Identifying Color Morphs

[bluestarfish]

Before I get to the main purpose of this thread, I've had a burning question for a while, how do you tell a Red (brown Heritage) apart from just a normal Red? (same for blues). Is that something you can only know by knowing the breeding line, or is there some tell in the shrimps coloration?

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So I ordered a second batch to mix with the 10 I started with, they came sooner than I expected. I'm not quite done adjusting the TDS, but it's close enough. (man shaving the last 60ppm or so off is hard though, I think I'm going to have to do a fairly large change to get bellow 200). 

 

The bag(s) were very mixed, and many are lower grade than advertised. I'm not sure if I feel a little annoyed or not, I don't intend to breed them, but I know that they will eventually breed and dilute the brighter red ones I already have. On the other hand, there are some interesting shrimps in there. A couple of bluish ones, several that are a dark brownish red, and one that is fairly brown with a long white stripe down its back. If nothing else, if I ever do get into breeding them I guess I'll have genetic variety on my side...

 

Anyway, I'm trying to nab pictures of them to get help identifying their colors? 

 

 

 

 

 

[Zoidburg]

It can be hard to ID true colors if they haven't fully 'de-stressed' once in the tank and colors are still off from the stress of shipping and new environment....

[bluestarfish]

Do you know what the deal with the stripy one is?

It's turned slightly redder now but still has a pale brown stripe down its back.

Most of them have turned a bit more red (though last I saw the bluish clear one it was still bluish clear).

 

Still curious if/how one can tell a (brown) red from a red red.

[Zoidburg]

I can't tell for sure if the shrimp is brown or not... but the stripe down the back is normal for many shrimp. That's known as the "racing stripe", and is more often found in females in cherry shrimp, but can also be seen on high grade colored males, too.

[bluestarfish]

I think it's red, it was kind of brown in color for several days, but it's gotten to be much redder today so probably just stress colors like you said? Some of them shift slightly in color in general (between dark red and brownish red)

It's nice to know that the stripe is just a normal variance in color and not something weird. There are a couple of others in there that also have stripes, but they aren't quite as prominent as on that first one with a stripe. I like the stripy look.

 

Also another picture just for fun.

 

 

[Zoidburg]

They do appear to be about mid-grade!

 

Here are some grading charts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bluestarfish]

Yeah, having pictures of live animals helps some.

I'm also still curious if there is any difference between a brown line red shrimp and a red line shrimp. Are they visually and genetically the same, or different?

Shrimp genetics sounds like it might be interesting to try to observe and explore whenever I have room for more than one tank.

 

I managed to get a better picture of the striped one since it's been coming out much more lately, and thought I'd share. Is the stripe something that comes and goes with molts, or a coloration that's always there? Do you know if it is genetic or epigenetic?

 

Edited September 28, 2016 by bluestarfish

[Zoidburg]

Ye, there is a difference between the normal red cherries, fires and PFRs vs bloody mary's. Although all are red to varying degrees, there is a difference in flesh color. Kind of like the different between a carbom rili (clear body, black patches on shell) vs a blue bodied carbon rili (clear blue body, black patches on shell).

 

As far as the stripe, it's genetic. I could be wrong here, but in the PFR line, they have been bred up to the point that the red stripe has encompassed the entire body, thus making them look 'painted'. Male coloration can vary a lot more than females. A BM line on the other hand is completely missing that stripe because they have a clear shell but red flesh.

 

Bloody Mary are a red offshoot refined from the Chocolate variety of Neocaridina, whereas Painted Fire Reds were progressively improved upon from the original wild-type. As a result, Painted Fire Red individuals have a red shell color while Bloody Mary have a red flesh color. 

In terms of offspring, it's not an automatic amazing result. You will, of course, have to spend quite a while culling. In another shrimp forum with mostly Australian members, I found a person who had mixed the two around a year ago. The biggest difference I could see was that the male he showed was fully red as well, rather than Sakura - Fire Red Grade.

Edited September 29, 2016 by Zoidburg
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[bluestarfish]

Thanks for the explanation! That's interesting to know that it's a difference in flesh/shell color. I had gotten the impression from reading around that the shell isn't the colorful part since it's clear when they molt, but I guess there's a bit more to it than that.