# What do cross-bred shrimps look like?



## ambchang (Mar 15, 2010)

Most people frown upon cross breeding shrimp, and I can certainly understand the rationale behind it. However, I currently have about 40 RCS, but I am really interested in Yellow shrimps.

Issue is that I have no place to house another tank, not even a 5G. I am aware of the issue of interbreeding, but what does the end result look like? Will they be sometime red and sometimes yellow? Brown? Red and Yellow? Orange? Will those shrimps be healthy?


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

red + yellow is only brown. They'll be very healthy, but also very ugly unfortunately.


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## Axelrodi202 (Jul 29, 2008)

Cross-bred shrimp usually look a lot like the wild type shrimp.


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## Nue (Dec 27, 2009)

Ugly, dont do it.


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

If you really have to do this, get a divider and filter each side with sponge filters.


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## xmas_one (Feb 5, 2010)

Yellows and Reds will crossbreed...

check out this chart, you might want to pick a different shrimp that you can keep with your RCS.....










http://www.planetinverts.com/Will These Shrimp Interbreed.html


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## Nue (Dec 27, 2009)

You can get another kind. Like Green Caridina Babaulti, a lot of those turn out yellow, but you get a wide range of greens and yellows. And they live with RCS, and not crossbreed. I have a tank with those two.


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## ambchang (Mar 15, 2010)

Thanks for the advice, I think I just won't.


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## Nue (Dec 27, 2009)

That doesn't mean you cannot add another species, just not any Neo-Caridina.


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## msnikkistar (Mar 23, 2010)

In the beginning of keeping shrimp (3 years ago), I made the mistake of keeping both the yellow and RCS together. 

Some stayed yellow, some stayed red, the majority of them turned back to their "wild" color, and then I had some crazy color morphs 3 generations in and eventually I ended up with some maroon colored RCS. I have only a few of those left in my herd of RCS, as I re-introduced some dark reds. After about 5 more additional generations, all my shrimp are red again. Thank god.


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

Yellow shrimp and cherry shrimp are the same species. Breeding them would not result in inbred shrimp (in fact, they'd be more genetically diverse), and thus probably healthier. I grew tired of 'fancy' looking shrimp and the shrimp I most commonly use now are light brown wild-type mutts (a combination of cherry shrimp and 'minami' shrimp, which I believe are just wild-type cherries) - they breed extremely fast and blend in better with foliage, surviving fish predation better.


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