Buying Import vs HomeBred - Experiences?

[Shrimpapalooza]

Hello!

 

What's your all's opinion on ordering shrimp? I am looking to buy some Blue Dreams and there's a seller who has imported shrimp on quarantine right now that look really nice, but I know there's been discussion on whether buying homebred here in the states is better vs buying import. So, I thought I'd ask:

 

What are your experiences buying Imported Shrimp vs Homebred? Maybe Neos specifically since that's what I'm buying? Is there an advantage to homebred? Or advantages to Imported?

[Shrimp Life]

There is always an advantage when your buying from a Reputable Hobby Breeder. A hobby breeder will sell you young shrimp (travel and acclimate better), and know the history of the shrimp. They would monitor their shrimp and know they are healthy/disease free by a certain point and work on culling their line to keep the shrimp color and quality good. When your getting imports, Neos especially often have or are recently exposed to diseases since they are bred in an environment where disease is prevalent. That being said there are also incidents where people have good experiences and are able to establish a colony of shrimp from imports that show no signs of disease. An advantage to imports is that we are able to obtain new color variants. Blue Dreams are pretty much pretty common so you should have no problem finding either Imports or Homebred. While Neos like Black Rose or Green Jades are harder to find homebred. In regards to Caridina, Homebred is great when you can find them..there seems to be less problems with import caridina then import neos. I still always prefer to get homebred but all shrimp were imported at some point and it's thanks to the diligence of hobby breeders that we have a great assortment of homebred shrimp available in North America.

[wyzazz]

I always suggest picking up homebred shrimp when you can.  As @Shrimp Life mentioned above, there are some possible diseases that tend to come from Imported shrimp.  Homebred shrimp tend to travel less, end up less stressed overall & because they are typically bred by hobbyists they are generally better looked after.

[Shrimpapalooza]

Hey all! Thanks for the suggestions, I just got my Dream Blue Shrimp in today, ordered from a home breeder. Attached a pic of one!

 

Now a somewhat stupid question, please excuse it but its been a while since Ive ordered in shrimp for a new tank: is there an issue if they keep swimming around without settling down? Its been three hours now and they havent settled in yet. They keep taking laps around the tank, though one or two may sit for a bit before doing it again. I drip acclimated them for a while so I didnt think that would be an issue, but I just wasnt sure if this might be normal behavior. 

 

[Shrimp Life]

 Congrats!  Hope the others look better, this one looks low grade. (if it was sold as a Blue Dream)

[Shrimpapalooza]

There's definitely a mix of grades but the girls look brighter blue, I just can't get a decent pic of them yet haha I think that one is a male.

 

They're not quite as deep (opaque?) in color as i expected but to be fair i was looking for more of a medium blue anyways. We'll see how they produce i guess, I'm prepared to cull with this tank if necessary to get a deeper color eventually. 

 

[Vorteil]

For me the best choice has been buying through fellow hobbyist. At least you know the history. I do have a tank of imported fishbones. Doing great but are very low grade. I did know this when buying them but I was fine with it. I just wanted to experiment with these and see how they turn out. All juvies to start.