RCS losing colour

Hi all,
I had about a dozen RCS in a tank I was treating for maybe? parasites.

After the first treatment they were fine, some berried females and fine looking males. Still, I moved them to a different tank about 3-4 weeks ago. The males have lost their color to differing degrees; now it seems one of the females looks lighter than the others. At least one had molted.
There was also a lone Amano that seems fine.

What might have caused the colour loss?

Also, do shrimp carry fish parasites and/or other diseases? There are still a few in the original treatment tank that are fine, and actually some have been growing. These are the ones I didn't find when moving the original batch to the separate tank.

why were you treating the shrimp?
what did you use to treat the shrimp?

the main disease that crosses from shrimp to fish is microsporidia, (muscle wasting disease). they eat the infected tissue and catch the disease. most other fish diseases don't affect shrimp and vice versa.

Colin_T said:

why were you treating the shrimp?
what did you use to treat the shrimp?

the main disease that crosses from shrimp to fish is microsporidia, (muscle wasting disease). they eat the infected tissue and catch the disease. most other fish diseases don't affect shrimp and vice versa.

Click to expand...

Sorry, I left out an important detail...
I was treating the WCM minnows in my
tank not the shrimp.
I gave a dose of prazipro in fish food for the minnows.
The shrimp were fine after that and a couple of females were berried, but I moved them to another 5g tank by themselves, just in case, before I dosed the minnows again.

It has been since I moved them that this problem developed.

Is the substrate a different colour in the new tank?

Hi,
I'll post pictures...
The first one is the major shrimp colony tank. There are lots of white shrimplets which has been the norm in this tank; they don't stay this way.

The second is the 22l tank I've kept running for various reasons, for example QT, or keeping the BB going, (as you can see with the biomedia, cartridges in filter bags, and wood).This currently houses the shrimp in question. I run a 5g pump and airstone in a little pitcher with some filter media tucked around it.

The third image is one of the shrimp that has lost it's Cherry red colour.

What's going on?

If there's more white color in your new tank, they could be adapting to the background? I'm not an expert but I think they adjust their color a bit to the surroundings.

Shrimp lose colour and camouflage with their surroundings to blend in from the threats of predators, it’s just natural. If it is not what colin has suggested and they are fine it would be because of the white surrounding in the tank. When I set up the new shrimp tank I used sand and found that they had lightened in colour when on the sand due to trying to blend in, I ended up put black sand on top of the white sand and found they went back to their rich bright colours again.

hansgruber7 said:

If there's more white color in your new tank, they could be adapting to the background? I'm not an expert but I think they adjust their color a bit to the surroundings.

Click to expand...

Thanks for responding.
This makes sense!

Aussie_Bristle said:

Shrimp lose colour and camouflage with their surroundings to blend in from the threats of predators, it’s just natural. If it is not what colin has suggested and they are fine it would be because of the white surrounding in the tank. When I set up the new shrimp tank I used sand and found that they had lightened in colour when on the sand due to trying to blend in, I ended up put black sand on top of the white sand and found they went back to their rich bright colours again.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll put some black gravel in tomorrow. They are in a tank I keep running just in case, and to keep some BB handy. As you noted, there is quite a bit of white in the tank, the walls, and lots of natural light.
So relieved they are okay...

Colin_T said:

why were you treating the shrimp?
what did you use to treat the shrimp?

the main disease that crosses from shrimp to fish is microsporidia, (muscle wasting disease). they eat the infected tissue and catch the disease. most other fish diseases don't affect shrimp and vice versa.

Click to expand...

Thank you, Colin ☆