Blue Amanos?

[badflash]

I was at the New York Metro Reptile Expo today in Whiteplains NY. Oddly enogh Frank Greco of Frank's aquarium was there and had a pot full of Amano shrimp, so I bought about 60 of these guys. Without shipping and by buying in bulk you can get a lot more shrimp. Some of the females are showing saddles, so eggs can't be that far away.

About 4 of these shrimp were a light pastel blue, and look to be females. Frank says he gets a few blue ones in most shipments. Anyone know anything about blue Amanos?

Now my 15 bachelor shrimp have some female company and I can get on with my amano breeding experiment and plenty of amanos for all my other tanks. I have a 5 gallon tank set up and saltwater greenwater going. I'm burning it in with snails and brine shrimp. I have resting rotifer eggs and and playing around with a culter of freshwater rotifers to make sure I know what I'm doing.

[GunmetalBlue]

Here ya go, Badflash : viewtopic.php?t=660&highlight=blue+amanos

-GB

[badflash]

Thanks Amigo-
I didn't figure searching on "blue" would be worthwhile and I can't get the multiple term search to work -sigh-

So it is just wait and see if the color fades. Interesting to note that they others also observed all the blues were female.

This could be a good way to select for females then.

[Shady]

THe blue coloration in crustaceans is caused when a blue protein complex called crustacyanin is genetically overproduced, masking the red proteins, called astaxanthin. Normally, these complexes are present in proportions that result in "nomal" colors, like greens, grays and browns. But genetic mutation allows excess crustacyanin to be produced, and hence the blue color.

I'm not aware of any evidence that acute stress causes this condition to appear/disappear quickly, but that doesn't mean it cannot. It seems unlikely, since the pigments are carried in the carapace, and not the softer tissues.

[badflash]

Here is a pic of one of my blue amanos. I've had her for 2 weeks now. The color is not fading and she is very blue compared to the others. We'll see what happens after she molts. She isn't stressed as far as I can tell.

[Mustafa]

That's not an amano shrimp from what I can tell in that small picture. It looks like the "blue shrimp" that are on the market once in a while, which are Neocaridina species and seem to be somehow artificially colored. Their blue coloration stays but their offspring are all clear again. Just like the green shrimp that was mixed in with your amanos, this blue shrimp probably also got mixed in.

[badflash]

I'll see if I can get a better picture. To my eye they are the same as the amanos except for the color. They have the same pattern of spots. If it was what you think, what would be the characteristics that would distinguish it from an amano shrimp?

[Mustafa]

In the picture you have above I don't see any spot patterning at all. With Amano shrimp it's really not rocket science to tell them apart from other shrimp. If it has the same spot patterning as this



then it's a Caridina japonica (amano shrimp). Plus, these shrimp get fairly large whereas most other dwarf shrimp stay smaller.

[badflash]

Yes, they have the spots, which is why I figured all the blues were female. They have the same spot pattern as the others but all the blues have the elongated spots that I'm told indicates they are female. These shrimp are about 1.5" and are the largest shrimp in this mixed breed tank with the green shrimp, zebras and the cherries.

Like I said, I'll try to get a better picture. My equipment just isn't all that good.

[badflash]

Ok her is another picture. Forgive the quality of the photo. I need to invest in a better camera and tripod, but this is as good as it gets for now.

You can see the dots although it is a bit blurry. You can also see the color contrast between the blue amano and the normal color of the shrimp in the lower right.

I got this shrimp on 11/27 so if the color fades, it isn't quick. I'll see what happens when they molt. She should be about due.

[Kenshin]

That still looks like a Neocaridina sp. to me. I have had Amano shrimps before, and that picture does not even come close in appearance to an Amano shrimp. Sorry

[badflash]

Look at this one:


I re-sampled another the picture to make it bigger and monkeyed with the colors and contrast to bring out the dots more clearly. I got these shrimp from Frank Greco and the normal and blues look just a like. They are also 1.5-1.75" long. They also look just like the amanos I got from petshrimp.com

So what is the basis of:

that picture does not even come close in appearance to an Amano shrimp

Are there some particular characteristics that you see that are non-amano like?

[badflash]

I got another shot. On the white sand she bleaches out, but you should be able to see her more clearly:

[Mustafa]

Alright, they do look like Amano shrimp. Maybe they were fed with the same permanent food coloring that the so called "blue shrimp" (some Neocaridina sp.) were fed with. Those shrimp stay blue or bluish all their lives but their offspring are never blue.

[badflash]

In my first post I said:

About 4 of these shrimp were a light pastel blue, and look to be females. Frank says he gets a few blue ones in most shipments.

It could be that they ate something, but why wouldn't all of them be blue? In the case of Amanos it would be unlikely that anyone would breed these to see if this was a trait vs. a dye. If I get a chance to brred these gals we'll see. It is just sort of odd that 100% of the blues are female and this was also previously reported by others in this forum. Search on "Blue Amano shrimp???".

I think it is just possible that like other shrimp, there are color variations. In my tanks many are nearly clear while most are a light green and several are blue.