Blue cherry shrimp or blue pearl shrimp?

[Shrimplyf]

I recently purchased a few blue cherry shrimps. They are not as blue as I thought they would be and look more like an 'ice blue' (they look a lot like blue pearl shrimps). They were sold as blue cherry shrimps but when I google blue cherry shrimp they seem a little darker.. So here are my noob questions:

1. What is the difference between a blue cherry shrimp and and blue pearl shrimp

2. Are blue velvets the same as blue cherry shrimps?

3. My 'blue cherry shrimps' are currently juvies will the colour darken with age?

4. Is it possible that their offspring will be darker?

[Wraithie]

What are the water parameters and how long have you had them? Picture of the tank could help :)

[Squiggle]

From what I've read I believe blue cherries are Neocaridina Heteropoda & blue pearl are Neocaridina Zhangjiajiensis, I think blue velvets are Neocaridina but they are blue rilis, please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm not sure if they will darken as I haven't experienced it myself but I believe that if the genes are there they have the ability to produce darker offspring. :encouragement:

[Shrimplyf]

Hey Wrathie! Here's some photos

WP:

nitrate: 0

ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

ph: 6.8

Temp: 24

[Shrimplyf]

Oh and i've had them for about two weeks!

Hopefully they have good genes I would love them a bit darker!

[Wraithie]

It's possibly not what you were hoping for but they look like nice blue velvets to me (btw nice looking tank!)

i don't have enough experience to say if they will darken or not.

[Masta]

1. Blue Cherry Shrimp arrive from a mutation of the Chocolate Cherry and is line bred to get the dark blue colour, Whilst a blue pearl shrimp is a different species. Blue pearl shrimp are part of the Neocaridina Zhangjiajiensis species, which is also the species where Snowballs come from.

2. Blue Velvets arrive from the Red Rilli Shrimp and are also Neocaridina Heteropoda species so yes they are different from Blue Cherries. But they are both the same species

3. Most likely as colour develops with age?

4. Offspring produce varieties, so who knows! Wait and find out :)

Anyone who can correct me, please feel free to !

[BlueBolts]

That's a blue velvet shrimp..:-(.... Once you get your 1st generation, and if you see juvi's with red spots/rilli patterns then this can be confirmed. I've not seen/heard anyone in Oz with a colony of a true blue cherry shrimp.... A few with selective breeding colony's but I'd say there's still several generations for securing its colouration etc... With all that said, the blue cherry is a loose ended variation, not a clear colour definition, so it seems to be on the breeders interpretation.

Only in my perspective, a blue cherry should appear similar to this?... These are the ones I'm working with, but still getting inconsistency in colour/depth etc....so still a loooong road.

[Wraithie]

I know you aren't entirely happy with the consistency BB but they are so drool worthy

[BlueBolts]

They were travelling well, but the last F generation produced a bunch of wild/choc...grrrrrr, so back to square 1. BUT all part of the journey !

F2's ...

then F3's

WTF right ?

[Shrimplyf]

Thanks for your comments everyone! And OMG BB your blues are so beautiful! hopefully I can own something like that one day...

[BlueBolts]

Thanks...if you googled blue cherry shrimp, you won't find a picture of a colony of a dark/strong blue cherry, most of them are blue velvets, and/or variations of it..... So I reckon there's still a lot of selective breeding to accomplish. I think using a blue velvet to create a blue cherry shrimp is counter productive.... IMO, it needs to come from red and/or Choc or any other colour variation, but not blue velvet. That's my direction, and great if ther go the opposite way etc, as long as we eventually get a true blue cherry shrimp :-)... That would be awesome !

[KiwiBigD]

Marcus does have some great Blues but as he says the genes are pretty unstable at this stage.

I would also like to raise that there are currently 4 or 5 different Blue Cherry Shrimp that I know of in Australia at this point in time, then of course there is zhangensis as well. Also for Cherry Shrimp if you've got them in an acidic tank then they will be paler, Cherry Shrimp show their colours better in a neutral to alkaline based environment.

[CNgo2006]

Marcus does have some great Blues

Hope your talking about shrimp kiwi! Lol!

[endlerboy]

hey blue bolt if you still have those f3 and are able to can to test something for me.... And put them into a tank with a higher PH of around 7.... I am picking you run soils there etc so down around the 6.5 and below mark.... Would be interested in what they do in the sightly higher ph.... As I thought the choc was a wild throw back so in theory no matter what the ph they should not change color right.... Well I got hold of 10 from a well known breeder that well shocked me in what they did in the sightly higher PH of 7.... A few changed color from the choc to 3 different colors (green light blue and a dark blue) 4 of the 10 did this.... so all may not be lost in your breeding program

[blackcat]

Omg BB their amazing colours wow what do u do with all them culls??

[BlueBolts]

I generally go through 2 stages of culling.....a general cull (obvious personal/unwanted variation), where there are placed in floating box, and any with some potential I'll return to the colony, and/or a severe cull, where I'm very particular with exactly what I envisage my program should be heading. These are generally still very good. The ones in between I generally give away or ends up in my son's mixed cherry.

That tank has a PH of approx. 7.2... Vastly diff to the other tanks at PH 6.4-6.8. Occasionally, I see some cherry turn out great..BUT, once it's "branded" a cull, it's a cull.....I'm mean that way. LOL