# Black red cherry shrimp??



## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

Several days ago I found this adult red cherry shrimp to be really red. Today found it again, and take a look at the colour










Is this normal? The shrimp is alive and OK, I'm just curious on the phenomenon.


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## Cardinal Tetra (Feb 26, 2006)

Are you sure that's a cherry? It might be a Ninja Shrimp...http://www.petshrimp.com/serratirostris.html
Either way I think it looks cool.:thumbsup:


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## NeonShrimp (Mar 9, 2006)

I agree, ninja shrimp can change it's color as you described. Just read about the ninja shrimp and enjoy your new discovery!


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

I got the batch from a friend's tank. The cherries inside his tank are already several shrimp generations old. There would be some reverse mutation to the colourless taiwan shrimp out of the red cherry from time to time (taiwan and cherry are under one close family), but he reported none of the shrimps had ever turned black. And plus his tanks are all pure fresh water (the ninja would need brackish condition to survive several shrimp generations).

I'd like to give a better picture but I have no macro lens on my SLR, plus the single black shrimp is so elusive in my fully planted 260 gallon tank. I'm quite sure that there was no dark shrimp when I get the batch several months ago. There was however, some light red - almost colourless ones. 

I'll be on the lookout and see what will happen next.


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## ianiwane (Sep 7, 2004)

That is not a ninja shrimp. There is a person in SFBAAPS that have been getting black cherries with in their normal cherry population. He too started out with just red ones.


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## NeonShrimp (Mar 9, 2006)

So this is a genetic trait/mutation of the rcs?


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## Cardinal Tetra (Feb 26, 2006)

There are black cherries now? Cool! I want some.


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## sandiegoryu (Feb 15, 2006)

HOLY CRAP! black cherries!!!?!?!?!?!?!? Put me on the list! Wow. Thats amazing.


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## lumpyfunk (Dec 22, 2004)

I have one of them as well, my shrimp came from Vinniemac so if you got yours there you may have a shot.


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## sandiegoryu (Feb 15, 2006)

If any of them breeds them well, I mean the black shrimp, then DO sell them and try to spread it! I would love some! Is there a way to encourage mutations? lol. I've heard of many cherry shrimp color variations... Such as when one accidentaly bred a red cherry shrimp with a wild type cherry shrimp, and came with a green and yellow type. Also saw picture of an orange snowball shrimp! I guess the Neocaridina species are easier to get color variations out of them, especially because they breed so easily!


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## cliner (Feb 17, 2006)

I have a black red cherry as well. She started out in my shrimp only 10G as a pale pregnant red cherry, and after she dropped her eggs I transfered her into a 55G with slightly warmer water. She then turned jet black with a brown stripe down her back. I thought my angels had killed her but I found her today and transfered her to another tank. I'll throw in a male and see what happens.


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## NeonShrimp (Mar 9, 2006)

Hope it works for you cliner, I would like to see if these are as hardy as the regular rcs. If so I would like to raise some.


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## Luenny (May 8, 2006)

I have a black color cherry too. Although mine is not entirely black. Some parts are transparent but you can clearly see black and black stripes. And I'm sure they're not tiger.


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## sandiegoryu (Feb 15, 2006)

...so whats up with these black cherry shrimp. I saw another person say on the swapnshop that he recieved a BLACK red cherry shrimp from vinnymac again. Whats up with vinnymac and the black cherry shrimp?!!?!??!?!?! Damn I REALLY want one...

Whoever has had these, please update on how they are and pictures would be nice as well. Did they breed, or are they carrying eggs. What else is different about them besides their black color.... I'm very curious!


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## cbennett (Oct 20, 2005)

there is a guy in SFBAAPS that has a tank full of what he calls Black Cherries. He thinks they're the wild coloration of what is now Cherry shrimp. I've seen his pics and they go from dark brown to black. He had a couple hundred of them at one point, so hopefully he'll see this post and maybe sell a few. :bounce:


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## Zezmo (Jan 11, 2006)

I am "that guy" in the SFBAAPS who has been getting the blackcherries. At this point, I am selling them only at SVAS auctions, or giving them to other SFBAAPS members. As teh population matures and stabilizes I may consider selling/shipping elsewhere. But not yet.

What follows are resposts of the info I put on the SFBAAPS forums. I did not re-edit them much.


