Controlled experiment
Direct Neocaridina evidence
McIvor et al., 2026. Aquaculture Research 2026(1): 6618042.
Source taxon as published: Neocaridina davidi, red cherry variant
Study shape: Three aquaria per treatment received 0, 20, 2000 or 20000 smooth 38 to 45 micrometre particles per litre, starting with 20 females and five males per aquarium.
Experimental unit: Thirty-litre aquarium, with three aquaria per concentration
Environment: Twelve 30-litre aquaria with sponge filtration and five months of smooth polystyrene-sphere exposure
Endpoints: particle ingestion, monthly mortality, counts by size class, post-exposure mortality.
What it can support: The two higher tested concentrations increased mortality and changed population size-class counts under the five-month exposure.
What it cannot support: Fecundity, gonads and individual growth trajectories were not measured, so size-class counts do not directly establish slower reproduction or individual growth rates; the treatments are not aquarium safety thresholds.
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Controlled experiment
Direct Neocaridina evidence
Vazquez et al., 2017. Journal of Crustacean Biology 37(4): 367-373.
Source taxon as published: Neocaridina davidi
Study shape: Newly hatched shrimp were randomly assigned to 2.5, 5 or 10 animals/L for 90 days in 2 L vessels containing 5, 10 or 20 shrimp. The results table reports 8, 9 and 7 vessel replicates, respectively. A second experiment randomly assigned ten 30-day juveniles to each of five mixed-sex, five female-only and five male-only vessels at 5 animals/L.
Experimental unit: Two-litre vessel. Shrimp in each vessel were weighed together every 30 days in the density experiment, so the repeated response was vessel mean mass rather than an individually tracked trajectory. Whole-vessel biochemical homogenates were pooled across replicates when biomass was insufficient.
Environment: Two-litre culture vessels at 27 +/- 1 C with 0.7 g Java moss, continuous aeration and weekly complete water replacement
Endpoints: vessel mean wet mass through 90 days, model-estimated survival, phenotypic sex ratio, presence of ovigerous females, whole-vessel glycogen, lipid and protein concentration, mixed-sex versus monosex vessel mean mass and survival.
What it can support: Under the tested juvenile grow-out conditions, vessel mean mass diverged after day 30 and was lower at 10 animals/L than at 2.5 or 5 animals/L by days 60 and 90. Final females at 2.5 animals/L were 45 percent heavier than females at 10 animals/L, males at 2.5 animals/L were heavier than males at both higher densities, and model-estimated 90-day survival did not differ statistically among densities. Monosex versus mixed culture did not change mean mass or survival in the second experiment.
What it cannot support: This does not establish shrimp per gallon, a home-aquarium carrying capacity, a disease or welfare threshold, or a minimum starter group. The units were small juvenile grow-out vessels with daily food described as ad libitum and approximately 4 percent of vessel biomass, continuous aeration, weekly complete water replacement and removal of every new offspring. Individuals were not tracked, starting vessel counts were unequal across densities, brood and family contributions were not reported, food intake was not measured, and ovigerous presence was recorded without egg, hatch or recruitment outcomes. Survival percentages were model estimates rather than raw tank-wide guarantees. Biochemical samples sometimes pooled vessel replicates, weakening the original unit boundary. Ninety days does not represent a mixed-age, multigeneration colony or lifetime health.
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