Orange Supershrimp breeding project -- finally!

[Mustafa]

Hey people!

So, after years of dragging my butt I finally separated 2 female and 1 male orange mutation Supershrimp into their own little breeding container last November or so. And recently one of the females started carrying eggs. In about 5-10 days the larvae should be floating around already. I thought I'd share a few pictures and will update this thread regularly. (Alternatively I may actually start a blog and link to it)

Here are some pictures from about November (first of the shrimp (taken 11.4.2016), and second the type of tank they're in):

Here is the berried female from 3.27.2017:

And the male (taken 3.18.2017):

And this picture of the other female with developing eggs was taken on 4.20.2017:

[Varanus]

While I think I will always prefer the red shrimp, I anticipate the results of this experiment and any that follow to be fascinating. It seems likely you are the first person to really try this. And while its far too soon to say it with any certainty, I still think its possible that if color strains can be successfully bred then it could be an important step to motivate suppliers of shrimp to breed them in captivity rather than take them from the wild.

[Mustafa]

The red ones are super awesome looking already of course. But you know how the human mind normally works. If something is new and rare people generally want it more. Plus, people can always keep two tanks (or more if there are more mutations in the future)...one red, one orange. And yes, I agree..various color mutations on the market would virtually guarantee that at some point fewer animals are taken from the wild. Of course if the people actually followed the rules and regulations in the state of Hawaii, that would already be happening, but that's a different topic.

I'm very excited about mutations in general. My favorite would be a blue supershrimp. And black ones would be nice too. We'll see what hidden treasures my tanks have crawling and swimming around in them.

[nova]

What substrate is that in the tanks? it looks very nice, like ice

[Mustafa]

Oh, it's just very course silica sand.

[Mustafa]

Some potentially good news! It *looks* like the larvae of the orange shrimp are also going to be orange. Which of course would most likely mean (given that "normal" Supershrimp larvae are red) that the postlarvae/shrimp and eventually adult shrimp will also be orange. So...the orange shrimp *appear* to be true breeding!

See the pictures below...the mother is still carrying the unhatched larvae around but you can already see their orange bodies.

[Arquisto]

Looking more and more like there is potential to selectively breed for that color. I'm eager to see how far you'll be able to get with this within a year.

[KenCotigirl]

Black and Blue oooohh now we are talking!

KenP

[JennyPenny]

I'm very excited to see how this goes! Please let us know if you find other colors in your tanks.

[Mustafa]

Alright...the larvae are hatching, but still not free-floating. And yes...it's even more clear that they are orange now.

[Varanus]

Are there any concerns about inbreeding given you are only using three individuals? I guess you could easily add more individuals later of course now that it seems the color is genetic and passed down. I'm just reminded of how fragile some strains of freshwater shrimp are due to inbreeding.

[Mustafa]

I have exactly 0 concerns about inbreeding after years of experience with it. Including freshwater shrimp species I have yet to see any effect inbreeding has on shrimp populations. it seems like any negative effect inbreeding would have on any given individual (i.e. negative mutations or combinations of genes) leads to almost certain mortality over time so that those individuals don't make it. That's at least my current hypothesis.

Usually when I hear that certain freshwater strains are "weak" it indicates that the breeder has some problems with his/her tanks rather than the shrimp being genetically weak. But yes...I could theoretically cross the orange ones with the red ones at some point if necessary...but I don't see it happening really.

Also..finding three individuals with this color mutation is actually a better scenario than in most cases where you just find one. Then you breed that one with a normal one and then breed the offspring back to that one you found. I have two females, so I can at least have a little bit more diversity by breeding the babies of the two females with each other instead of back to the parents. Not that it matters much with shrimp...

[Varanus]

Ah, I've just always read that ones like the crystal red shrimp are notoriously more sensitive/fragile than what they were developed from.

[Mustafa]

Yeah..people keep saying that..but that hasn't been my experience. They are just about as sensitive as the wild form. Of course most people have no experience with the wild form so they just assume the mutations are especially sensitive.

[Keystone]

Alright...the larvae are hatching, but still not free-floating. And yes...it's even more clear that they are orange now.

001.JPG

That's a fantastic photograph, Mustafa!