Around nine months ago I purchased 10 neocaridina denticulata sinensis of the wild (brown) variety. It just so happened that I got one juvenile of the red variety in with the shipment, and it happened to be a female. The shrimp were placed in a community tank and have done pretty well for themselves. I'm sure the rasboras eat the smallest babies every now and then, but the shrimp have been able to reproduce and the population seems to have stabilized at around 30.
The red female bred with the brown males and ever since that time I have had a small population of red shrimp in with the brown ones. These red offspring look just like regular cherries except their ovaries are dark brown instead of yellow. Now, since I have so few of the red shrimp, maybe 5-6 at any given time, it is more easy to notice when some of them go missing, and some of them did just that several months ago.
I happened to find their bodies today while cleaning out my apartment. I moved some old shoes that were sitting next to my fish tank and lo and behold there lay 4 red corpses. Obviously they found their way out of my tank, but my question now is why?
Is it reasonable to assume that the red variety of this shrimp is more sensitive to fluctuations in water parameters than the wild looking variety is? The tank is planted. I am sure that with 50% weekly water changes, and co2 injection, my parameters may not be incredibly stable. Could this have caused these shrimp to climb out of my tank and to their death, or is it just a coincidence that they were all of the red variety?
The red female bred with the brown males and ever since that time I have had a small population of red shrimp in with the brown ones. These red offspring look just like regular cherries except their ovaries are dark brown instead of yellow. Now, since I have so few of the red shrimp, maybe 5-6 at any given time, it is more easy to notice when some of them go missing, and some of them did just that several months ago.
I happened to find their bodies today while cleaning out my apartment. I moved some old shoes that were sitting next to my fish tank and lo and behold there lay 4 red corpses. Obviously they found their way out of my tank, but my question now is why?
Is it reasonable to assume that the red variety of this shrimp is more sensitive to fluctuations in water parameters than the wild looking variety is? The tank is planted. I am sure that with 50% weekly water changes, and co2 injection, my parameters may not be incredibly stable. Could this have caused these shrimp to climb out of my tank and to their death, or is it just a coincidence that they were all of the red variety?
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