In 1993, a Japanese sushi chef by the name of Hisayasu Sukuzi accidentally got an unusual red shrimp in a batch of around a thousand bee shrimp, which are striped white and black.
This rogue red shrimp gave him an idea: if he could fix the red gene, he could select and crossbreed the bee shrimp to have red stripes.
After many cycles of selective breeding, Sukuzi finally achieved the “true red bee shrimp”.
In 1996, after further refinement, he branded his shrimp the Crystal Red Shrimp and was awarded a patent for this recessive red mutation of the normal bee shrimp.
Ever since the crystal red shrimp has been wildly popular because of its beautiful and striking pattern.
