Cherry Shrimp Grade

So I plan on getting some painted fire red cherry shrimp, I read that those are one of, if not, the highest grade on cherry shrimp. While I was looking, I found some shrimp called bloody mary shrimp. They look just like the painted fire reds. I just wanted to know what the difference was between the two? Are they just different grades of cherry shrimp or is it something totally different? Also, if they were housed together, would they interbreed?

 

I can't answer part of your question, but if the shrimp are the same species they will breed. So any grade of red cherry shrimp will interbreed- as will all color variants. That's why people usually just keep one grade and color per tank.


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So would you know if those two are the same species? I haven't really found much on that. It seems like bloody mary shrimp are more of a rarity compared to the painted fire reds. I might get both types and see what happens but that decision is not set in stone

 

I believe that bloody Mary are a tiny bit more red the pfr. I heard that also bloody Marys are hand picked from the pfr shrimp, and tend to have a deeper darker red. I have not kept them, I just heard this from a breeder I know.

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Thanks for the info! I'm planning on a doing 2 10 gallong shrimp tanks, one for red cherry shrimp and one for dream blue velvet. I just wanted to know if it would be a good idea to mix bloody mary with pfr to get a better looking red.

I read that pfr, the exterior of the shrimp is what's red and that with bloody mary, its more that the flesh is red. Almost like a red light is shining inside of them and they look glossier than pfr

 

Theres mainly two colored species of dwarf shrimp that people keep- the species that makes up the blue velvet shrimp, red cherry shrimp variants, and there might be a yellow variation I've seen. I think this one is neocardina.
The other is the species that has all of the bumblebee and crystal shrimp, plus "green hulk" shrimp. I think this one is just cardina.
Correct me if I'm wrong, I think that's how it is though.


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Thanks for the info, I didnt know that. Good thing I wasn't going to mix the bue dreams and pfr haha. I just really want to know about keep bloody mary's with pfr and if breeding makes the colors worse or better

 

Thanks for the info, I didnt know that. Good thing I wasn't going to mix the bue dreams and pfr haha. I just really want to know about keep bloody mary's with pfr and if breeding makes the colors worse or better

As far as I know you will get a mix between the grades, but MOST LIKELY the higher grade is the recessive gene, so the bloody mary shrimp genes will have much less of a chance to be passed on in the next generations. I understand why you just want a few- they are so expensive!
To give an example of what I mean, assuming that the Bloody Mary gene is recessive, if u have 5 of those and 10 pfrs, then you have a 1/3 chance that generation 2 will have bloody mary genes, and a 1/6 chance that they will be bloody marys. Generation 3 will then have a higher chance of getting those genes since there is more shrimp in there, but since its the recessive trait in a heterozygous genome, in theory half of the offspring would get that trait and half would get the pfr side- so if two shrimp that are heterozygous pfr-bloody mary breed(so they look like normal pfr shrimp), in theory 1/2 of the offspring will also have bloody mary genes but will not be bloody mary shrimp, 1/4 will be bloody mary shrimp, and 1/4 will be normal. I hope that made some sort of sense, but that's the simplest way I can think of to put it.

EDIT: So the simple answer to your question would be that in time, your pfrs would have better genes and your bloody marys would have worse genes.
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Yea the bloody mary shrimp are pretty expensive. But its gonna be so worth it to see the bright red in a planted tank with black sand

That makes sense haha took me back to my high school days but I know what you mean. Looks like I'll be setting up 3 shrimp tanks then cuz I love the looks of all three; bloody mary, pfr and blue dreams, all in planted tanks with black sand. Theres no such thing as TOO many tanks is there? haha I don't think so

Maybe once I have everything set up and the colonies are blooming (fingers crossed) I can mix a few bloody marys and pfr and see what the out come is.