Cherry Shrimp Lack Colour

[rhostog]

We have around 50 cherry shrimp of different ages, which seem very happy. They breed regularly, and are active and look healthy. However, very few of them are red. Even most of the fully-grown obvious females with a visible yellow saddle have only a faint tinge of red. 3 or 4 of the largest females are red, but not as bright as I'd expect. Any ideas why?

Is it their food? We feed them a mixture of algae tablets and these tiny sinking catfish pellets (we bought the pellets for the community tank but the platys and danios would swallow them whole before they got a chance to sink!) They don't get much fresh food, just the occasional squished pea, but they do spend a lot of time on the leaves and stones presumably eating algae etc. Is there something different we should feed them that would restore their colour?

Water is hard and pH 7.8. Lots of plants. Weekly small water changes, stats all very good. Tank shared with one small 'black oto' and some Malaysian trumpet snails.

 

[Shrimper]

You could try feeding special invert food like hikari shrimp cuisine... it might make a difference, but probably not that much. The colour of cherry is normally based on genetics rather than their food. As you say they are breeding well i assume they aren't stressed as this will also affect the colour.

One thing that will work to improve the colour of you cherry shrimp is doing some simple selective breeding. Set up a second tank for the shrimp and only move your best coloured shrimp to it. Once they are settled and are breeding in the new tank, about once a month or so move the poorest coloured shrimp out of the new tank back to the original. Over time the colours of the new shrimp should improve in the new tank.

 

[Floyds mum]

My shrimp keep getting their cherry red colour then it dissapears lol

 

[pippoodle]

spirulina is a good food to feed cherry shrimps as its high in beta carotene (spelling) - i feed mine thes either as a powder which they eat from the surface or as a pellet

i feed them spirulina once a week aswell as jbl and hikari pellets