Chameleon Shrimp

[372xp]

I made the mistake of putting 3 cherry and 4 blue shrimp in a 40ltr tank with coral sand as the substrate.
Lo and behold they have bleached out to match the substrate (except for one very large cherry who is still a deep shade of orangey red).
Is there anything I can do to get them to go back to red and blue without changing the substrate? I am reluctant to do this as the tank is well planted and the plants have really taken off in the last few weeks and I never have much success in replanting.

 

[Wildbetta]

They should go back to color once they really feel comfortable in their surroundings.  You could try feeding different foods to perk up their color.  Example: for the cherry shrimp feeding things like golden pearls (normally listed as a fry food), carrots, or sweet potatoes/yams will really bring out their color.  Not sure if the blue ones will show much color or not on such a pale substrate.  One thing, what kind are the blue shrimp?  If they are of a neocardinia species then they will interbreed with the cherry shrimp and you will end up with some "wild" colored babies which are mainly a brownish color.