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## Zezmo (Jan 11, 2006)

I have been keeping Cherry shrimp since late last year. As mentioned in an earlier thread, I started with 20 bright red females from King Aquarium, and 5 males from another SFBAAPS member (Jimmy). My understanding from Jimmy was that he had gotten Cherry shrimp from several sources. This included some from another SFBAAPS member (Bill). So from all this I feel I started with a nice sized population to begin breeding. After just over 6 months, the tank has hundreds of shrimp in it. For example, I pulled 17 shrimp to my nano last week, sold 32 at auction Saturday, and pulled 28 out last night That is over 75 shrimp I have removed in the last week. Yet to look in the tank that made no difference to the population density. I estimate that there are some 400-500 shrimp of all sizes in there at this time.

As I mentioned in an earlier thread, maybe ¼ to ½ of my shrimp are coming out colors other than Red. Looking at the shots Bill posted on the fish profiles, I suspect I picked up some of his “wild strain” through Jimmy. In fact, I distinctly have Red (and a darker red), Brown (reddish brown, and tan), Black (spots and stripes), Clear/Yellow, and a few Green(ish)/Blue(ish) shrimp. All from 25 red starting shrimp. I have seen in other Cherry shrimp discussions claims that their colors only come out as they mature. IME this is not entirely true. Yes, a shrimps colors do become more bold as they mature. But a spotted shrimp is always a spotted shrimp, and a solid shrimp is always a solid shrimp. In fact the marking patterns and color of a particular shrimp are visible even on shrimp as small as 2mm. 

So regardless of color, these shrimp fall into some basic “patterns” of their markings. 

Solid: these have bold colors and few “white/clear” spots.

Spotted: These guys are more clear/white than color. The density of the spots varies from almost clear shrimp to almost solid. The spots are either true dots, or small splotches.

Striped: These guys have tiger type stripes. Not as bold or regular as a tiger shrimp, but usually 3-6 modest stripes.

I have been pulling the non-red shrimp to my nano tank to see if those colors can breed true over time. Some of these shrimp have matured into a deep chocolaty color. I hope that I can maintain this strain over time. There are at least 5 of these chocolate females in the tank. Plus a few more that have yet to be pulled from the 29g shrimp tank.









The chocolate one is on the left, a clear on is on the right. That is some pretty extreme color variation.








Look how well they blend into my dark driftwood. This may be why these guys had a high survival rate, allowing this strain to come about in my Gourami tank.
















They even blend in pretty good just on the dark substrate. Besides the Pygmy Gourami and the Scarlet Badis, there is a Choclate Cherry Shrimp on the bottom, and an Oto on the crypt leaf.








Here is one of the more clear ones









I am really enjoying how much variation these shrimp are showing, even if it is quite unexpected. There are a few posts here and there about "wild type" or other variations. I would be very interested to hear if anyone else is getting some of these variations in thier cherry (or pseudo cherry) populations.


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## Zezmo (Jan 11, 2006)

These black cherries have been multiplying like crazy in my main shrimp tank. Now that some of them are starting to reach full maturity and color, I tried to take a few pics of the best looking female. She is solid black with a white stripe down her back, and white spots on the side and tail.





































A few folks got some of these guys from me at the last SFBAAPS plant swap. If you got some, How are they doing for you? have any turned full black? (or full dark brown like some others I have)


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## sandiegoryu (Feb 15, 2006)

when do u suspect you can sell them at least in a small forum instead of somethign like aquabid?


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## NeonShrimp (Mar 9, 2006)

Maybe they should be named "Black berry or Black Cherry Shrimp"!


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## endparenthesis (Jul 13, 2004)

Are we sure they're full cherries? They could be the result of cherries hybridizing with some other Neocaridina and "polluting" the lineage.


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## thatguy (Oct 11, 2005)

they are cherries...supposedly in natural form.
in taiwan they sell "regular" non red cherries as feeder shrimp (they sell red cherries too)...you buy them by the ounce....they run the gamut from clear to brown, and all the way to iridescent black.


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## dhavoc (May 4, 2006)

Zezmo, do yours stay black regardless of what tank they are in? i just found out my rainbows are probably wild cherries and mine run the gamut just like yours (black/brown to clear or striped and even redish). but I noticed that they seem to have the dark brown with gold stripe in my tank with alot of driftwood and low light, but once i take them out and put them in another tank with less wood, and more light, they revert to clear/stripped color. got some in my desk nano right now that started out dark brown and reverted to clear in a couple of weeks. they are not stressed and have gone from 5 adults to 5 plus 15 - 20 fry, with no deaths, so that doesnt seem to be the reason for the color change. I wish they would stay that dark color though, they are beautiful.


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## ~T~ (Dec 18, 2006)

They look like my rainbow shrimp.


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## ~T~ (Dec 18, 2006)

Crap sorry guys I didnt realise this was an old thread.I was looking for info and replied before I realised sorry.


