Will Snowball Shrimp And Yellow Shrimp Interbreed

[Curiosity101]

Now before you say 'All neocaridina interbreed', yes I'm fully aware that is what people say... And of course the same species will readily interbreed.

But will the species Zhangjiajiensis breed with Heteropoda?
Has anyone tried any of the variants of these two species together? Did you end up with mules or did they simply stick to their own species?

I've just taken the divider out of my 60l which would've been seperating the two neocaridinas, and so now I'm in two minds as to whether to put on of the species in with the apistos, or to try them both in the 60l...

I will probably try them both in the 60l unless someone comes back and says for certain 'yes they do'... but I would like some opinions/experiences.

 

[Shred]

I've keep both but I have no experience with keeping them together. I just haven't done so simply because all dwarf shrimp websites say that they will interbreed... Blind faith I guess but I'd rather trust them than end up with a load of dull/infertile shrimp. Obviously they are just colour morphs of the same genus, so I have no reason to believe they wouldn't interbreed.

So, to summarise my post, "all neocaridina interbreed"

 

[Curiosity101]

But are they colour morphs of the same genus? Because in the genus their are 4 classified species, normally it's a case of species can't interbreed, but then at the same time have geneticists gone to the effort of sorting them out based on their genes... or are they still simply given their 'species names' because one person found some in some area and another person found some in another....

Thing is I really don't want to 'unleash' my apistos on any shrimp if possible... it's a tough one. I might try keeping them seperate at first, wait till I've got a berried female (of either species) then keep an eye on her and move her over to the other group. If she berries again in a few months then I guess I'd have my answer. As far as I know they don't store sperm do they..?

 

[Shred]

But are they colour morphs of the same genus? Because in the genus their are 4 classified species, normally it's a case of species can't interbreed, but then at the same time have geneticists gone to the effort of sorting them out based on their genes... or are they still simply given their 'species names' because one person found some in some area and another person found some in another....

Well, who knows? I'd like to assume that they are seperate species and trust the sciencey-types up top. But you could be right. Try it out, it would be interesting to have someone document the interbreeding.

And no shrimp have no way of keeping sperm that I know of.