Are Male Cherry Shrimps Always More Transparent?

[bb1991]

Hi guys, i just bought 6 shrimp for my tiny tank with a mini-filtration system and some plants. The tank has only these 6 cherry shrimps...SHRIMPLAND!! (I was hoping to use it for a hospital tank, but all my fish are fine and dandy. So in the mean time i was curious about shrimp breeding.)
I read that to tell the difference in shrimp gender, you have to look at tail length, the saddle, the color, and the size. But since i don't know how old my shrimps are, i can only judge them on size, color, and the saddle.
I can clearly see that 5 of my shrimp are female, although one being very small, there is a sign of ovaries present. But the last shrimp i can't clearly determine. The shrimp is very small compared to the other sexually mature shrimps. Looks pretty slim and certainly very small compared to the other 4 adult females, but no sign of any saddle whatsoever. But what confused me was the color. It wasn't transparent at all, actually almost the same color (maybe even darker due to lack of ovaries) as the females.

Are all males transparent, or can they have color like the females...Is it a male or a young female?

BTW: I'm sorry i can't give photos....no camera. But just from your experience...do males ALWAYS look more transparent than females, despite factors like age and sexual maturity and stuff

I want my baby back baby back baby back baby back ribs

PS: Oh i almost forgot....Sidenote: What you think about the banana shrimp? (aka flower shrimp/ bamboo shrimp) The one that grows HUGE!!!, like an index finger's length. I saw one that is the size of a cherry shrimp i wanted him so badly. But the f'in size scares me when it reaches its max length. If they had pinchers they could eat small fish EASY!, but luckily they don't. Any thoughts on them? Good not good?

 

[Chad]

I don't know if I'd quite call them clear, but yes, the male is less colorful and usually smaller than the female.

 

[Baccus]

It really depends on the grade/ morph of the shrimp, usually your average run of the mill male cherry shrimp will look like this

Males and females

or even clear
but colour morphs such as fire reds and the like the males can have just as much red as the females or enough red to look like a Sakura female.

 

[bb1991]

In the first picture, the one on the left is definitely a male right?, because it looks like a clone of the one i'm trying to distinguish....just i would say 1% more darker at the tail area. But other that, its like you took a picture of my shrimp.

And also, would you know the age of the shrimp that size?....Is it sexually mature?

I was also wondering...my other tank has some cherry shrimp aswell. But the carapace is so thick and opaque that i can't see a saddle at all. Some of them you can see the texture on the shell when its out in the open...I bought these shrimps from a different LFS and i really can't tell the difference between the males and females(I give them vitamins to make the shrimp livelier and a harder shell). Will shrimps mate if there is fish such as cardinal tetras around? (Or i might have only males, they all look pretty slim)

On a side note, How to tell if my shrimps are starving?..I tried to give sinking pellets to my shrimps but my cardinals are quick to these pellets. I feel sorta bad. Even tried letting it ride the filter's current, but still...dam cardinals!

 

[Chad]

The male also has a more narrow tail fin so that's another way to tell if you can't see the saddle or if the color and size are too close.

Shrimp are pretty industrious as far as food go, they are able to find the little bits that fall where the fish can't get to it. For me I would use target feeding by placing some food where I know the fish can't fetch it.

 

[Baccus]

In the first picture the shrimp to the left would most likely be a young female, the larger one more in the middle of the pic I am 99% sure is a male. In the second picture the working left to right, the shrimp half in the photo I think is a male, the red shrimp with the whitish cracks in its shell is a female about to moult, the shrimp closest to the front is a male, beside that one looking at the camera is a male and behind him another female.

I am getting some interesting colour morphs in my shrimp now so its getting harder to accurately sex them, since I have sakura females that can look like adult well coloured males its only the egg saddle that distinguishes them accurately. And I am getting fire reds again the males can be all red just not as large as a female or look like a sakura female. But generally with the shrimp right in fornt of you, you can work out by its size, and shape its sex, its just really hard from photo's if the photos are not clear or close up.