Chocolate Shrimp - baby coloration question

[daz88]

I bought 5 juvenile unsexed chocolate shrimp a few months back. Four were chocolate and one was decidingly red. I contacted the seller and she said it was ok to keep it in the tank if female but remove if male. I suspected it was female and lo and behold it was berried soon after and had a sizeable litter of offspring (maybe 15 to 20 babies). It has turned out to be a really big female (but still red).

So now there are roughly 2mm, still tiny, some are still white/clear, others are reddish and others might be reddish brown.

Should i expect any chocolate shrimp? or reds? or wild type? or a mixture? Should i remove the four chocolate adults from this tank before the babies get bigger? I think one of the four may be another female but its solid brown hence i can't see a saddle or eggs in it.

I can post some pics if needed.

Cheers,

Daz

[ineke]

Daz some Chocolate shrimp have Black and Blue genes and will also throw some Reds. The pale babies may be blues. However if in doubt especially if you don't know who the father is or if she was berried before you got her then take your good shrimp out and keep the mum and babies separate from your breeders until you can see some colour and then decide. I think it's always better to be safe as the babies can breed quite young and a promiscuous young male could breed with a number of females and before you know it your bloodline can be compromised. Just my opinion but it works for me. I have a lovely Chocolate colony but even they throw low grade chocolates which I take out as soon as I can tell their colour is not up to standard, however some of the culls often have nice blue tones and I work with those to develop a blue colony.

[daz88]

Cheers ineke, she wasn't berried before so male was definitely chocolate. I have a tank rdy to make the move for the chocs.

[BlueBolts]

Depends in the generations and strictness of the selective breeding. We should expect them to breed true, but even my blue cherry program throws a batch of wild/clear cherry occasionally, even after 3-4 generations...grrr.....my browns don't tend to throw reds, but blue....so really all depends. Difficult to absolutely guarantee with browns, blue, blacks, blue velvets etc....but reds & yellows are pretty much good now...

Depends on how strict you want to be.....if you're aiming for the perfect colony, then anything not brown gets culled.

[ineke]

You can just catch out the babies rather than catch the adults that way if there are chocolates they can stay in there. You always need to cull anyway. If you bought from a reliable breeder you will probably be OK. Just remove any that you don't like the colour by the time they are about 6-7 weeks. The fact that she was bred to a chocolate means the babies should be fine.

[daz88]

Ok. I.might remove some of those red looking babies first, if my net is fine enough.

[Gbang]

pretty much what bb and ineke said. any pics? would love to see them

[daz88]

Nicest specimen of originals, was thinking girl but when next to red female looks too slim in belly to be a girl.

This is mum.

Another original male, other 2 boys like this one (half the size of above two)

Following are babies. (3mm?)

Clear and brown (or brown brains?)

Red youngster

Low tank light and tiny babies means in focus shots are very difficult.