Cherry red?

[Mindcrime121]

Ok, I've red things about species mixing and people buying shrimp that turned out not to be what they were told they were buying and there are some variations in the 6 "cherry red shrimp" I bought from my LFS, so I wanted to run it by some more experienced keepers since these are my first. Do they commonly have a light pink line down their backs on male or female? Some seems more splotchy than others in the distribution of red as well. I know the females are supposed to be darker, more vibrant red, so I'm cool on that, but these other differences are making me wonder if I got what I paid for. Including a couple of pics, but not sure it will help much.

[Hairechest]

They look great!

[The Zigman]

I have noticed the pinkish stripe on my shrimp too, It does not determine sex, I think it is a sign that they will be molting soon. the bottom shrimp in the bottom pic is a female (actuallyt they both are), seen by the saddle on her back, this is her reproductive system producing eggs. The females have ALOT more color than the males, the males are usually nearly all translucent with a small red-ish stripe...

[Mindcrime121]

Well, better all females than all males I guess. My amanos turned out to be 5 males and only one female, but I've no intentions of breeding the amanos for a while yet, not til I'm done with other projects and ready to set up a brackish breeding tank. I'm intending to add about 20 or more cherries to this breeding tank though, so that should resolve the missing males issue.

Another question... I was considering adding a couple or 3 male guppies to this tank just for asthetic reasons. I know there is no "safe" fish for a breeding cherry tank, but would fancy tail guppies fit among those least likely to decimate the population of newborn shrimp? Or what display fish would any of you recommend as THE least damaging to the population? If I loose 10% of the hatch to predation, it's no biggie, 20%, eh, not great but livable, but if it is likely that adding them will take out close to 50% or more, then I'll skip it altogether. Keep in mind when making suggestions, that this in only a 5g hatchery tank.

[DAVIDFBT]

Those are both females. IME, Females are more colorful with some having that same stripe going down their backs. Another way to tell is the males are usually 3/4 the size of females with smaller abdomens.

[wendamus]

Another question... I was considering adding a couple or 3 male guppies to this tank just for asthetic reasons. I know there is no "safe" fish for a breeding cherry tank, but would fancy tail guppies fit among those least likely to decimate the population of newborn shrimp? Or what display fish would any of you recommend as THE least damaging to the population? If I loose 10% of the hatch to predation, it's no biggie, 20%, eh, not great but livable, but if it is likely that adding them will take out close to 50% or more, then I'll skip it altogether. Keep in mind when making suggestions, that this in only a 5g hatchery tank.

My guppy fry ate all but two of my shrimp babies in a 5 gallon tank, and I had to take the fish out when they were 6 weeks old if I ever wanted to breed my shrimp. I've even heard of guppies harrassing the adult shrimp, although mine had no problems with that.

The baby Red Cherry shrimp are almost identical to baby brine shrimp, which most people highly recommend for guppy and guppy fry. They're just little dots that zip around. The poor gups haven't got a whole brain between 11 tanks, and they wouldn't know I didn't want them to eat THESE baby shrimp.

[wendamus]

By the way, if you're a little concerned about these shrimp, wait 'til you see the males. Under stressful conditions, they're basically clear, with maybe some little red lines. Under optimal conditions, they're reddish, but nothing as bright as the females you show here. Optimal conditions means no predators or perceived predators, nitrates consistently under 40, dark substrate (they try to blend in) and heavily planted. If you're missing some of those conditions, they'll lighten their colors, almost overnight, to try to 'hide' from the perceived threats.

I am not trying to talk you out of these RCS -- I love 'em, they're my bedside table tank now and I fall asleep every night watching the babies clean off my sponge filter... But they're not really community tank material, and they require more special conditions than I originally expected.

[TwoHobbies]

I agree with most of what you have been told. The light colored line is normal on some RCS just as is light, and dark eggs. My LFS only wants to purchase adult females from me, because folks who don't know about Red Cherry Shrimp don't want to purchase the clear ones. Likely hood is that you don't have any males. Purchase some from someone here and you'll get some males.
As far as the guppies go. You should wait till you have a good colony going to experiment with them. Even though RCS are cheap they are still expensive fish food!

[southerndesert]

I agree with most of what you have been told. The light colored line is normal on some RCS just as is light, and dark eggs. My LFS only wants to purchase adult females from me, because folks who don't know about Red Cherry Shrimp don't want to purchase the clear ones. Likely hood is that you don't have any males. Purchase some from someone here and you'll get some males.
As far as the guppies go. You should wait till you have a good colony going to experiment with them. Even though RCS are cheap they are still expensive fish food!

What he said....

[Mindcrime121]

Kewl beans, thanks gang. I'd concluded that I have no males and was indeed planning to buy probably 30-40 more to get a major jump start of breeding. The plan was to keep a heavy breeding colony so that I can have a few dozen in my 100 gallon tank, and replenish them as they dwindle from predation there. I'll go ahead and pass on having anything swimming around in the breeder tank to maximize the number of offspring to reach a safe size to transplant without them getting eaten within 5 minutes of going into the big tank. :)