My Green Shrimp aren't

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 7:40 pm

After adding lots of oak leaves to my "green" cherry tank they all turned brown. Looks like they are just light brown wild types and have color changing abilities. If they live in a tank of javamoss they are light green, in a tank with brown leaves they are brown. Pretty cool shrimp.

Post by **Mustafa** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 11:23 pm

Yeah...makes sense. Some shrimp can adjust their color to a certain degree to blend in...especially Neocaridina sp.

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 12:04 am

A "cameleon" cherry shrimp! Put them in different color surroundings and you can find out how versatile they are

.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 2:30 am

We already knew that cherries get more intense with a dark background. Sure looks like a survival trait to me. Looks like I have a tank of wilds, or nearly so.

frugalfish · Post by **frugalfish** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 9:57 am

I have had the same thing occur with my green-"ish" shrimp as well. Mine are now a mix of browns and greens.

paintworx · Post by **paintworx** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 7:13 pm

SO can you get the best color by simply changing the color of the background? Poster board, for example? Or do the rocks, substrate, and wood have to do with it also? My red cherries are not red!

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 7:23 pm

Cherries have many shades of color and all are not created equal. Mood has a lot more to do with color than background, but a happy shrimp in a dark green background seems to be the most intense for mine.

Many of the shrimp you can buy are ones people are trying to get rid of, so they are the most poorly colored of their population.

Other issues are water quality. If your water is not up to their liking, you canhang up the color until they die. Then for some demented reason, they turn bright red.