Opinions

[sfsam]

So my display tank is throwing more and more of these. They seem to grow up, molt etc fine so I'm not thinking disease but I keep putting off culling since I'm new to shrimp (almost one year) and really don't want to put something sick in my cull tank. It's been the past couple months and I'm seeing more of them to varying levels with this coloration. It's really not a great photo but the best I can get with my phone. Is it a color var or a disease? I want to put this concern to bed as seriously have put off culling and it's getting out of hand with lesser quality that I'd prefer to remove... Unless of course it's nasty business then at this point the tank will be under quarantine or medicated if there's treatment. Please help.

 

A few different shots, all have the blue/purple tint to some degree and a small group shot as not all have it but comparable to one that does in the group.

 

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[aotf]

Where did you get your cherries?
That coloration makes me think of Bloody Marys, which come from the chocolate lineage and from which Blue Diamonds are derived.

Either way, looks cool. Do they have that mixed coloration from a young age? Doesn't seem like a disease to me.

Start a purple tank!
(You have no idea how popular that would be, people have been dreaming of purple neos for a long time.)

[sfsam]

Well that's kind of where I'm at, and I've actually been culling Sakura for painted fire reds since I very first got them and I have enough to have a small pure painted fire colony now but have put off culling because I was unsure of what I had going on... I am upgrading this tank to a 10-15 gallon soon so it would be excellent timing to start these guys on their own colony and see what I can get from it. They are definitely not Bloody Mary as in the early days I definitely was culling low grade cherries and I've also thrown a few red rili. I have not added to my colony but intend to add some painted fires to broaden blood lines I just have to wait on weather and my tank upgrade.

 

They don't have any indication of it until they are about half big but not quite breeding, the females seem to show it around the time they start getting their first saddles. There's a small one kinda in the hoopla in one of the photos above. Some less intense ones don't show until adult ages, like the lesser of the dark one in that photo, that one probably didn't display the changes until recently. To be honest I pay much less attention to my males and generally pick out the two or three best and return them to the tank after originally culling them lol but I have finally started getting some real solid quality males which is why I felt ready to cull to entirely painted fires. There's so many in the tank now though I absolutely cannot follow a single odd shrimp through growth its just general observation at this point lol

 

All shrimp originally came from Aquatic Arts as Sakura grade.

I was planning to decommission this tank and two other 5 gallon tanks so I'll have space to continue this line. If that's the common concensus I'll quit putting it off and tidy up two colonies!

 

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[aotf]

Good job on the culls, those are looking really good.

You've got me curious, that is a weird coloration for cherries. Really interested to see what you can cull towards.

The only other thing I can think of is some sort of shell disease but it looks really distributed and if the females who have that color are still breeding... you may have something cool.

[wyzazz]

It's just a color variation, I get a few of these once in a while and I put them in my cull tank.  They grow up fine and live long happy lives.  They even have "normal" colored babies.