Paratya Colours

[Tankeyone]

Hi guys, I recently caught about a dozen or so shrimp, that I believe are paratya, from a local creek.

They were initially crystal clear bodied, literally like glass, but a few weeks ago I noticed they were developing a green tinge.
A week or two later and two of them are berried. 

 

I am wondering if the colouring of paratya may be a similar phenomenon to some native fish species that develop colour in preparation for, during or as a result of breeding? 

I'm very much a Shrimp noob so would appreciate any input from your experience, or ideas on the topic you may have? 

 

Would share pictures but phone pics are absolute garbage and my wife has left the camera about an hours drive away and won't be able to collect it until later in the week. 

Edited December 29, 2014 by Tankeyone

[fishmosy]

Cant wait for the pics. With regards to colour in Paratya, I suspect that colour is related to stress and environment. I've found individuals that are in dark environments (under overhanging banks, in amongst roots) are darker than those found out in the open. I dont think it has anything to do with breeding as I've found berried Paratya in every month except june - july. Colouring up before breeding only makes sense if there is a short breeding season and you need to advertise to potential mates that you are ready and willing to breed.

Your shrimp may have coloured up because they have settled into the tank (less stressed) and possibly because of the foods you have been feeding. For example shrimp foods often contain colour enhancers such as astaxanthin. Have all the shrimp coloured up or only the berried females?

[Tankeyone]

Ah damn, I had forgotten about this, or maybe it's more accurate to say I blocked it from my memory.

I went away for 2-3days just after Christmas, enjoyed the two hottest days of this summer up the sunshine coast without a thought and returned home on the third day which was slightly cooler, to find my tanks sitting at ~30-31c late in the afternoon.
The cherries were sitting extremely still, fish were obviously a bit distressed, so I removed the lids and popped a fan in front to try to bring the temp down a little bit and dropped them to the ambient temp of around 27-28 over a couple of hours, 10-15% wc, and it wasn't until after this that I stopped and had a good look in the tanks. 

All my fish and cherries were A-ok, but of the dozen only about 3 paratya were still moving.

There were 3 or so mildly desiccated corpses sitting on the bottom that by the white milky colour were obviously dead for more than a few hours, and another est. 1-2 shredded from being cannibalized.

I suspect the other 4-5 (including the berried pair) died the first day and got eaten... there was an ammonia spike which is back under control now, and I've been doing around 20% wc every day or two as there was quite a bit of muck and a small worm/copepod outbreak.

 

Long, long story short, I have 2 left, both I believe are males, both are back to clear glass colouring. 
 

I don't know about the effect of colour enhancers in their food, I initially did not feed them anything except whatever the guppies in that tank didn't catch of the Hikari fancy guppy food, they started colouring up and both females berried while in that tank.

I moved them to a tank by themselves once I noticed the berried females and their colour strengthened, however I also changed them to a combination of Sera crustacean food and NLS at the same time, so could be a combination of things there. 

 

Since the creek is not too far away I will likely go and collect a few more in the coming weeks, but I am wary of going too soon, or taking more than a few, as last time I went looking their numbers had obviously declined.