Blue Cherry Shrimp - But Wait !

[BlueBolts]

There's been several discussions/queries on Blue Cherries, and I decided to do a simple experiment to demonstrate the growth colouration of "blue cherries" off choc parents.... I have removed 12 x "blue" juvi's out of my choc tank, and moved them to a isolation tank with different WP to determine whether this will effect their colouration etc.. after 24 hours, 1 of the blue cherries is turning dark/brown. The pics below are the colour spectrum of the blue cherries in this experiment.....from a royal blue to a aqua blue....

Will update this thread over the next few weeks, and/or once there are any changes...etc.

From past experience, the majority of the "blue" juvi's will turn brown, or a brown/blue hue....although my experience with cherries is limited.

Please comment, and/or share your thoughts/experience...

[JPN07]

Cant wait to find out the results bb. I recently purchased a blue cherry and hoping that it stays blue. He is about 6-7 mm at the moment and is still blue. The seller did tell me he will refund the money if it does turn to other colour and that it shouldnt.

The shrimp is currently in the tank with the same wp as crs/cbs. Will check again when i get home from work.

[BlueBolts]

Yeah, the blue cherry is tricky, and would be great if we got true blue F2/3 genes... no doubt we'll get there. I posted this pic a while ago, but he still remains blue to this day.... others are blue/brown, and my blue/brown & blue cherry realised a batch of shrimplets 2-3 weeks ago, and their blue is different, so fingers cross...

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[mickeyG]

That looks almost purple bb haha. How have you crossed to get that color?

[JPN07]

That shrimp looks insane! Hopefully you get true royal/deep blues out of the new batch. Good luck bb. Keep us updated.

[Dean]

very interested to see your results also BB, mine have been very mixed..

[honcho]

great thread..

btw why is it that the blue gene is so hard to settle..?

[Gbang]

probably because the blue genes have all been taken from other colour cherries! so i guess it will take a few more generations. patience my young padawan :)

[BlueBolts]

7 of my 12 "BLUE" shrimplets have turned to various shades of brown....3 of them have a light/mid blue, which I suspect is from my Blue Velvet colony.... one of them is showing really nice potential, but will wait for another 3+ weeks to know for sure......

[sajica]

But what I want to know now, Marcus. Will they revert back to blue? Their colour is dependent on the environment you offer them. I've seen Cherrys go clear in bare tanks. Give them a few weeks and they get more colour.

[BlueBolts]

Never...once they turn brown/black they'll never turn blue....

[sajica]

Never...once they turn brown/black they'll never turn blue....

Interesting....

Would the resulting progeny bred from these shrimp be brown or blue?

[BlueBolts]

Not too sure, but potentially the odds would be better .... I'm no genetic/cherry expert....

[sajica]

I find it odd that the wouldn't revert back to blue. If they have the genotype and phenotype for being blue. Environmental factors would cause a colour change, but by all rights, they'd have to revert back.

I'll wait to be schooled by everyone :)

[Naraic]

I find it odd that the wouldn't revert back to blue. If they have the genotype and phenotype for being blue.

My fledgling understanding is that as shrimp mature and their chitinous shells develop and thicken towards moults, the pigments responsible for their colour also change (Not sure why, metabolic, respiratory pigments seen through a clearer shell of a youngster i.e. crabs have blue blood pigments vs final "camouflage" pigment selectively bred or not in the chitinous shell of an adult perhaps).

Yes they have a range of shades they can adopt; washed out or darkest dark when breeding pheromones flood the aquarium, but you can generally asume that their colour will be somewhere in between that. Blue in chocolate cherries seems to be one of those initial pigments that are lost once they come into adulthood.

Phenotype is all we can really go off in breeding and you choose your most suited specimen at breeding age not from happy memories of when it was tiny and kinda blue haha.

Its a damn shame that some with potential loose it as adults, I wish we could just use DNA sequencing to splice together some purple pigmentation!

The Disillusioned Dictator Over and Out