All About Shrimp

We built ShrimpBay for two reasons. The first is straightforward: the UK’s shrimp-keeping hobby has grown fast, and it deserved a proper, dedicated marketplace instead of general classifieds — so we run one, and take a small commission on sales to keep it running.

The second reason is that ornamental shrimp sit in a genuinely unusual spot in UK law, and most buyers and sellers don’t realise it. We think that’s worth explaining clearly, partly because it affects how we all ought to treat these animals even where the law doesn’t yet require it.

Dwarf shrimp commonly kept in aquariums — Neocaridina, Caridina, Amano, and similar species — are decapod crustaceans. The Animal Welfare Act 2006, which creates the main welfare offences for pets in England and Wales (and equivalent Acts elsewhere in the UK), defines “animal” as a vertebrate. That means shrimp fall outside the direct welfare offences that protect, say, a pet fish or a mammal.

That changed slightly with the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022, which formally recognised decapod crustaceans (and cephalopods) as sentient beings. In practice, this requires UK government policy decisions to have regard to their welfare via an independent Animal Sentience Committee — it’s a real and meaningful recognition, but it’s a policy-scrutiny mechanism, not a direct set of welfare offences enforceable against an individual seller the way the Animal Welfare Act is.

The result is a genuine gap: shrimp are legally recognised as capable of suffering, but the specific, enforceable welfare rules that apply to keeping and selling vertebrate pets largely don’t extend to them. We think responsible sellers should hold themselves to good welfare standards regardless of what the law strictly requires — and we’d rather say that plainly than let the gap go unmentioned.

This is general information, not legal advice, and UK law in this area is actively evolving. If you need a definitive answer for your own situation, please consult a solicitor or the official guidance at legislation.gov.uk rather than relying on this page.

Ask around the UK shrimp hobby and you’ll be told, quite confidently, that Royal Mail is fine for shrimp because “shrimp are invertebrates, and Royal Mail allows invertebrates.” That belief is repeated on forums, in Facebook groups and in seller listings. We went and read what Royal Mail actually publishes, and it doesn’t say that.

Royal Mail has no general rule permitting invertebrates. What it publishes is a closed list of specifically named creatures that are allowed in the post, under the heading “Living creatures, insects and invertebrates”:

• Bees
• Caterpillars
• Cockroaches
• Crickets
• Destroyers of noxious pests
• Earthworms
• Fish fry and eggs
• Leeches and other parasites
• Lugworms
• Maggots
• Mealworms
• Pupae and chrysalides
• Rag worms
• Silkworms
• Spiders
• Stick insects

Dead insects sent as collectables are allowed too. Everything on the list has to be boxed so it can’t escape or be crushed, sent at 1st Class or better, and marked “URGENT — LIVING CREATURES — HANDLE WITH CARE”. Immediately after the list, Royal Mail adds that live animals not listed above are prohibited, along with anything classed as dangerous under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 (which is why certain venomous spiders are out even though “spiders” is on the list).

Read it end to end and the shape of the list is obvious: it is the bait trade, the livefood trade and the insect-keeping trade. It is almost entirely terrestrial. Dwarf shrimp are not on it. Neither are aquatic snails, which are sold alongside shrimp constantly.

The detail that changed our mind is “fish fry and eggs”. Aquatic livestock was clearly in front of whoever drew this list up — they thought about baby fish specifically, and wrote them in. Adult fish didn’t make it, and neither did shrimp. That reads much less like an accidental omission and much more like a list that means what it says.

We want to be careful here, because this matters and we don’t want to overstate it. Royal Mail has not told us shrimp are banned. What we can say is that shrimp are not named on the permitted list, and that the list is written as a closed one rather than as examples. Our reading is therefore that posting shrimp with Royal Mail probably falls outside their terms. That is a reading of a published document, not legal advice, and not a confirmed position from Royal Mail. We have asked Royal Mail Business and OATA to confirm it in writing, and we’ll update this page with whatever they say — including if they tell us we’ve got it wrong.

If that reading is right, the practical consequence is not a knock at the door. It is cover. People post shrimp by Special Delivery largely because of the compensation attached to it — but compensation on a service generally doesn’t pay out on an item the carrier didn’t agree to carry. So the scenario where you most need the insurance, a parcel lost in the network or cooked in a van over a bank holiday, is plausibly the scenario where you haven’t got any. That is the risk being taken, and most sellers taking it don’t know they are.

Separately and much more clearly: since May 2025, live creatures cannot be sent from Great Britain to Northern Ireland by post at all. If you sell into Northern Ireland, check this before you accept the order rather than after.

What we recommend instead. OATA — the Ornamental Aquatic Trade Association, the trade body for the UK aquatics industry — tells fishkeepers to use an authorised courier, and names APC and DX. That matches what the UK hobby has settled on in practice: APC Overnight is the default for live aquatics, with DX as the usual second choice. Both carry live aquatics knowingly, which is the entire point — a courier that knows what’s in the box can be held to delivering it, and a courier that doesn’t, can’t.

ShrimpBay doesn’t block Royal Mail on listings. Sellers are adults and the position isn’t settled enough for us to pretend otherwise. But we do label it honestly at the point where a seller picks a courier, rather than letting them find out after a claim is refused.

Sources: Royal Mail — prohibited and restricted items and OATA — can I send fish through the post? Carrier terms change; check them yourself before you post, and don’t treat this page as a substitute for doing so.

Neocaridina (Red Cherry, Blue Dream, Snowball and similar) are the most forgiving dwarf shrimp — stable at room temperature, tolerant of a fairly wide pH and hardness range, and a great starting point. Aim for mature, cycled water, stable parameters rather than perfect ones, and plenty of cover (moss, leaf litter).

Caridina (Crystal Red, Taiwan Bee and similar) are more sensitive — they generally want softer, more acidic water and more stable conditions, and are a better fit once you’ve got some Neocaridina experience under your belt.

Across both groups: avoid copper-based medications (toxic to invertebrates), acclimate slowly using drip acclimation for new arrivals, and always check tank-mate compatibility — most fish will happily eat shrimp, especially young ones.

That’s the overview. For the actual numbers — exact temperature, pH, GH and TDS ranges, feeding, breeding, tank mates and what the grade names mean — read the per-species care guides.

Dwarf shrimp are colourful, genuinely low-maintenance once a tank is established, and endlessly watchable — a well-planted shrimp tank is one of the calmest things you can put in a room. They’re also useful clean-up crew for algae and detritus, breed readily in the right setup (a nice bonus if you want to sell offspring here), and work in small footprints where a full community fish tank wouldn’t fit.