Sulawesi Yellow Cheek

Sulawesi Yellow Cheek is a tank-bred line of Sulawesi lake Caridina, bred by Shrimp Aquatics and not collected from the wild. The yellow markings on the head and cheeks are what buyers want, and they show best on a settled adult in a mature, warm, alkaline tank. We list this line as expert level, so read the water and maturity checks below before you add it to the cart.

Check your tank against Yellow Cheek water targets before you order

This line is kept inside the same group range as every Sulawesi shrimp we sell. If your tank is already running there, it is a candidate. If it is not, the tank is the project, and the shrimp come later.

A tank built for Crystal or Bee Caridina cannot be adapted for this line by adjusting a few numbers. Soft acidic water and active buffering soil work against everything a Sulawesi shrimp needs, so a Bee tank is not a starting point, it is a different setup.

Yellow Cheek needs a mature grazing layer, not just the right numbers

Hitting the range is the easy half. In our Sulawesi systems, mature algae and biofilm do most of the feeding. We normally offer prepared food only about once a week and remove leftovers, both because many of the shrimp in these systems show limited interest in it and because food that sits in warm water adds organic waste and can raise ammonia, nitrite and nitrate as it breaks down.

That means a freshly cycled tank is not ready. We wait for 0 ammonia and nitrite, stable temperature and chemistry, an established biological filter and visible grazing surfaces on the rock and glass before stocking. With a powdered bacterial starter our normal minimum is 3-4 weeks; with a liquid or live culture the same checkpoint may arrive in 2-3 weeks. The calendar does not decide when shrimp go in.

• Ammonia and nitrite read 0 on two tests a few days apart.
• Temperature, pH, KH and TDS have held steady for at least a week without correction.
• Rock and glass carry a visible film of algae and biofilm.
• Do not order to a tank that was set up this month, however good the numbers look.

Which tankmates and Sulawesi lines can share a Yellow Cheek tank

Bee and Taiwan Bee Caridina are incompatible with this water, so they are out regardless of temperament. Sulawesi snails are the usual companions, because they need the same warm alkaline water and graze the same surfaces; count them into the grazing load rather than treating them as free.

We have no crossing record for Yellow Cheek against the other lines in our range. If keeping the line pure matters to you, give it its own tank rather than assuming it will not cross.

How many Yellow Cheek shrimp to order for a colony

A colony is more forgiving of a stable tank than a pair is, because a single loss does not end the project. When we can sex the shrimp with reasonable confidence, we usually build a Sulawesi breeding group with either 2 males to 8 females or 3 males to 7 females, to reduce mating pressure on newly molted females. We do not promise the sex or sex ratio of shipped stock unless that exact stock has been verified, so treat an order as a group to grow into a colony, not as a matched breeding set.

Settling a Yellow Cheek order into your tank on arrival

Follow the instructions packed with your order. For a sealed bag after a long transit, the current Shrimp Aquatics shipment protocol is to float the bag to equalize temperature, then net the shrimp into the tank without adding the shipping water. Packing method, transit time and species can change the right method, so the sheet in the box takes precedence over this page. Keep the lights off for the first 24 hours and expect the shrimp to hide before they graze in the open.