milalic wrote:
I have had the wild form of the snowball shrimp. In my case they exhibited colors that were brown, blue and reddish.
-Pedro
Especially the mention of the color red makes me a little suspicious here. You might have received a batch of shrimp that might have crossbred with red cherries one way or another at some point in the past. I've seen this before...you receive non-red animals and some of offspring turn out to be red. Although the wild type snowballs can produce some interesting mutations (which they did in my tank), they all tend to be the same dark grayish coloration. Mine have never thrown any red/reddish offspring.
It might be, really hard to tell. The color was reddish, not similar like a cherry red male or female. But, oh well, guess it can get very complicated with this.
milalic wrote: The color was reddish, not similar like a cherry red male or female. But, oh well, guess it can get very complicated with this.
-Pedro
Yes, it can get complicated. However, you description is more and more starting to fit that of an hybrid. The reddish individuals that are thrown by Neocaridina hybrids do not resemble the red cherries all that much. They are usually a different kind of red.
I am just giving you a heads up because I know for a fact that putting together red cherries with the wild snowballs (and the white type also) was a rampant problem because people thought they couldn't interbreed.
Newjohn wrote:Mustafa
On one of the auction sites.
Someone from Germany is Trying to sell a Blue Pearl Shrimp.
They say it is from the Wild form of the SnowBall Shrimp.
Is this one of the Morph's you were talking about ?
I don't really know what exactly he has, but I suspect that it's the same shrimp as the following ones, unless he has bred another blue color morph himself:
If it's the same shrimp as above, which is highly likely, then the shrimp you see in the pictures are about as blue as they get right now. The photo on the auction site is very, very blurry, which might actually contribute to a more intense blue then they really are...IF they are the same shrimp as above (or that individual is just exceptionally bluish). The vast majority apparently still look like snowball shrimp with a very light bluish hue, barely visible. At least that's what I was told by people who have seen these shrimp. I'm not sure if the blue on these shrimp can be intensified and how this genetic trait is inherited, and if the blue can really be intensified and stabilized at some point. If that could be done, that would be great.
Last edited by Mustafa on Thu Sep 21, 2006 8:29 am, edited 2 times in total.
These do breed totally true. I got 10 of them in the first place and now have about a hundred, that look like that. I will try to take a picture of a larger group, and show it to you, however that will be difficult with my camera.
Blue pearl shrimp are not bred from white snowball shrimp. You can easily see that because they have brown eggs, no white eggs like snowball shrimp. I do not know exactly how the breeder did accomplish that. I can only guess. In wild snowballs there are always some individuals who show blue pigmentation. But that blue pigmentation is hidden by brown pigmentation usually. If they are under stress (catching etc) , the brown pigmentation fades and the blue becomes visible. Somehow he managed to get rid of the brown pigmentation and leave only the blue. Maybe by breeding with snowball shrimp, I do not know.
Wild snowball shrimp are very variable in color. They can show like any color of a rainbow. The breeder who created snowball shrimp had selected for other morphs , too, some years ago, but got ill and had to put them together again. He was able to reselect for the blue strain.
As someone mentioned those reddish wild snowball shrimp here, I started selecting for those, recently. As they appear more commonly in some tanks than in others I think it is genetic and can be bred for a pure strain. Its not a bright red, like red cherry shrimp, but a brownish, pinkish red. But still nice.
In fact there are at least 3 blue dwarf shrimp species know that do breed true. Blue tiger shrimp, blue "Tüpfel" shrimp and blue pearl shrimp. Addional to that there are imported Neocaridina shrimp that are blue for some unknown reason, maybe food in their natural habitats or maybe even parasites (like in Neocaridina palmatas orange inclusion bodies). Those are recently sold as blue pearl shrimp, too, in some online shops, but are something completely different.
I do not have blue Tüpfel myself. They are very rare. They are darker in color. Look like blue tiger shrimp, but have no stripes, only some spots. They are a Caridina species, too, apparently.
In fact there are at least 3 blue dwarf shrimp species know that do breed true. Blue tiger shrimp, blue "Tüpfel" shrimp and blue pearl shrimp. Addional to that there are imported Neocaridina shrimp that are blue for some unknown reason, maybe food in their natural habitats or maybe even parasites (like in Neocaridina palmatas orange inclusion bodies). Those are recently sold as blue pearl shrimp, too, in some online shops, but are something completely different.
These must be the shrimp that do not have blue offspring. If you have blue shrimp that are breeding true that is very rare. I will be waiting to see a picture of these.
