I have a cherry shrimp tank that I just let them breed and get on with it.. But just now I looked and there was a black shrimp in there! It looks really cool, it's a really dark grey/black colour but I was just wondering where it came from, since my cherries are all red cherry shrimp. Is it going to breed with the red ones and cause problems such as bad coloured offspring?
Black Cherry Shrimp?
- Thread starter Liv15
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Genetics...
The red are just a color morph (the 'cherry shrimp' come in a range of colors, but have been selectively bred to be 'redder'). But, they can be carrying other genes that are recessive in the red shrimp, but when breed with another shrimp with a similar color and genetic make-up, the repressed gene can end up being manifest.
Personally, I think I'd love to have a group of shrimp that are different colors, rather than just the reds.
The red are just a color morph (the 'cherry shrimp' come in a range of colors, but have been selectively bred to be 'redder'). But, they can be carrying other genes that are recessive in the red shrimp, but when breed with another shrimp with a similar color and genetic make-up, the repressed gene can end up being manifest.
Personally, I think I'd love to have a group of shrimp that are different colors, rather than just the reds.
Yep, as Eagles said, all cherries are a colour morph basically. A lot of these colours can be down to genetics and breeding, as well as how happy they are in their tank to show their colours at their best.
More information on red cherry shrimps for you -
http
/www.planetinverts.com/Red%20Cherry%20Shrimp.html
More information on red cherry shrimps for you -
http
/www.planetinverts.com/Red%20Cherry%20Shrimp.html
I would remove the black shrimp, maybe set up its own tank so that if any more appear you can try to breed them to throw true black, true in that all their offspring are black and not a rainbow of mixed colours.
If you leave the black cherry shrimp in with your reds unfortunately the colour will muddy the future offspring and what can happen eventually is the shrimp will start throwing near wild type cherry shrimp.
Sadly all cherry shrimp colour morphs will and can cross breed because they are in reality all the same shrimp just different colours.
I have heard of people keepking a tank of mixed colour cherry shrimp and not being concerned about the resulting hodge podge of offspring, but I think eventually the novelty wears off, especially when your trying to remove the wild colour and trying to maintain the reds, yelllows, oranges, blacks, greens, blues and rili's in the mixed collection.
If you leave the black cherry shrimp in with your reds unfortunately the colour will muddy the future offspring and what can happen eventually is the shrimp will start throwing near wild type cherry shrimp.
Sadly all cherry shrimp colour morphs will and can cross breed because they are in reality all the same shrimp just different colours.
I have heard of people keepking a tank of mixed colour cherry shrimp and not being concerned about the resulting hodge podge of offspring, but I think eventually the novelty wears off, especially when your trying to remove the wild colour and trying to maintain the reds, yelllows, oranges, blacks, greens, blues and rili's in the mixed collection.
I'm going to move all or most of the cherries over to my main tank (it's still fairly new so I was going to wait for it to establish a bit more) what I think I'll do is leave any black ones in the shrimp tank and see what happens
Sounds like a good plan, I will warn you to be vigilent for some time with removing the reds, the babies are so tiny they can get missed for months and then low and behold you have berried red shrimp getting about in your now black tank.
Here are a couple of my near black (guess you would call them dark chocolate) to give you an idea of what I am working with.
Here is my dark chocoaltes with a red before I began seperating them
Here are a couple of my near black (guess you would call them dark chocolate) to give you an idea of what I am working with.
Here is my dark chocoaltes with a red before I began seperating them
Baccus - Can see your cherry shrimps despite the amount of MTS in there 
Great pics
That would be cool, grey / black, may be a male cerry shrimp? they tend to be much less colourful than females.
Great pics
Liv15 said:
That would be cool, grey / black, may be a male cerry shrimp? they tend to be much less colourful than females.
Dont talk to me about MTS Ch4Rlie, I have an on going battle with the rotten things, and even my Pakastani loaches and dwarf chain loaches are no match for the dreaded MTS
.
Look forwards to seeing your pictures Liv15.If your using a digital camera and not a phone or ipad camera, try using different settings to capture the true colour of your shrimp. You will be very surprised when you up load the pictures how a shrimp that looked maybe blue under the tank lights suddenly looks green on a computer screen.
Look forwards to seeing your pictures Liv15.If your using a digital camera and not a phone or ipad camera, try using different settings to capture the true colour of your shrimp. You will be very surprised when you up load the pictures how a shrimp that looked maybe blue under the tank lights suddenly looks green on a computer screen.
Baccus said:Dont talk to me about MTS Ch4Rlie, I have an on going battle with the rotten things, and even my Pakastani loaches and dwarf chain loaches are no match for the dreaded MTS.
Assassin snails would be a good addition for your battle with MTS but due to AUS import laws. not sure if they're allowed
Have you considered running the substrate through a colander or large hole strainer?
It won't be easy, but it would remove a great many of them.
It won't be easy, but it would remove a great many of them.
At one point I removed all the gravel, stripped out the tank entirely and even went to the extreme of leaving the gravel and snails to roast on the concrete in HOT Queensland summer sun for two days. And within no time at all the MTS where back in force again. I have resigned myself to the fact that the battles may be over but the war will never be won.
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