Why Are They Turning "blue"?

[Baccus]

Ok I currently have around 5 tanks (two of them 4fters and the other three are around 20L), in one of the 4 ft tanks my cherry shrimp are turning a blue/grey. I have even had one female that was full grown and a lovely deep dark red totally turn to this blueish colour. The water is basically the same in all of my tanks, all the tanks have a sand/ gravel mix, live plants, timber and some large rocks, all of the tanks get the same method and frequency of cleaning and water changes/ top ups etc the other shrimp in my other tanks are still richly coloured in their amazing red see exhibit A

The next picture was taken prior to them starting to change colour in the tank in question

The only thing that is really different in this tank to my other tanks containing cherry shrimp is that this one now also has crystal reds, I tend to try to keep my tanks running at around 22 degrees cel but yesterday the thermomater in the tank did show the temp being 30 degrees cel (mostly because of the ambiant still, muggy and hot weather we have been having) the temp gets back down to the 22 or slightly lower temp overnight.

So should I be worried about these cherry shrimp or just wait and see what happens. The cherry shrimp are still active and feeding well and hanging out with the crystal reds most of the time. I was planning on removing the cherry shrimp from this tank once the crystals numbers started increasing, the cherry shrimp where only really in the tank to help the new arrival crystal reds feel more secure with other shrimp around them.

I will try to get some pictures of the blue/grey colour later
So any Ideas?

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

I can't see any blue on the second photo.

Red cherry shrimp do go from bright red to clear some times but they will get their colour back. It's generally said the darker the background/substrate colour the better red the shrimp get...

 

[Baccus]

These are the best pictures I have been able to get of one of the female cherry shrimp that is turning a bluish colour, the flash from the camera washes it out a bit but you can see she definantly is not the same colour as the normal red female close to her.

The female in question is roughly the same size as the red female near her so I would not necessarily think that it's an old age thing..... anyone got some ideas

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

I see what you mean now. It's perfectly normal

The females get a saddle showing and it looks like it's just part of the saddle (i.e. eggs in the ovaries).

 

[Baccus]

I see what you mean now. It's perfectly normal

The females get a saddle showing and it looks like it's just part of the saddle (i.e. eggs in the ovaries).

The other females have saddles as well, but they are not this colour, I have been keeping cherry's for a while now (as my various tanks can vouch for by now having colonies in nearly all of them), and only a few have changed to this other colour all of the rest are varying degrees of red. I have heard mention of blue cherry shrimp but I do not know if they are a true colour morph or just something occurs at odd times.

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Not sure if its more visible just before they shed.

 

[Caprichoso]

Yes, this is perfectly normal. You have to remember that the red colour of Cherry shrimp was bred into them over many generations. The wild variety of the cherry shrimp(neocaridina heteropoda) is not red at all and can range in colour. From the wild colour, which can be quite pale, I have bred the following colorslum, blue, yellow, green, brown, tiger, orange and almost black! If you have cherry shrimp that are breeding and then inbreeding over and over, some of the colours can start to revert back to the wild colour and become washed out. I always like to introduce different stock every couple of gens to prevent this. The females often have blue or yellow saddles as well. Also, Cherry shrimp look blue when they have been stressed out.