amano? RCS? or?

[thedeanorama]

I have purchased over the last month a number of cherry shrimp for my tank. In the sagely words of Sesame Street ... "One of these is not like the others". Is this an Amano?:

Red Cherry in the tank:
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

Mystery Shrimp:
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

[korith]

your mystery shrimp is probably a red cherry shrimp as well. Not all the red cherry shrimp develop the deep red colour. Females are usually a deeper red colour, while males and juveniles may not develop the colour as strongly. Also sometimes you will get odd colour of offspring due to genetics. The red colour we like has been selectively bred from the family these shrimp belong to, but every once in a while it'll throw out a wild type colour (brown, green, etc...). As they mature you can start culling the odd coloured shrimp, to help keep the line more 'red'.

[Sarkazmo]

Just looks like a male RCS. Juvenile, likely showing some wild genes (the brownish colouration.)

Sark

[thedeanorama]

Thanks guys.

This lil guy has been coloured like this for so long that I just assumed he was of a different breed. The other juvies that were coloured like this have all coloured up to at least some level of redness and the other brown RCS I have still has the same sort of spotted colouration, just in browns vs reds - it's hard to tell from this pic but the two shrimp here are of the same scale.

I witnessed what I think is some shrimp smut earlier today so I may get to see some newborns appearing in the future if my tetras don't snack on them 1st.

[korith]

I witnessed what I think is some shrimp smut earlier today so I may get to see some newborns appearing in the future if my tetras don't snack on them 1st.

Even if the shrimp isn't 'red' it should be able to throw off some red genes to next generation. People have slowly bred out the other colours or tried to, it's never 100%. I get some odd brown ones every once in a while, or some really pale ones. I have to admit, the weird ones go into my cichlid tank:p

Will depend on the tetras, most fish will consider shrimp food. The baby shrimp especially since they are very small just a few mm in size. I've kept good breeding colonies of rcs with microrasboras, and otocinclus safely enough. Even then I'm not sure if the microrasboras aren't snacking on the baby shrimp.

[thedeanorama]

I know mine consider BBS food as its part of their diet (from frozen anyways). I guess only time will tell. Once I'm done assembling my 24" 15 gallon, the shrimp will have this nano to themselves.

[kurly]

I have a shrimp only tank so that I can get them to breed without worrying about my fish gobbling up all the babies. Hopefully in a few more weeks I will see some carrying eggs. It may even be longer because the ones I have now are still juvies but they have molted several times and are getting redder by the day. Well, the females are getting redder. The males look alot like the one you had in question at the beginning of this thread.