Before I moved from Iowa to Texas, I had 8 seperate aquariums. In Texas, I had to settle for one tank so combined all I had into one tank (All of my fish/inverts can live together, were just seperated to breed them).
When I moved, I decided to cut down on the number of Neocaridina heteropoda var. Cherry (Red Cherry Shrimp). I kept only 5 berried really red females and 3 males that showed some red coloration, the rest I sold to a LFS before the move.
Fast forward three+ months.
One of my orignal very red females was partially BLACK when I arrived in Texas. I had thought it was a sign of stress, but the color has not changed except to spread to her whole body. She released her babies about a week later, they are fine and growing well. She's now carrying again. I've not seen any change to her black coloration, other than it seems deeper black (she also has a white stripe down her spine). None of her offspring have shown that color, but in looking at her current brood, it seems that a few are black (or really really dark red).
She was born in my aquarium about 6-8 months before the move, I've never had any shirmp but the Red Cherry Shrimp, so I'm confident its not another species. She's healthy, eats well, breeds with males in the tank, etc. She even will chase off rasbora that are crowding her at an algae wafer!
Has anyone else seen this in Neocaridina heteropod?
When I moved, I decided to cut down on the number of Neocaridina heteropoda var. Cherry (Red Cherry Shrimp). I kept only 5 berried really red females and 3 males that showed some red coloration, the rest I sold to a LFS before the move.
Fast forward three+ months.
One of my orignal very red females was partially BLACK when I arrived in Texas. I had thought it was a sign of stress, but the color has not changed except to spread to her whole body. She released her babies about a week later, they are fine and growing well. She's now carrying again. I've not seen any change to her black coloration, other than it seems deeper black (she also has a white stripe down her spine). None of her offspring have shown that color, but in looking at her current brood, it seems that a few are black (or really really dark red).
She was born in my aquarium about 6-8 months before the move, I've never had any shirmp but the Red Cherry Shrimp, so I'm confident its not another species. She's healthy, eats well, breeds with males in the tank, etc. She even will chase off rasbora that are crowding her at an algae wafer!
Has anyone else seen this in Neocaridina heteropod?