What will happen with orange Sunkist shrimp and cherry shrimp in the same tank?

[wtusa1783]

I just got a buried orange Sunkist female from my lfs and I have a cherry shrimp Tank. What would happen if I put the orange Sunkist shrimp in that tank? Is it a good idea? Would it creat wild type?

[jayc]

2 hours ago, wtusa1783 said:

What would happen if I put the orange Sunkist shrimp in that tank? Is it a good idea? Would it creat wild type?

Was the Sunkist already berried when you got it? If that was the case, then the offspring would still be sunkist shrimp (ie. if you were successful raising the Sunkist offspring). Sunkist larvae apparently need brackish water conditions.

Note: Sunkist are generally of the Caridina genus (Caridina cf. Propinqua). There is a Neocaridina genus called Orange Sakura. 

So assuming the LFS has labelled the shrimp correctly then there is a lower chance of interbreeding. But people make a very common mistake of using the Sunkist and Orange Sakura name interchangeably and messing things up.

But if that "Sunkist" shrimp somehow mated with the Red Cherry shrimp, then you would get diluted genetics, and some offspring would carry genetics of both Sunkist and Cherry. That means the offspring will be of poor quality eventually leading back to the wild type look. 

 

Maybe a picture or two of what you have would help. Close up side shot of the shrimp please. 

 

I'm going to borrow a pic from the interwebs (credits to whoever the original photographer is).

The Sunkist (caridina) has a slight hump in it's back with distinctive white or red stripes. The hump is similar to Ghost shrimps. Notice the colour is a lot more transparent.

 

The Orange Sakura is more uniform in colour. Good quality varieties are less transparent than the Caridina Sunkist.

 

Of the two, the Sunkist is the rarer find.

 

Hope that helps.

Edited July 14, 2020 by jayc

[wtusa1783]

4 hours ago, jayc said:

Was the Sunkist already berried when you got it? If that was the case, then the offspring would still be sunkist shrimp (ie. if you were successful raising the Sunkist offspring). Sunkist larvae apparently need brackish water conditions.

Note: Sunkist are generally of the Caridina genus (Caridina cf. Propinqua). There is a Neocaridina genus called Orange Sakura. 

So assuming the LFS has labelled the shrimp correctly then there is a lower chance of interbreeding. But people make a very common mistake of using the Sunkist and Orange Sakura name interchangeably and messing things up.

But if that "Sunkist" shrimp somehow mated with the Red Cherry shrimp, then you would get diluted genetics, and some offspring would carry genetics of both Sunkist and Cherry. That means the offspring will be of poor quality eventually leading back to the wild type look. 

 

Maybe a picture or two of what you have would help. Close up side shot of the shrimp please. 

 

I'm going to borrow a pic from the interwebs (credits to whoever the original photographer is).

The Sunkist (caridina) has a slight hump in it's back with distinctive white or red stripes. The hump is similar to Ghost shrimps. Notice the colour is a lot more transparent.

 

The Orange Sakura is more uniform in colour. Good quality varieties are less transparent than the Caridina Sunkist.

 

Of the two, the Sunkist is the rarer find.

 

Hope that helps.

O ok. They are the Sakura then? From my own research the Sunkist are neos. They are orange neos that’s what I know. Yes the female is berried. So what would happen with the orange Sakura and cherry?

Edited July 14, 2020 by wtusa1783

[sdlTBfanUK]

If they are orange neocaridina (most likely) they will cross breed and with time will lose the red or orange as they revert to wild type. If the orange was berried when you got her she should have orange offspring (assuming she mated with another orange). Having said that even having only one colour will revert to wild if you don't remove poorly coloured offspring regularly, I have that problem with my red cherrys as I didn't cull for years and they are probably 80% wild now (5 years), and that makes life difficult because they are hard to see when  they are brown or clear? If your orange mated with one of your reds then you may get good colour offspring but you are on that downward spiral as the genes get mixed/diluted.

If you bought the orange already berried you can put that in a separate new tank for just the orange, if you are prepared to get a separate tank for each colour, but if the berried orange mated with your red shrimps those shrimplets could be any colour (they may still be red or orange) but it is going to be more complicated. The main thing to decide at this stage is do you want to keep them in separate tanks or all mixed, but if you go the route of separate tanks for each colour you will still need to keep removing poor quality shrimps to maintain the colour long term!

Hope this makes sense?

Simon

[wtusa1783]

6 minutes ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

If they are orange neocaridina (most likely) they will cross breed and with time will lose the red or orange as they revert to wild type. If the orange was berried when you got her she should have orange offspring (assuming she mated with another orange). Having said that even having only one colour will revert to wild if you don't remove poorly coloured offspring regularly, I have that problem with my red cherrys as I didn't cull for years and they are probably 80% wild now (5 years), and that makes life difficult because they are hard to see when  they are brown or clear? If your orange mated with one of your reds then you may get good colour offspring but you are on that downward spiral as the genes get mixed/diluted.

If you bought the orange already berried you can put that in a separate new tank for just the orange, if you are prepared to get a separate tank for each colour, but if the berried orange mated with your red shrimps those shrimplets could be any colour (they may still be red or orange) but it is going to be more complicated. The main thing to decide at this stage is do you want to keep them in separate tanks or all mixed, but if you go the route of separate tanks for each colour you will still need to keep removing poor quality shrimps to maintain the colour long term!

Hope this makes sense?

Simon

Thanks. I bought the female berried. I want to start up a new tank for each I guess. Thanks for the help 

[Crabby]

Just for reference, sunkist is often used to describe orange sakura, but true sunkist are caridina. It's a shame that common names sometimes get confused like this, and lead to being unsure of the species.