Moderator: Mustafa
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No, of course not!GunmetalBlue wrote:Mustafa, is this what's called protogyny, or is this a completely different process? And do you know for a fact that this takes place with RCS?Mustafa wrote:But it might also have something to do with the fact that sex develops *after* hatching from the eggs in many animals. I've had what turned out to be males later on, start out as *solid* red animals when they were small..not just little blotches of red close together but really solid red (I looked at them with a macro lens).
That's why I said "might" instead of "does" above. It's a possibility which I still have to explore. I only separated out the darkest red juveniles regardless of sex...couldn't tell the sex but I assumed they were all female being "superred" at such a young age....but i was wrong. More about it below...I do remember you mentioning separating out young "red" RCS, only to find them turning less red ... unfortunately, I can't quite remember if you were separating male shrimp or female shrimp and don't know what method you used. Like how would you know what sex they were if they were young, and whether some of them in the group went on to become females, something I would entirely expect when splitting them by color, before they mature.
Also, my personal experience so far is, I haven't seen "solid" red RCS when they are young (though I didn't have the benefit at the time of dark substrate, so a piece of my personal findings is incomplete, but I'll certainly watch for it in any future hatchings).
I have a few running around in my tank right now. I hope I can catch them with my camera to post a few pictures. To my knowledge, I don't think anyone's male has this opaqueness, young or old. I haven't seen very young females with this trait either - so hopefully you can understand the skepticism expressed.
I will as soon as I catch one of them closer to the front glass. Ok...how do I know that the solid red shrimp were male? Here's the explanation. I took out about 6-7 solid, dark red half inch or less juveniles from a red cherry tank and separated them into another tank for selective breeding. Of course I thought they were all female and I was hoping to add a male later on once the young reached sexual maturity. To my surprise, 2 of the solid red shrimp grew up to be males! Not only did they lose the solid red over time, but they also managed to fertilize the females in the tank. I never added another male...that colony is still going strong. I still see dark red young regularly in that tank, but I know better now to assume that they are all females. So, this cannot be explained by your "late-bloomer" theory. Skepticism or not...you either believe me or you don't. If you don't, that means that you think I must be lying as I have just told you that I separated 6-7 dark red juveniles of which 2 turned lost their color and turned into males fertilizing the females in that same tank. There is nothing wrong with the logic and methodology, so either I am lying or telling the truth.Next time you see a young shrimp that is solid red, you should try and get a picture and document his or her (whichever way the shrimp ends up leaning
When you say you looked at them with a macro lens, do you mean through a camera lens? You won't actually see that kind of magnified detail unless you've got a viewfinder the size of a computer monitor, so you'll need to actually TAKE the picture
Of course I had to take the picture to see the animal in magnification. Sorry about expressing my thoughts so poorly.
