Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

The last couple of days, I have seen one half-grown specimen that has a white tail. The front half of the body is normally pigmented, not solid red yet, still a young one. My first thought was an incomplete molt, but after seeing the same thing a couple days later (assuming it IS the same shrimp), it's got me wondering. The tail seems to be completely lacking any color, not even the dark line down the middle most have, that I would presume is the digestive tract.
Any idea's?

Does happen in crayfish, too. Like a orange crayfish and the carapace is completely white. Not a genetic thing that will be inherited by the young ones though as far as I know.

However I would like to see a photo of that shrimp. Sounds cool.

Completely white are usually albino's, they lack any pigmentation. Snowball shrimp are a good example. This one looks like a cherry shrimp with a snowball tail. If/when I see it again, I'll try to catch and isolate it for a pic.

No, these are not albinos. I do not know exactly how it works. Maybe a loss of some chromosomes in one cell in a very early stage of development. Or something like that. But that is only a guess.

I would also like to see a picture of this, sounds very interesting. They still behave and feed normally?

It's only one shrimp, acts the same as the rest, just looks odd.