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## Mr.ThomasWalls (Feb 11, 2007)

My wild shrimp same thing as cherrys change colors too from blue to yellow to clear or black. Happens when I move them or they are scared. Black is not uncommon for them at a calm time. Maybe you have the same thing. Wild neocardensa.


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## AxolotlFarmer (Nov 29, 2006)

black cherries? where do i sign up to get some 

very interesting. goodluck raising your black shrimp.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2005)

Sorry to blow your bubbles, but only red cherry shrimps so far are worth keeping. All other variants don't even deserve a special name, they are just call "feeder shrimps".
If you leave your cherry shrimps free reign in breeding for 20 or so generation, they will revert back to it's transparent, yellow, brown and black state. You have to continuously selective breed to keep the red strain.
Green, on the other hand, does raise my eye brow ...


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## ~T~ (Dec 18, 2006)

Zebrapl3co said:


> Sorry to blow your bubbles, but only red cherry shrimps so far are worth keeping. All other variants don't even deserve a special name, they are just call "feeder shrimps".
> If you leave your cherry shrimps free reign in breeding for 20 or so generation, they will revert back to it's transparent, yellow, brown and black state. You have to continuously selective breed to keep the red strain.
> Green, on the other hand, does raise my eye brow ...


IMO all my shrimp are worth keeping regardless of what colour they are.


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## RESGuy (Jan 15, 2007)

~T~ said:


> IMO all my shrimp are worth keeping regardless of what colour they are.


Spoken like a true shrimp lover :smile: I even feel bad about my Ghosts getting used as feeders (all still alive btw and the largest one is berried).


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

My darkest 'Black Cherry' finally came out front for a photo op...










I have others of varying intensity but this is, by far, the blackest of them all.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

If you guys know genetics, you can make a purple cherry, or even blue cherry from this strain.

The wild cherry, Neocaridina denticulata sinensis, are actually bluish, grey, brown.


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## AxolotlFarmer (Nov 29, 2006)

Now that is one beautiful shrimp!
Goodluck to all those working on these beautiful black cherry shrimps!


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## sandiegoryu (Feb 15, 2006)

I wonder why medicineman's shrimp is so much more black while Bill's is much more purple than black.

Maybe medicineman has a totally different mutation from you Bill. You should advertise them as purple shrimp. Because they look definitely different from medicineman's shrimp.


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

sandiegoryu said:


> I wonder why medicineman's shrimp is so much more black while Bill's is much more purple than black.
> 
> Maybe medicineman has a totally different mutation from you Bill. You should advertise them as purple shrimp. Because they look definitely different from medicineman's shrimp.


For the most part I think it's just a matter of lighting. But if Medicineman's are truely black he should call his licorice shrimp because mine is colored like a black cherry fruit. :icon_lol:

Or maybe I could call mine a Dr. Pepper shrimp?


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## Color Me Blue (Nov 10, 2005)

See, I've been wanting to see some pics of these highly talked about cherries! Niccceee!!  I've been noticing in my shrimp tank a few (3 or 4 tops) dark colored cherries. I don't mean red, but blackish red. I haven't seen an adult one yet, but I'll keep my eyes out for one. I try to catch one and photograph it as close as I can.


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## LS6 Tommy (May 13, 2006)

bharada said:


> My darkest 'Black Cherry' finally came out front for a photo op...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That's the exact guys I've been getting @ a local LFS. I thought they were Rainbows because they change color with lighting changes and mood.
Now I know I wasn't nuts when I thought they were a variant of the cherry.

Here's one of my guys, not at his darkest, before the mysterious die-off started again:











Tommy


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## intermision (Nov 7, 2005)

bharada said:


> My darkest 'Black Cherry' finally came out front for a photo op...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I have few that look like that.


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## kkentert (Jan 21, 2007)

who is Vinnymac, and how can I contact them?


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## sandiegoryu (Feb 15, 2006)

vinnymac is a member in this forum who has been well known for selling RCS to us. Unfortunately he has left the aquarium hobby. 

So we won't be able to get RCS from him, and you won't be able to contact him, or I wouldn't think he'd want you to.


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## kkentert (Jan 21, 2007)

:-( Very sad....
If anyone has extra of his RCS strain they'd like to sell, let me know! I'd like to take my chances at getting a black one!


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## CAF (Oct 22, 2006)

It is my understanding that the "Black Cherry" is actually Neocaridina zhangjiajiensis or possibly a hybrid of that and Neocaridina Denticulata Sinensis v. Red (Red Cherry Shrimp) The Zhang's I have are noticably larger than cherries. About 1/2 the size of a full grown Amano or 1/2 again as large as any Cherry I have ever seen. OR I could have my "Rainbows" mislabeled as SO many of us do. It makes it hard to figure out when the LFS has 5 species of shrimp in the same tank and is selling them all as "Zebra Shrimp" and NONE of them even look like a Zebra at all!


