# Cherry shrimps, losing colour..



## randym (Sep 20, 2015)

How long have the shrimp been in your tank? It sometimes takes them awhile to adjust and "color up."

Also, your expectations might be too high. Red cherry shrimp may not be very red, especially if they are still young or if they are males. The photos you see online are often of higher-grade shrimp (sakura red, fire red, etc.). 

Your pH is fine for cherry shrimp. If you want them to breed...first, make sure you have both males and females. If you bought them from a pet shop, it would not be surprising if they are all female. The females are more colorful and sell better. 

Second, feed them well. They can survive scrounging around the tank, but will breed better if you feed them. 

Other than that, just be patient. Your shrimp might still be juveniles.


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## marvszy (Apr 30, 2016)

Thanks for the quick response!
My shrimps been in the tank for a good 3 months or so now. 
I bought them from a lady that breeds shrimps here in my town.
But you're right. Their colours aren't as red as the Fire Red, Sakura, etc. I know I've at least got 2 females there since I only see 2 shrimps with bold red colour. Haha
I guess I might just buy some fire reds or ultra red shrimps!



randym said:


> How long have the shrimp been in your tank? It sometimes takes them awhile to adjust and "color up."
> 
> Also, your expectations might be too high. Red cherry shrimp may not be very red, especially if they are still young or if they are males. The photos you see online are often of higher-grade shrimp (sakura red, fire red, etc.).
> 
> ...


And food wise, I feed them frozen brine shrimps, OmegaOne flakes/micro pellets, and some blanched veggies.
Should I get into buying some almond leaves? What's the purpose of it?


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## randym (Sep 20, 2015)

I don't think you need to buy them almond leaves. Supposedly, the tannins leached by the leaves are beneficial. And the shrimp like to graze on the leaf. 

I have some and sometimes put one in, but it doesn't seem to make much difference. My snails like them, though.

Cherry shrimp are supposed to have a mainly vegetarian diet. I feed mine a variety of foods - Repashy Soilent Green, dried kale, various shrimp pellets, etc. Their favorite is the "bacter" type foods. Basically, a powder that is supposed contain food for baby shrimp and for the infusoria type critters they feed on. It's often sold as a food for baby shrimps but my adults love it, too.

If your shrimp were juveniles when you got them, they might be just reaching breeding age now. Have you seen "saddles" on any of the females? (Eggs inside the shrimp, where the saddle on a horse would be.)


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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

Doing 10-30% water changes can encourage the females to molt, then reproduce.

I've taken shrimp out of a 90+g tank with white pool filter sand and put them in a 20H g with black blasting sand and they did color up. However, low grade cherries are still not as red as higher grades in the same conditions.


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## Lonestarbandit (Feb 7, 2013)

marvszy said:


> Thanks for the quick response!
> My shrimps been in the tank for a good 3 months or so now.
> I bought them from a lady that breeds shrimps here in my town.
> But you're right. Their colours aren't as red as the Fire Red, Sakura, etc. I know I've at least got 2 females there since I only see 2 shrimps with bold red colour. Haha
> I guess I might just buy some fire reds or ultra red shrimps!


Unless you have a large disposable income I would hold off on that.
I lost 100 bucks worth of fire reds once because of a water quality and experience issue.
Would have lost 1/4 of that for the same amount of regular old cherries.
Make sure your little colony are thriving, reproducing and doing well before you dump high priced high grade shrimp in there.
Just my lowly opinion.:nerd:


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## Yukiharu (May 3, 2014)

As everyone else already said, low-grade RCS tend to not be very red. Shrimp also discolor to 'blend in' with light substrate (as do other fish like otocinclus). If you do decide to switch to a higher-grade cherry after a lot of breeding (recommended as it's good to get your feet wet with low-grades; made that mistake and still $300 in the hole), it would be better to sell off your colony and buy better shrimp (but not so quickly that the tank has to be re-cycled). Lower grades tend to be dominant and 'pollute' higher grades.


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## ichy (Apr 6, 2015)

how established is your tank? shrimps really like an established tank to graze around on biofilms, algae etc. This makes them happy and fertile.
If you have males and females three months should have been plenty of time to start seeing offspring.


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