Shrimp turning yellowish opaque

[EmmaTheCabbage]

Hello. So I live in Hawaii and I decided I was going to make a little wild nano tank for some of the shrimp and guppies I found in our local stream. Upon catching them I noticed they are no longer clear and the males have turned a cream colour. The females are normal however I was wondering if anyone knows what causes this? I also attatched a pic of the females for comparison.

 

[Naughts]

I don't know about wild shrimp but when neocardinia have unfertilised eggs you see them in their back and they are yellow like in picture 3. It's called 'saddled'. When the eggs are fertilized they move them under their stomach and fan them with their legs. This is called 'berried' as it looks like a cluster of yellow berries.

 

[eatyourpeas]

These don't look like saddles, it seems to be the whole body. Maybe ready to molt?
What are your tank parameters?

 

[EmmaTheCabbage]

These don't look like saddles, it seems to be the whole body. Maybe ready to molt?
What are your tank parameters?

I thought maybe they were going to malt too but they’ve been like that at least a few days and I only see it on a couple of the males. It’s also not the whole body changing. Only his back/tail thing. Unfortunately I don’t have any test sticks but I’ve been doing 1/3 water changes every couple of days For the past week because I’ve got a Betta in there with a swim bladder problem and Wanted to keep things extra clean for him. There’s also a filter but no heater because hawaii is warm and there’s no need. Temp is always at 26-27 C. Size is 2.5gal with 5 shrimp, 2 wild endlers and the Betta.

 

[eatyourpeas]

I thought maybe they were going to malt too but they’ve been like that at least a few days and I only see it on a couple of the males. It’s also not the whole body changing. Only his back/tail thing. Unfortunately I don’t have any test sticks but I’ve been doing 1/3 water changes every couple of days For the past week because I’ve got a Betta in there with a swim bladder problem and Wanted to keep things extra clean for him. There’s also a filter but no heater because hawaii is warm and there’s no need. Temp is always at 26-27 C. Size is 2.5gal with 5 shrimp, 2 wild endlers and the Betta.

Shrimp fill their bodies with water before they molt, it helps with shedding the exoskeleton. Water parameters would indicate if the pH is amenable for them since they like water a bit on the acidic size. Also KH and GH are important for proper molting. Other than that, I can't offer any other ideas. I believe @mbsqw1d keeps shrimp. @Colin_T has a wealth of information.

 

[mbsqw1d]

Shrimp do change their colour (slightly) in a bid to camouflage. So if they've been moved to another environment, with different coloured substrate, then you can expect them to change colour/shade.

 

[EmmaTheCabbage]

Just for an update for everyone I found the shrimp dead today. Luckily only the one that was changing colour. All others are ok. No clue what happened and I removed him as soon as I saw he died. I tried breaking him apart and looking at him under a microscope however didn’t see anything that looked unusual. Maybe it was some sort of bacterial infection? Either way he’s dead but the others are ok luckily so far.