Hello everyone! It's been a while, and today I'd like to share some useful shrimp abbreviations that can help everyone understand shrimp keeping better. The shrimp hobby has evolved so quickly, with a rich array of species and varieties. To make things easier to follow, I've split this guide into two parts. Each shrimp comes with a little story that I hope you will enjoy.

CRS/CBS
Crystal red shrimp/Crystal black shrimp

The more commonly used names for these classic shrimp varieties are CRS (Crystal Red Shrimp) for the red-striped ones and CBS (Crystal Black Shrimp) for the black-striped ones. These shrimp are sometimes also referred to as "Bee Shrimp" due to their banded patterns, which resemble the stripes of a bumblebee.

 

PRL/PBL
Crystal Red Shrimp/Crystal Black Shrimp

Pure lineage shrimp emerged around 2008. Unlike regular CRS, these shrimp have no other genes mixed in, ensuring their genetic purity. In the past, breeders would cross CRS with Golden Bee Shrimp to achieve a more pronounced white coloration. The offspring of Pure Red Line (PRL) and Pure Black Line (PBL) shrimp exhibit the appearance of either CRS or CBS. Due to the genetic purity, the white coloration on these shrimp is exceptionally vivid, resembling paper white.

Taiwanbee
The term Taiwanbee refers to the next generation of crystal shrimps. The three famous Taiwanbee are “Black King Kong”, “Wine Red” and “Blue Bolt”. They are called Taiwanbee because they were first discovered in Taiwan. Taiwanbee is the key that unlocks most of the shrimps that we see today. It was heard that Blue Bolts first appear out of Crystal Black shrimps and eventually, breeders breed two Blue Bolts together and achieve the three variant of Taiwanbee.

Pinto
Pinto shrimps is achieved from crossing any shrimp with Taiwanbee. If the shrimp has Taiwanbee lineage, it will be considered a Pinto shrimp. The word Pinto means spots in Spanish.

In the early days of breeding Taiwanbee shrimp, German breeders were pioneers in experimenting with crossbreeding Taiwanbee shrimp with various other shrimp species. Their innovative efforts led to the creation of two distinct and prized varieties of shrimp.

The first variety features a base color of either black or red with white stripes across its back. The number of stripes can vary from three to five, with a higher number of stripes generally increasing the shrimp's value. These were eventually introduced as Zebra Pinto.

The second variety is characterized by a predominantly white body with a head that is either black or red. This variety also features large white spots on its head, adding to its unique and desirable appearance. These were introduced as German Spotted Pinto.

These breeding advancements by German enthusiasts significantly contributed to the diversity and aesthetic appeal of Taiwanbee shrimp in the aquarist community. The German pintos are known as 德P in mandarin.

The spotted varieties of these shrimp quickly became a huge hit in the market. As a result, the term "Pinto" has come to specifically describe these spotted shrimp. However, the term has often been misused by many hobbyists to describe any shrimp that is crossbred with Taiwanbee shrimp, regardless of whether they exhibit the distinctive spotted pattern.

With the German Pintos hitting the market at every corner of the world, the Taiwanese quickly came out with their own version of Pinto shrimp. It features a shrimp with red or black base that has white tiger stripes at the back close to the tail. In the early version of this shrimp, it has very little or tiny spots on the face, and it was named as Galaxy Tiger or 台P in mandarin.

That will be the end of part 1. In part 2, I will share more in detail on the different Pinto shrimps that are available in the market. I hope this blog post will help you understand the shrimp keeping world a little more today.

We export shrimps and fishes worldwide wholesale. If you can import legally and would like to be partners, drop me an email at demin@madshrimp.com.