purple metallic shrimps Grape.

There are several pattern variations of this shrimp, but different breeder sees the value of them differently. Some would price a full purple one at a higher price while some will price one that has tiger stripes at a higher price. Nonetheless, these pattern variations have evolved so quickly that you wouldn’t think they exist. Some of the variations included are:

• Full purple
• Purple Nanacy
• Purple Galaxy
• Purple Stardust
• Orange Eye Purple King Kong
• Rusty Purple

I believe that the purple variation will still continue to evolve and meanwhile, I do have a tank of them to indulge on their beauties. If you are a Caridina fan, you gotta have these shrimps! That’s all I have today and thank you for reading!