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Grubs

By Grubs
in Australian Caridina spp.

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Grubs Shrimp Lover

Grubs

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This is a bit of a serendipitous project.  I've been breeding Darwin Algae Shrimp (DAS) Caridina sp. NTnilotica for a while now using salt water algae cultures to raise the larvae. I'm up to the F3 generation (since I got them from Aquagreen) and have raised a few hundred shrimp.  The normal colour is the horde in the photo below (swarming on an algae wafer)...but recently I've noticed just a few berried females that are white with metallic eyes.  I thought at first it might be that they have just moulted - but the saddle suggests otherwise, and tonight I isolated one that has released swimming larvae (I caught a few to try and rear) - so she has stayed white for long enough for the larvae to mature.  All up I only have 3 white females and 2 males ... but hey thats enough!   The males are just clear, but have the same eyes which really shine when viewed at night with a headlamp so easy to identify them among the herd.

Of course I don't know if the colour (or lack of colour!) will "stick" long term in an individual shrimp or whether it can be passed on... but only one way to find out...

20151102_232203.jpg

 

IMG_1393.JPG

IMG_1398.JPG

 

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NoGi Shrimp Guru

NoGi

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That's awesome, we should do more selective breeding of our natives to see what we can achieve.

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fishmosy Shrimp Guru

fishmosy

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Wow that's a really cool colour variant. Keep us updated as to how you go with them long term. 

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jayc Shrimp Guru

jayc

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That's such a cool, yet weird colour for eyes. ?

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Grubs Shrimp Lover

Grubs

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20160505_110929.jpg

In daylight without the eye shine...  what a beauty!

I think this is the same shrimp as in the first post above.  She's released the larvae and been re-fertilised or was still packing sperm from before (I think shrimp do that) and the saddle has become another batch of eggs. You can also notice she has not eaten (head and gut is clear)...hopefully not a problem.  I'm assuming for now that after a shrimp moults it doesnt eat for a while until all the "eating bits" have hardened up... at least that seems logical to me.

Compare to the shrimp below.(terrible photo sorry!). This one below has the clear body and white eggs also and  I think that brown smudge at the back of the head is the stomach and you can see the "poo chute". If not eating I expect it would be pretty like the one above - its something I'll watch for! 

Nature is cool.

20160505_111009.jpg

 

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waffle Shrimp Lover

waffle

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This is really really cool! Good luck with the project - I hope it's a heritable trait!! 

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Grubs Shrimp Lover

Grubs

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20160821_105540.jpg

This one above is a mature female (right).  The others are all normal DAS.  There is a little juvi "platinum" just behind the tail of the big one exiting stage right.

Pic of the juvi below with normal coloured

20160821_105232.jpg

I had the white ones separated but needed the tank back so for now they are all in together but when I give away or sell shrimp I make sure I keep the white ones.  :P

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Dave Be nice I'm new here

Dave

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Hope they breed true for you.  I had some white threadfins that I tried to line breed to get more white fish.  Nothing.  They were not albino.

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Grubs Shrimp Lover

Grubs

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This is a nothings changed update.

I now have 20-30 white shrimp in my DAS collection all doing fine but I haven't done any breeding for a couple of years as life has been busy and transitioning the shrimp in and out of salt water requires a bit of effort and attention and only works 1 in 10.  Its worth noting that some of my oldest DAS are now 6 years old. 

I've noticed that the larvae that are released into the water column seem to be getting smaller as the years go on.  Perhaps the females are losing vigour, or perhaps their diet doesn't contain enough protein.   My staples are mulberry leaves with trout pellets  every now and then.  I've started giving them more food, more protein and more variety to improve their condition as I hope to raise some this summer before they all get too old!

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jayc Shrimp Guru

jayc

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2 hours ago, Grubs said:

I now have 20-30 white shrimp in my DAS collection

Have you ever determined what causes them to go white? Is it missing something in their diet perhaps? Or maybe a lack of predators, so no camouflage needed?

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Grubs Shrimp Lover

Grubs

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9 hours ago, jayc said:

Have you ever determined what causes them to go white? Is it missing something in their diet perhaps? Or maybe a lack of predators, so no camouflage needed?

Fairly safe to say its genetic as they are visibly different from settlement then the white becomes more obvious in the females as they saddle up get berried. It seems to be a mutation that results in a total lack of pigment that is retained for life through successive moults (both male and female).  I've had white shrimp release viable swimming larvae but I didn't get them to hatch.. but that's not unusual - successful rearing is elusive at the best of times. 

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