# Red Cherry Breeding advice please?



## Notator (22 Nov 2012)

Having discovered that the magic formula for breeding Red Cherry Shrimp is:-
Water + RCS = Lots of RCS's
 
I've noticed that some of the new progeny are brilliantly coloured - solid colour, amost sakura/fire coloured...
Some are well coloured RCS examples with colour fading to speckles on the undersides...
and some are very lightly coloured - a few are even completely transparent...

So, help me please is it:
A) Poor original stock genes?
B) Something I might be doing wrong?

And further, would it be advisable to euthanise the poorer examples to remove them from the gene pool (well, tank.._)

Any advice or help would be most warmly received,
Thanks, Jerry


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## basil (22 Nov 2012)

Don't forget that the males almost always display poorer colour than the gals. Wait until old enough to sex and then decide if they are worthy of you're tank if you want to maintain the higher grades. Move lower grades to another tank or sell em off as cull grade. Best not to kill them though!


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## Alastair (22 Nov 2012)

I agree, not nice to euthanise just because they don't show enough colour. Plenty if people would be willing to take them 


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## Matt Warner (22 Nov 2012)

Hi, I have found very young shrimp have no colour at all. It usually takes about 3 or 4 weeks before they start showing any colour. As above, the males are always more bland in colour than the females. My male yellow shrimp are very pale compared to the females. If there are some which are still colourless when older, just sell them or move them to their own tank.


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## Palm Tree (22 Nov 2012)

I agree with the above, don't euthanise them because they are not the 'perfect' colour. I actually think there would be a market for colourless shrimp. They don't have an impact on the tank like a bright red sakura would, which is good if you only want shrimp for their algae eating properties and not their colouration. If you want to get rid of some you could always send them too me


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## Notator (22 Nov 2012)

Thanks for the info folks...

Unfortunately moving them to another tank isn't possible - I have been threatened with divorce already!
However, I am just a few weeks away from having my new 240L tank up and running and my shrimpies will be
moving to more luxurious accomodation!

I'd much rather pass the clear or less coloured ones along to a new home - I didn't know there would be any interest in them! So when I'm able to I will be more than willing to send them to a happy home than have to despatch them in the other sense!

Does anyone know how I managed to get transparent RCS though? - And I really do mean transparent..not poor colour but NO colour (perhaps the slightest tinge of yellow/greem...but VERY slight) ???


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## Palm Tree (23 Nov 2012)

Mabey they have reverted back to their wild type?


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## Matt Warner (23 Nov 2012)

Maybe the shrimp have had too many generations of inbreeding and that's why they've lost their colour. I don't know how many times red cherry shrimp can inbreed for until you start getting more drab looking shrimp. I'm sure someone on here will know though.


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## Notator (23 Nov 2012)

Does anyone think it would be worth sourcing some from somewhere different to mix up the genes? Would that help?
I'm really pround of my "best ones" - they're as good as any I've ever seen for sale... It's just this wierd thing that sometimes I get a new batch of babies thatt are so transparent its almost impressive! 

As regards "in breeding" - surely that is how these strains are produced isn't it? Can they breed "back" to their wild state? I thought too much inbreeding would leed to genetic faults, but I can't see how the dominant gene bred into them could breed back out?

*it's all very confusing!*


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## basil (23 Nov 2012)

Mix em up and get some new bloods in there. Move on the ones you don't want in there and concentrate the best together. Otherwise, they will start to dilute in colour. Not a quick process, but worth a stint on.

Mike.


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## Alastair (23 Nov 2012)

It's pretty standard practice from a few people I know to introduce a new batch from elsewhere after so long. I've got 70+ cherries in my tank and each group I bought I got from different people as time went on. 


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## Notator (24 Nov 2012)

The problem with living in the middle of nowhere as I do is that there is only one LFS that sells shrimp..and that's the one I got mine from!


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## basil (25 Nov 2012)

Notator said:
			
		

> The problem with living in the middle of nowhere as I do is that there is only one LFS that sells shrimp..and that's the one I got mine from!



Have a look on ebay, loads on there. Or of course Freshwatershrimp are online, offer an extensive range and also ship out live shrimp delivered to your home. 

Personally I've bought lots off ebay and had very few problems. Just type cherry shrimp in the ebay search.....


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