Ghost shrimp getting color?

[troy]

I got 16 ghost shrimp a few months ago. I feed them tetra and oceannutrition flakes and hikari algae wafers. Now a few ghost shrimp have gotten patches of red coloration on their antennas(is that what you call them?) and on their legs. My only theory is that since they are sold as feeders and are usually taken care of poorly that they lack the coloration until taken care of properly. Any ideas?

[Red]

I think it is from they red tetra flakes you are feeding them..

[Fishguy2727]

Any pics? I think if it was just the food it would be uneven. I have seen them different colors, I have some blues.

Have you googled pics for them to see if there are any with any colors like yours?

[troy]

A quick look on google yielded no results. I'll try taking some pictures but my camera isn't high quality.

[Ellen4God]

My ghost shrimp would do that. It didn't seem to adversely effect them any, I don't think.

EDIT: I uploaded a couple pictures I took when my ghost shrimp did the same thing. They also had spots on their tails.

[troy]

Thanks for putting those pictures on here. Mine look exactly like that with some having a little more coloration.

[korith]

Depending on the colour of the food, you can sometimes see it in the ghost shrimp.

I agree with you that feeder shrimp are never raised in ideal conditions, since they aren't expected to live too long anyhow.

[Fishalicious]

so weird...i have a japonica shrimp female with the same she has slowly over the months turned into a really bright red shrimp all over...it looks like a mutant cherry shrimp lol i have asked shrimp experts and sent pics and nobody has an explanation..she eats the same as the other japonica's who are still as white as ever. i guess not enough is known yet about shrimp at the moment...

[SamAnthrax]

at my store our ghost shrimp get red spots like that on their antennaes and on their legs. It looks pretty cool I always wondered why that was

[troy]

I've just discovered that one of my ghost shrimp has not only red coloration but also mostly blue legs and tail.

[aquasteph]

All my ghost shrimp came with little red spots on their first pairs of arms and their antennae. My guess is that it would be normal, it has never seemed to affect my shrimp, and I've never noticed it being a problem. That's just my personal observation though, I'm no scientist.

Good luck, and if you find out that it's something wrong--please let us know!

[HomaridNoob6]

Most of my ghosties have these spots on the tail, and antennae, I've seen a few pics of it, and somewhere i believe i read that they develop those colors. Most likely its a good sign, not a problem :)

[karbomb]

yeah i agree, i think it is completely normal for ghosties to have red antenna and spots on their tails. in fact i think it is a heathy sign for them.

i'd worry if they started turning white.

@ jess, it's great to hear from someone who has had a similar experience! one of my amano shrimp (japonica shrimp) has very bright red patterning. i thought they were supposed to be blue! i guess these shrimp work in funny ways. mine are all healthy so i am not worried about the little guys being sick, just was unsure about why their coloring differed so much.

[korith]

One big reason why a lot of ghost shrimp may show different colors like the ones people mention here is, a large portion of feeder ghost shrimp are wild caught. So their genes have not been bred for certain colors like red cherry shrimp, crystal red shrimp, etc... Also a lot of different types of shrimp can sometimes just fall into the "ghost shrimp" category when they get sold.

Oh also the type of food can affect their color to some extent.

2 shops that I go to both have ghost shrimp, which look a bit differently from one another. One is larger in size and a different shade of color than the other. They both probably get livestock from different suppliers.

[thezookeeper]

I also have ghost shrimp in a couple of tanks. They are fairly large and seem to get more color as they molt. I have some with red, green and brown coloring. And not just spots. Some of them have it running in streaks down their bodies. I looked at the coloring on other kinds of shrimp and this seems to support the idea that ghost shrimp are kind of a grab bag. They may be some who's colors didn't come out when bred and sold off as ghost shrimp.