Cherry Shrimp Breeding with Yellow Shrimp?

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Piranha86

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I'm getting a heavily planted 10g, I want to get 20ish cherries, 10ish amanos, and 10ish yellows. Would the cherries and yellows interbreed? (I dont want them to) and if they did, what would the offspring look like? Orange shrimp? Kind of doubt that though ;)
 

XanAvaloni

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Cherries + yellows is a no-no. Here's the chart of Shrimp Types Which Should/Should Not Be Kept Together. (Amanos are safe with either but require different water conditions. They will live but will probably not breed anyway in a tank set up for cherries.)

As to why not let them hybridize? For starters, it's a bad thing for you: the offspring will be worthless as far as being able to sell or even give them away. Even if they look like "true" cherries or "true" yellows nobody will know if they will breed true since they might have the genes for the other type mixed in. Therefore they will most likely not be willing to take your stock even for free.

It's your choice of course. You might get lucky and produce a red/yellow striped variant that will itself breed true and they will be wildly popular and you will become rich.

Much more likely you will get offspring that are just muddled messes with no particular color at all. The two types have been carefully and selectively bred only to ones of the same color for many generations to get them to where they are today. If that gets messed up the tendency is for all the selective breeding to go out the window and offspring revert to looking like the "wild" type.

that's my understanding anyway. I'm sure we have some genetics experts here who can explain the matter in greater detail and accuracy. Why not do tigers instead of yellows? They're in the "safe" category on the chart and (imho) more attractive anyway. :)
 

msjinkzd

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amanos do fine with their params and don't breed in freshwater anyway. Cherry and yellow are a no-no as said. A couple species that would work in params for cherries (moderately hard and relatively warm water) without hybridization are malawa or malaya shrimp.
 

fabsroman

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amanos do fine with their params and don't breed in freshwater anyway. Cherry and yellow are a no-no as said. A couple species that would work in params for cherries (moderately hard and relatively warm water) without hybridization are malawa or malaya shrimp.

What temp would you suggest for cherries and yellows? That might be my issue with my yellows. That tank is around 72 and my cherry and blue pearl tanks are above that.
 

msjinkzd

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you won't get a neat variant. Temp can be anywhere between 68-82 for them to do well with a target temp of 76 or so being ideal
 

nmart13

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Cherries + yellows is a no-no. Here's the chart of Shrimp Types Which Should/Should Not Be Kept Together. (Amanos are safe with either but require different water conditions. They will live but will probably not breed anyway in a tank set up for cherries.)

As to why not let them hybridize? For starters, it's a bad thing for you: the offspring will be worthless as far as being able to sell or even give them away. Even if they look like "true" cherries or "true" yellows nobody will know if they will breed true since they might have the genes for the other type mixed in. Therefore they will most likely not be willing to take your stock even for free.

It's your choice of course. You might get lucky and produce a red/yellow striped variant that will itself breed true and they will be wildly popular and you will become rich.

Much more likely you will get offspring that are just muddled messes with no particular color at all. The two types have been carefully and selectively bred only to ones of the same color for many generations to get them to where they are today. If that gets messed up the tendency is for all the selective breeding to go out the window and offspring revert to looking like the "wild" type.

that's my understanding anyway. I'm sure we have some genetics experts here who can explain the matter in greater detail and accuracy. Why not do tigers instead of yellows? They're in the "safe" category on the chart and (imho) more attractive anyway. :)
They are the same species, crossbreeding animals with the same genes results in:
animals with the same genes. Nothing to worry about, they'll be fine and you'll get either yellow offspring or cherry. A mix color would be very rare and unlikely. I took a few genetics courses. As far as keeping them together I have no idea, I've never raised the two in one aquarium, being the same species and just diff. varieties i'd say no big deal. Worst case scenario one species avoids the other, shrimp always form inner-species "gangs" anyway so it wouldn't be too chaotic.
 

pixl8r

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They are the same species, crossbreeding animals with the same genes results in:
animals with the same genes. Nothing to worry about, they'll be fine and you'll get either yellow offspring or cherry. A mix color would be very rare and unlikely. I took a few genetics courses. As far as keeping them together I have no idea, I've never raised the two in one aquarium, being the same species and just diff. varieties i'd say no big deal. Worst case scenario one species avoids the other, shrimp always form inner-species "gangs" anyway so it wouldn't be too chaotic.
When shrimp that have been selectively bred for a specific trait (color) are mixed with the same species, that has been selectively bred for another trait (color), the results are throwbacks to a previous state. That is, they will result in animals that display less color. Shrimp that 'breed true' for a specific color still have the genetic codes to produce variations, they are just recessive. When different hybrids of the same species are mixed, the less common genes are brought to the top, so to speak. Note, there are very few instances where animals of the same Genus and differing species will produce viable, fertile offspring.

A large problem we have with breeding shrimp, is the fact that there are instances of shrimp species that have been incorrectly classified, and many more that are not described at all.

Mixing selectively bred shrimp, with different mutations of the same species, is not recommended; they produce offspring that are more likely to display undesirable muted wild/natural colors.
 

psyche

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As stated above, the most likely they would come put like a pale or muddy brown wild-type.
 

nmart13

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Note taken! I have no experience cross-breeding shrimp just live-bearing fish and betas. So you think the less desirable genes are limited to colors or other traits as well?
 
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