selective breeding help

[ineke]

I have some really beautiful chocolate cherries that are throwing a virtual rainbow of colours. I want to try my hand at selectively breeding the Blues so have a tank cycling for them. The Chocolates are from Dean's line so they are really nice shrimp but they throw milk chocolate? not sure if they have a name yet?, Black, Blue/Black -they look black but when seen with the light behind them they are really dark blue-, Blue, Reds are also starting to show up and then light chocolate which I will class as a cull, plus a light green/light yellow.

I don't have enough room for them all to do each type justice so Blues are my main interest. I have a lot of very nice juvie Blues coming on and once the tank is cycled I will just keep picking out the nicest Blues but where I'm getting confused is the Blue/black ones, where do they come in- do I use them to help darken the Blue? Do I leave them and count them as Black? Essentially they are muck darker than I am aiming for but this is my first pick of Blues that will be separated and hopefully bred with so the Blue/Blacks may give the depth I want- I'm hoping to get close to BB's Blues- don't know If I have a hope but they are what I'm aiming to achieve and we all need a goal:). Any thoughts from others that are breeding successfully. This is my first go at trying to improve my shrimp apart from the Reds which I had to give away to make room for others.

I'm extremely lucky to have great genes in my tank already as Dean did the hard work but now I want to achieve something too!

[BlueBolts]

Selective breeding requires strict rules, and being diligent. My blue's suffered a set-back a few months ago, when a couple of rogue/cull cherries got into the genetic mix. From a med/high colony of 15-20...I've now got 8...due to being slack :-( IMO, start with your best 2 pairs, and strictly cull the future F generations..... Great t see more and more hobbyist goi down the selective breeding route. :encouragement:

[ineke]

Thanks BB that's a bummer about the program :(

What about the Blue/Black shrimp I think they are the main ones throwing the Blue Babies- should I give them a tank to themselves and see what they produce? or just pick out the darkest babies I have now?. I am quite serious with trying and will even eventually give up my Rilis once I have a few pairs of Blue Velvets so that I will then have a few more tanks to play with. Do you see a Blue theme here BB thats your fault;)