Shrimps

[Essjay]

In the middle of November last year I bought some mixed colour cherry shrimps on eBay. Since fish are the main focus of my main tank I am not worried about them all being brown eventually and the mixed colours were cheaper than the same number of a single colour. I paid for 10 and there were 11 in the bag.

These shrimps were pale having been in a bag overnight but they appeared to be -
1 x deep orange (bright red when settled in)
1 x light orange (now bright orange)
1 x pale blue
1 x deep blue
1 X black
3 x red rili
1 x dark rili
2 x green

The only dead adult I have found is one red rili but as I have not seen any blue or green recently I suspect they were eaten before I found the bodies.

The tank now has a large number of orange and red shrimps, including several juvenile rilis, one adult black shrimp and a group of odd coloured shrimp which appeared a month or so ago. I have no idea what colour the parents were but there are about half a dozen juveniles. This afternoon after finishing a water change I noticed three of them at the front of the tank so I grabbed my camera. They almost look like tiger shrimp, but those are not Neocaridina and there were no striped shrimp amongst the batch I bought.

 

[MaloK]

Yes, they are the wild type Neocaridina, they appeared in my thank when a blue shrimp crossed with a pumpkin.
Their colors can vary a lot.

 

[Essjay]

I thought they must be, knowing what happens when colours are mixed. I'm curious to know which colour pairing produced these. The only colours which seem to be thriving are red, orange and red rili, though I still see the single black shrimp regularly.

 

[MaloK]

It's the same for me, the oranges are taking over the tank at least 10 to 1 and second are the rilis followed by fire reds. 3 kinds of different mutts appeared tho.

At the moment this occurred the only males I had where orange and rili all the others where females.

Both my deep and light blue female over molted to death after giving birth once. They both looked like they hated water changes. And where somewhat harassed by the orange shrimps, they both croaked in a period of a month, over molting to the point they where soft and nearly colorless. I stated giving mineral supplements, but it was too late for them.

The Rili male seems to have succeeded crossing with the fire red, And both blue did with an orange male.

So in my case, I'm pretty sure the mutts came from an orange male and the blue females.

 

[Essjay]

I did have blue shrimps from the original shipment, I saw them for a while on and off but not recently. These wild type could be the progeny of one of those with a red or orange.
Unlike the red/orange/rili shrimps, the blue and green ones were hard to spot as they mainly stayed inside a hollow piece of wood - I would see them peeking out of there and very occasionally on a leaf. I can only assume they died inside the wood and were eaten. There are red and orange shrimps all over the tank and I see the black one often.

 

[MaloK]

I concur on that point, both the blue shrimps where a lot more shy than the others and sometimes went weeks without showing up.

At some point you never find any shrimps that dies, they are processed fast enough that they don't have the time to turn in ammonia.

 

[gilltyascharged]

I thought they must be, knowing what happens when colours are mixed. I'm curious to know which colour pairing produced these. The only colours which seem to be thriving are red, orange and red rili, though I still see the single black shrimp regularly.

If I remember right, the red wild type produces red, orange, green, and blue (velvet), the yellow wild type yellows, the blue wild type blue (dream) and carbon, and the brown wild type chocolate, bloody mary, and another variety of blue. It'll be interesting which wild types you end up with!

 

[gwand]

If I remember right, the red wild type produces red, orange, green, and blue (velvet), the yellow wild type yellows, the blue wild type blue (dream) and carbon, and the brown wild type chocolate, bloody mary, and another variety of blue. It'll be interesting which wild types you end up with!

My reds are producing various intensities of red offspring. No other primary colors.

 

[Essjay]

So far the shrimps born in the tank have been the brown wild type shrimps and varying shades of red (orangey-red to bright red) with a few rili patterns mixed in.
Of the shrimps I bought 7 months ago, I still see the black one regularly; I haven't seen any blue or green shrimps for quite a while; and I can't tell the difference between the red, orange and red rili which I bought and those born in the tank.
These shrimp were an experiment as I did not know if they'd become fish lunch. They are there to add something different from fish and I don't mind what colour they end up as.


The shrimp-only tank in the kitchen has only red shrimps as I've never put any other colour in there. This colony is now 11 years old, though I have added a new red cherry (berried female whenever possible) every so often. Their colours vary from pale red to bright red.

 

[MaloK]

11 years means something like 143 generations that's awesome

 

[Essjay]

The first shrimp were bought back in 2013. They all died. The last shrimp to die was a berried female. I had moved her into my quarantine tank away from the fish (endlers) then one morning I found her dead so started clearing away the QT only to find tiny babies in there. So I left the QT set up until the babies and their babies were big enough not to be eaten and they were the start of the colony. They've been through a few tanks since then. I closed the shrimp-endler tank as we had the kitchen altered and there was no room for it. They all went into the main tank. Then when my last betta died I caught as many shrimps as I could find and put them in the betta's old tank. That's where they are now.

 

[Essjay]

Besides the wild type, tanks with mixed colour shrimps can also throw up unusual colours for the mix.

This afternoon I did a water change and spotted this shrimp climbing on the Bolbitis heudeloti.


There's a red shrimp at the bottom of the photo; this one is bright yellow. (Please excuse the algae spots, the photo was taken through the side wall and i don't clean that as often as the front wall)

I bought -
1 x deep orange
1 x light orange
1 x pale blue
1 x deep blue
1 x black
3 x red rili
1 x dark rili
2 x green
and added a few plain red from my shrimp tank.

I haven't seen the blue or green shrimps for months. The orange ones turned deep orange red when they'd settled in. I now see plain red & orangey red, red rili, black, wild coloured - and now a yellow.
I wonder which cross produced this shrimp?

 

[MaloK]

Yep, some magic occurs in cherry shrimps tanks...

I been months without a blue shrimp too and lately blue Rili's are swimming around there is also a mini crew of deep black ones. Some purple did show up, but I haven't seen any of them in a while.

There are mutts that are brown striped, some are shiny copper colored and other are fluorescent green. The green are awesome.

Technically the more diversity there is at start the longer time genetic dissolution should take. And the probability of having exceptional offspring is higher than in a single But I'm sure that nutrition plays a major role in coloration, even of the most rudimentary mutts.

 

[Essjay]

That chart is interesting. It seems that wild type can throw yellow offspring. I have quite a few wild type now. I also have some wild type which have a greenish tinge, though not a definite green.