Why Are All My Baby Shrimp Colourless?

[doubledee]

Hi,

I added 4 large Amano shrimp in my tank a few months back, then ordered a mixed pack of 20 shrimp from ebay, inc. 5 Amanos (v.small), 1 bumblebee, 3 tiger and 11 Cherry shrimp. Now I seem to only have 1 or 2 cherry shrimp left and a few mutant colourations inc. an all black one and some with patches of what can only be described as luminous green! However, all the baby shrimp are colourless. Do they colour up as they get older? I know that the cherries, bumblebee and tigers can interbreed but why am I not getting more red shrimp? At the moment I must have 50-70 young shrimp in the tank. I just wondered why they are all clear like Amano (which from what I've read can't hatch/grow on in freshwater).

Cheers

 

[eschaton]

Cherries actually can't interbreed with bumblebees and tigers. However, generally it takes quite awhile for cherry offspring to color up. The males will never look more than slightly red too. Give em some time.

 

[doubledee]

Cherries actually can't interbreed with bumblebees and tigers. However, generally it takes quite awhile for cherry offspring to color up. The males will never look more than slightly red too. Give em some time.

Thanks, I must have misread that, maybe it's just the tigers that are breeding then. Some of the young shrimp are quite large. The female cherries have been MIA for some time now, I have only seen males recently (drably coloured).