# Shrimp changing color?



## Abzirian (Mar 8, 2009)

Just wondering if anyone knew offhand.. 

My girlfriend bought some kind of shrimp at a vendor - i believe it was some blue variant of a snowball - anyway one of the shrimp turned a solid dark yellow when it had been transparent blue for a week now. Anyone heard of this happening?


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

Shrimp color is very dependant on the conditions of the tank they are in. I have never seen a shrimp chane colors but certian charicteristics may change like spots or lines as well as being a paler color then usuall.


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## Abzirian (Mar 8, 2009)

Ah- makes sense. However none of the other shrimps changed color or anything.. and while it was a pale blue before its a pretty solid yellow now..


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## Abzirian (Mar 8, 2009)

Hmm one more thing - i noticed a cherry red shrimp in there yesterday. It did used to have cherry red shrimps (two of them) before we tore it down, and we put it in our other tank. But after we transferred it we found another red one today, making it 3 cherry reds. They're all kinda large so i don't think its a baby that grew that fast.. So where did it come from? Did another one change colors or am i just crazy.. Also we found 2 brown shrimps (we speculated them to be the blue ones we bought)


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

Haha, wow.

Any pictures? Shrimp got mixed up or there was cross-breeding.


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## Abzirian (Mar 8, 2009)

Ok red cherries solved- girlfriend said we originally had 3. Must of been one shrimp that survived the teardown. As for the blue to yellow and brown, im not so sure. My camera broke so i tried taking cell phone pics, but they are completely unviewable. I'll try to get a friend's camera later..


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## Abzirian (Mar 8, 2009)

Ok pics attached. Camera was pretty much an antique so quality is horrible. The first one is the yellow one, and the second is its blue brother (or sister?) which was what it originally looked like before. The third is the tank its from.


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## Sheriff (Feb 25, 2009)

The solid yellow shrimp is probably sick. I had a few shrimp turn the same color and they died a couple weeks later.


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## Superedwin (Jan 19, 2009)

^^ Or he could of bought a yellow shrimp.


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## Abzirian (Mar 8, 2009)

Sheriff said:


> The solid yellow shrimp is probably sick. I had a few shrimp turn the same color and they died a couple weeks later.


Should i isolate him?



Superedwin said:


> ^^ Or he could of bought a yellow shrimp.


I did think that she might have bought a yellow one, but the bag had 6 blue shrimps in it, and minus the cherry reds those are the only shrimps we have. Didn't know if i should think it was a true yellow that was pale blue before or a blue shrimp that turned yellow


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## customdrumfinishes (Apr 4, 2008)

i have some rainbow/malayain shrimp that change colors but not to yellow, sounds like a yellow shrimp to me. shrimp will loose color when stressed like a fish and get them back bt usually after a few days max. if the shrimp has white in the body like cotton balls in it then itsgoing to die for sure. but if the outside color is yellowand inside is clearish probably a yellow or hybrid shrimp.


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## Sheriff (Feb 25, 2009)

Abzirian said:


> Should i isolate him?


I just left them in there. My other shrimps were fine.


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## Abzirian (Mar 8, 2009)

Hate to bring up an old topic

I know for sure my shrimps change colors now. There's now 9 of them (I think 1 died and a few new ones appeared) and i've now seen blue shrimps, black shrimps, green shrimps, yellow shrimps, white shrimps, red shrimps, black with a yellow stripe on the black, green with a yellow stripe on the back, and white with a greyish stripe on the back. A shrimp that was black the day before could turn completely red the next day (easy to tell cuz there are 2 particularly large shrimps). Most of the times the colors are red, with something dark (either black or green) the next highest frequency. They don't change colors together, nor with any regularity or pattern that we could notice. They share a 10 gallon tank with a bumblebee goby, about 5 guppies, a feeder, and 2 frogs. Diet is store-bought tropical flakes. What do you think?


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## Abzirian (Mar 8, 2009)

Pics! (pictures don't show colors very well..)

Pic 1 is the progress of tank
Pic 2 is my tank since i was getting jealous my gf's tank was the one that kept getting posted
Pic 3 is white with a greyish stripe (pictures are horrible i know)
Pic 4 is a yellow
Pic 5 is my best attempt at getting the black with the yellow stripe


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## Dwarfpufferfish (May 29, 2004)

Variations in color is a common thing in many shrimp species. Wild type shrimp (those not bread for a specific color trait) tend to vary in color greatly. Sometimes it is based on environmental factors, sometimes stress, sometimes food and other factors as well…

Enjoy the shrimp you have! I love variable color shrimp!


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