Black RCS

[jonathan03]

I noticed a black baby RCS in my tank today. I have a few females who have been carrying eggs in the past few weeks so there are several babies. But only one shrimp is black in color. All the rest are the regular clear color that most baby shrimp are. The shrimp that is black seems to be acting like all the other baby shrimp.

Has anyone ever had any shrimp that turned out to be a different color? I'm not sure how I did.

Also, I have only had RCS in my tank and no other types of shrimp. The only other inhabitants are snails that were hitch hikers on the live plants.

[chlorophyll]

Neat. If it is indeed healthy, it's probably a random mutation. Unfortunately if one wanted to perpetuate the color variant, you'd want another black one of the opposite sex and the chance of having another one pop up within this one's lifetime is probably very low.
It wouldn't surprise me if this color variant (if it is one) has been perpetuated on some level somewhere in the world. But I only know of plain N.d. sinensis (what I prefer to call "Taiwan (Grass) Shrimp" instead of the overtly commercial name "Taiwan Pale Blue Shrimp") which do tend to vary from greenish to reddish brown, and N.d. sinensis, variant red - the Cherries.

I was wondering if we could start calling "Red Cherries" just "Cherries," and Crystal Reds just "Crystals" ... the CRS / RCS thing drives me nuts!

[jonathan03]

Well I'm not sure that I found something new or if this is just a different colored cherry fry. The shrimp is still a fry and 1/8" at most.

I was wondering if its common for cherry fry to be a color other than clear? For example, some red devil fry are green with black stripes until they get larger and their color changes. Do cherries change color like this?

It could be something rare like the white buffalo from a few years back though

[JaVaGiRl]

One of my giant African filter feeders are turning green I think he might be sick though, so I don't think this would help you out Anyways, I have a batch of all black ghost shrimp, I was told it was because I have traces of sugar in my water. Good luck ! It may also be mutation like chlorophyll said. Albinos are lack of pigmentaion, maybe this shrimpie has the opposite affect. When I breed my crayfish, I breed rare blues with rare reds and get funky dunky colors. You never know what your gonna get I guess.

[Veneer]

One of my giant African filter feeders are turning green :) I think he might be sick though, so I don't think this would help you out :)

A. gabonensis (especially juveniles) are indeed characterized by great variability in coloration.

Albinos are lack of pigmentaion, maybe this shrimpie has the opposite affect.

Melanism does remain a distinct possibility.