Light Coloured Cherry Shrimp?

[ChrisCook]

I went to collect a batch of approx 250 cherry shrimp this morning and they are a lot lighter in colour than I was expecting - more of a pale red than a vivid red.

I had approx 30 really vivid red cherry shrimp in the tank to start with.

As I'd travelled an hour to collect them I ended up buying them and have put them in with my existing shrimp.

Is there anything I can do to make them a darker red colour? Do any foods assist?

 

[ian]

I have always found they will colour up when they get used to their new surroundings. I have always found the same in the past, and after a couple of weeks they have coloured up nicely.

I also use Tetra colour flakes.

 

[Taminky]

If you put a dark substrate in your tank the cherry shimp darken to try and camouflage themselves.
The cherry shrimp do not realise that they are actually red and so you get a nice red shrimp.
They make a great colour contrast if you use black gravel or sand
I have never found that particular foods make a big difference to their colouring.

 

[ChrisCook]

Thanks for the replies, I have sand in the tank (as the only fish I have are Sterbai Cories) but I have loads of plants in there so hopefully they will relax and colour up

 

[Taminky]

I remember when I first got cherry shrimp.
They were very young, under a cm in length, and they were colourless.
I got them home and put them in their new tank thinking they would colour up straight away. (It was about 15 years ago & I was so inexperienced!)
I had pea gravel in the tank & lots of plants.
It took about 3 weeks for them to start showing colour that was more than a reddish tinge.
But when they did colour up they became a nice red.
Maybe you have baby shrimp there or maybe just pale from being uprooted & transported.
Whatever the reason, as long as you have a cycled tank with good water parameters and lots of hidey places, you should see the colour showing soon.

 

[Rummynose]

I remember reading juviniles are pale and darken as they mature, but that was just one source so take it with a grain of salt!

 

[Baccus]

I have white sand in the tanks where I have cherry shrimp and in one of those tanks the females are a really dark red, I put it down to the half fake rock wall in the tank that is dark and having dark plants. They show up wonderfully on the white sand. I have some more in tank with natural gravel and these shrimp are no where near as dark. I generally feed mine Tetra Min tropical flakes, micro pellets, shinking shrimp pellets and crayfish pellets they also have the plants to nibble on/ clean and they love it when I feed my fish bloodworms.