Hello Shrimp People :)
Let's dive into the History of the Taiwan bee!
The Taiwan Bee shrimp is a very unique shrimp that appeared many years ago, and the results of years of selective breeding are seen today in a beautiful array of colors and patterns! Taiwan Bees consist of the following varieties - Blue Bolts, Red Bolts, Red or Blue Mosuras, Red Pandas, Black Pandas, Shadow Pandas, Red Extreme or Black Extreme, Red 1 stripe and 2 stripe or Black 1 stripe and 2 stripes. Whew!, I think thats all of them! The most amazing part about Taiwan bees is that you can keep all of those variants together and it will only result in Taiwan Bee shrimplets!
This makes for a beautiful shrimp tank full of colors and patterns. *Sigh*, a shrimp keepers dream!
It been reported that the first mutation that ever appeared was a blue bolt. A breeder discovered an offspring that was clear white with a blueish tint born from his CRYSTAL RED SHRIMP colony. This mutation was shared with other breeders and eventually some of the offspring that resulted were Wine Red and Black King Kong. It was then bred at a massive scale and most of the shrimps that we see today are a result of those endeavors from breeders.
THE END.
But, not so fast! Something MAJOR happened between those first Taiwan Bees and the Taiwan bees we have today... Back then, the genetics were very unstable and many of the offspring died easily. To make them more resilient and hardy, they were crossed with Crystal Red Shrimp. This cross (Taiwan Bee x CRS) resulted in F1 offspring that were mostly Crystal Red and Crystal Black Shrimp (phenotype). But because they had the recessive genes (genotype) of the Taiwan bee, when the f1 where bred back with Taiwan bee to produce f2 offspring, the offspring were 50% taiwan bee! This was a big leap forward! Through time and selective breeding they bred 100% Taiwan Bee offspring and the lines were stabilized, and became hardier because of the strong genetics from crossing to CRS.
Nowadays, Taiwan Bees are super hardy and a very popular caridina shrimp that many keep and breed. Taiwan Bees are a major key to many of the shrimp we see today like Pinto, Galaxy and more! Oh how I love my Pinto Shrimp! (which also come in a variety of colors and patterns, but I'll save that for another blog post!)
This is why selective breeding, culling and breeding projects are so important to our hobby and why we see so many varieties of shrimp today!
Whether your having fun with a mixed tank of Taiwan bees, or have selective breeding projects of your own, the possibilities are endless! Have fun with your shrimp keeping!
This Chart is not absolute, it is just for reference
Here's my video featuring a variety of Taiwan Bee Shrimp