Cherry Shrimp Mutation?

[JustKia]

I haven't added anything to my tank for months (until 2 days ago) but I've noticed over the past several weeks that I've got a small number of black cherry shrimp.
It can't be a cross because the only other shrimp are Amano's.
When the shrimp went in (early this year) there were 10 RED cherry shrimp and 10 Amano.
The cherries have bred, I've no idea how may I have right now but I have at least 4-6 black ones - they all seem to have a orange stripe down their back.

I've googled and some sources suggest Malaysian shrimp - but I can't see how as I haven't added anything - not even plants, so if that's the case they must have teleported in!
Other sources suggest that it's a natural mutation to the wild type.

 

[Truck]

I haven't added anything to my tank for months (until 2 days ago) but I've noticed over the past several weeks that I've got a small number of black cherry shrimp.
It can't be a cross because the only other shrimp are Amano's.
When the shrimp went in (early this year) there were 10 RED cherry shrimp and 10 Amano.
The cherries have bred, I've no idea how may I have right now but I have at least 4-6 black ones - they all seem to have a orange stripe down their back.

I've googled and some sources suggest Malaysian shrimp - but I can't see how as I haven't added anything - not even plants, so if that's the case they must have teleported in!
Other sources suggest that it's a natural mutation to the wild type.

my bet is on recessive throwbacks.

in short...

before you bought the cherry shrimp there parents were a cherry shrimp and another species which can hybridize with them...with the red being dominant about 25% of babies will be red, 50% red and black and 25% black

 

[saltynay]

Black cardinia balbulti throwback genere are you sure you got RCS and not cardinia balbulti reds?

 

[JustKia]

Am I sure? No I bought them from Tri-Mar as "red cherry shrimp"
(tried googling cardinia balbulti but got zero hits, so can't say if they look like mine or not)

 

[saltynay]

My bad Caridina babaulti

 

[JustKia]

Well, I sure couldn't say they aren't.
The stripe down the back does make them look like a possible. I'm not seeing that stripe on the cherries, but then maybe I'm not seeing it because it's the same colour as the rest of their body and it's showing up because of the contrast on the black ones?

 

[saltynay]

I would seperate and breed these blacks seperately and see what occurs Black balbulti's sell for quite a lot.

 

[Shrimper]

Cherry shrimp will still have the stripe, its just brighter on some more than others. I wouldn't use this to determine if it is a Caridina babaulti or a Neocaridina heteropoda. The best way to tell these species apart is by the length of the rostrum, it is noticeably longer on the babaulti.

My thinking is one of your original male shrimp may have been a "wild type" neocaridina heteropoda which has bred with the other cherrys causing resulting in black coloured hybrid shrimp. It will be hard to separate them out as you probably can't tell if the males are pure red cherry or if they have some wild type genes in them.

 

[~T~]

I've had cherrys throw out black ones too. I'll see if I can find a pic. They do still tend to have the thick light stripe down the body.

 

[JustKia]

Finally, I managed to get a piccie of a red and black cherry together!
(excuse my wisteria - it needs pruning)

 

[Schmill]

Wow, certainly looks 'different' Kia, good luck in seperating them out to breed