Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

I purchased some red cherries and what was listed as Minami shrimp a few months ago and while cleaning my vastly overgrown tank, I discovered a different species of shrimp. They are bigger than my cherries, black with a tan stripe down the back and some (I believe to be the males) are grayish in color. Could these be Neocaridina cf. zhangjiajiensis and did they mutate or were there just some mixed in with the "Minami"? Here are the links to the pictures I took. I'm not sure how to upload, so hopefully this works. Let me know if anyone has comments. It would be much appreciated! Thanks! http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff53 ... hrimp2.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff53 ... hrimp1.jpg

I'm no expert, but that doesn't look like any zhangjiajiensis I've ever seen, either live or in pics. Do you know whether the Minami were captive-bred and/or kept in a single-species tank? I have heard that they can be quite variable in color, but black w/brown stripe is a new one on me.
Incidentally, you need to edit the [/url] off of the end of the 2nd pic link to make it work properly,

Hi pauleysgrl

And welcome to the Forum.
The first picture is not a Neocaridina cf. zhangjiajiensis.

You need to be careful if you have both types of shrimp in the same tank because they may cross breed.

The "Minami" shrimp & RCS are both Neocaridina .

Here is a link to help better understand the "Minami" Shrimp
viewtopic.php?t=2624&highlight=minami

John

I purchased the "Minami" and RCS from the same person, but don't know the origin. She shipped them together, so they may have been in the same tank. If they are not zhangjianjiensis, they may be some mutated cross-breed of the two, because I have them in the same tank along with the RCS I already had. I find it interesting that they are bigger than either of the other two breeds. I also am not sure if my "Minami" are really Minami at all. In looking through all the varieties listed and the pictures, zhangjianjiesis was the only one that looked like these "mutants".

The second link should work now. Thanks for the tip!

The problem with trying to ID shrimp from questionable sources will only become worse if they are kept together in the same tank. Being shipped together leads me to think they came from the same tank. (At least I certainly wouldn't mix shrimp from different tanks in the same bag...)
If the odd shrimp in question is a result of crossbreeding then it's a hybrid, not a mutant. "Mutant" shrimp are like albino's, a relatively rare combo of genes from the gene pool of one species, not a combination of genes from 2 different species.
It's also entirely possible that the odd shrimp is a different species altogether. It would be best to ask the person you got them from for more details about their origin and current setup.

You can't just look at a single picture and decide that you likely have that shrimp...especially not as a new shrimp keeper. The "wild snoballs" are not a common shrimp by any means, neither here nor in Europe or anywhere else. I have a colony here and I have sold a bunch of them but I am not aware of anyone publicly offering them for sale in the US.

What you have are not "mutants" or anything but just the largest females of the Neocaridina spp. (carelessly and wrongly called "Minami" by the seller) that you received with the red cherries. The larger the females, the stronger their colors (usually). Neocaridina spp. can have all kinds of colors depending on the substrate, food, mood etc..

Do me a favor and read up everything you can on "Neocaridina" (and everything else you may have questions about) on this forum as a lot has been written over the years. It may take hours or days to perform all the searches, but that's part of the rules here. It will avoid repetitive questions (and answers) in the future.

And as other people said...you're going to end up with a bunch of "mutts" anyway as all Neocaridina spp., that I am aware of, can interbreed. Of course they may have already interbred in the tank of your "source" before you even got them if they were kept together.

"pauleysgrl" decided to break the rules once more...this time deliberately. Message deleted. "pauleysgrl" banned.