Cleaning Up The Shrimp Lineage?

Hey guys,

I want to ask something about how I can increase the grade of the shrimps in my tank. First, a small background:

My first shrimp were 15 red fires - low grade. I bought them for very cheap as babies, and the guy said they would color up as they grow (they didn't). As time passed, I added to the tank another batch of red cherries, and orange neos. They did prosper, but as you would expect in a mixed neo tank, a lot of wild types started to pop up. I started collecting them in a breeder net and sold them (100+ so far), but it's a very slow and tedious process as you would imagine, especially since the tank is heavily planted so they have lots of room to hide.

Now I want to repair the mistake I made by mixing them, and cull (well, in my case - sell) all the low grade shrimp. What I am hoping for, is to obtain a majority of high quality, full body, intense red neos. So here are a few questions that I would appreciate if you could answer:

1) If 2 high grade shrimp breed, will the offspring be mostly high grade as well? Or the quality of the coloring is a lottery, meaning you get mixed grades of red.

2) At what size approximately do they begin to breed. There's lots of smallish shrimp (about 1 cm) that don't display the best colors, and catching them takes a looooot of time. I'm worried they get a chance to pass on their genes before I take them out.

3) can shrimp breed through the breeder net - those on the inside with those on the outside? Silly question, but I'm not entirely aware of how the sexual act happens with shrimp

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• happah
• Jan 11, 2019

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• happah
• Jan 11, 2019

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• happah
• Jan 11, 2019

 

I'm interested to see the answers too. I really have no idea but do have some thoughts.

I have red, blue, and yellow Sunkist shrimp that breed like crazy. Some are spectacular, deep colored, show shrimp. Some are mutts that are just cool to have in the tank.

I feel like it's likely that breeding 2 high quality shrimp will increase the likelihood the offspring are high quality as with most animals. Some of my shrimp are a black/grey color. I believe this is from the blue and red shrimp interbreeding. So if the two color shrimps make a dull colored shrimp, it would make sense that two high quality breeders would lead to very nice offspring.

I'll be following this thread to see what everyone else says.

 

1. Pick out the best and start a new tank with them.
   • As many good females as you can
   • As few good males as you can
2. Sell everything of the old colony.
   • Don't even keep colorless babies
3. Repeat from step 1 after the new colony has bred a few generations.

 

Sugestion, after you sell as many as you can catch , introduce a couple of good shrimp predators to cleanup what's left.

 

Wait wait guys, I only have 1 tank and no possibility of getting more (I rent a student room, and there is no more room for anything). I am trying to get the best results from the status quo.

 

Wait wait guys, I only have 1 tank and no possibility of getting more (I rent a student room, and there is no more room for anything). I am trying to get the best results from the status quo.

Well... time to cull... heavily. Kinda impossible with two colors in the same tank interbreeding. It'll be an endless battle.

 

Will keep on culling, and probably sell the few oranges I have (although they are absolutely marvelous). But guys...nobody actually answered my questions.

 

(1) If you pick 2 of your best shrimp the off spring will get better then from that lot you need to take the best again and repeat the process doing this will eventually give you high grade but you will need more tanks you wount do it with a single tank
(2) Shrimp are sexually mature at 3 months ish
(3) I doubt they will breed through the breeder net shrimp don't stay still to breed and the actual mating process is less than 1 second males chase the female when she lets off a pheromone and the chase begins
You do have some very nice shrimp in there but you have another problm by having mixed colours in there.
Adding a different strain of red as you did is good for the bloodline but again you should mix the best from the two strains in a separate tank,
No doubt you will get some good off spring as you are but a lot of culling will be needed

 

Well... time to cull... heavily. Kinda impossible with two colors in the same tank interbreeding. It'll be an endless battle.

Could you put a divider up? Place the yellows in a container "herd" the red to one side ..divide..acclimate yellow back in to the opposite side.

 

Good idea