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## ringram (Jan 19, 2005)

never heard of ninja shrimp. Do they hide in dark places, waiting for the right moment to quickly and silently kill unsuspecting tankmates?

In all seriousness, it doesn't look like a cherry shrimp in the traditional sense. It's probably a close relative to a RCS or some sort of hybrid or mutant.


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## cjyhc4 (Dec 18, 2006)

This article relates to what many of you are experiencing: 
http://www.petshrimp.com/articles/redcherryshrimpmyth.html


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

The wild Neocardina and the Black Cherries that I have are all the same size as my regular Red Cherry shrimp.

The thing is though, my black shrimp only occur in my tank where there's a mix of wild and red Cherries. In my other tank, where I started my RCS colony back in '04, I've yet to see anything other than red shrimp.


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## dhavoc (May 4, 2006)

looks like dark forms of my wild type cherries. here in Hawaii they are sold as feeders and have pretty much invaded local streams and such. i have been keeping the wild form for decades, and get the dark brown/purple-black ones all the time. the color is NOT permanent but will come and go depending on environment and stress. these only appear in my tanks with dark drift wood (they blend in well except for that gold stripe down the back) and are very beautiful, but when i take these same shrimp and move them to another without the dark driftwood, they revert back to a variety of color shades at the next molt. i am looking at a 2 gal tank of them right now, and even though i put 6 of the dark ones in to start (no other shrimp), every one has reverted to clear or golden color which coincidentally matches the natural stream gravel in the nano tank. all offspring are clear/golden as well. 
i'm not saying there isnt a permanent black strain that passes to offspring but i havent come across one yet, and the pics look EXACTLY like the ones i get in the dark driftwood tanks i own. it would be a nice one to breed though as they are striking in their wenge (the in black/brown color of furniture right now) with the gold stripe down the back.


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## LS6 Tommy (May 13, 2006)

I just found two more of the "black/chocolate" cherries when I did a minor rescape on th 58. I moved them into the shrimp tank. They both appear to be females, but that makes 4 I have in there now even though the other 2 aren't as dark, so maybe I'll get a batch soon. 

Tommy


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## AxolotlFarmer (Nov 29, 2006)

Goodluck LS6 Tommy on working on a batch of these attractive shrimp! Keep us updated on your progress.


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## kzr750r1 (Jun 8, 2004)

dhavoc said:


> looks like dark forms of my wild type cherries. here in Hawaii they are sold as feeders and have pretty much invaded local streams and such. i have been keeping the wild form for decades, and get the dark brown/purple-black ones all the time. the color is NOT permanent but will come and go depending on environment and stress. these only appear in my tanks with dark drift wood (they blend in well except for that gold stripe down the back) and are very beautiful, but when i take these same shrimp and move them to another without the dark driftwood, they revert back to a variety of color shades at the next molt. i am looking at a 2 gal tank of them right now, and even though i put 6 of the dark ones in to start (no other shrimp), every one has reverted to clear or golden color which coincidentally matches the natural stream gravel in the nano tank. all offspring are clear/golden as well.
> i'm not saying there isnt a permanent black strain that passes to offspring but i havent come across one yet, and the pics look EXACTLY like the ones i get in the dark driftwood tanks i own. it would be a nice one to breed though as they are striking in their wenge (the in black/brown color of furniture right now) with the gold stripe down the back.


Any chance of shipping some of these "feeders" to the mainland?

Don't know if customs will get crazy about it but sounds like an invasive species HI would love to get rid of.


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## dhavoc (May 4, 2006)

got hundreds to spare, but the shipping would cost 10x more than the shrimp. here they are sold for 10/dollar and are usually half dead-like any feeder. i can ship my tank raised ones but the only way to get them alive to the mainland is via express mail. priority takes 5-7 days at least and with the heat i dont think they will survive. with cost of a foam box and breather bags plus 25 bucks for express mail i dont think its worth it honestly. but if you really want them i can ship em. also, the ones i would ship come from my 120g planted that has no driftwood, so they are going to be the usual golden, spotted or reddish color. i dont have the patience to chase and tearup my heavily planted low tech 10 that they reside in. especially since the color would only disapear anyway at the next molt.


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## bulrush (May 7, 2007)

I did find one of my cherry shrimp that was black. I thought it was sick or something. But I have had RCS for 18+ months now and that was the first black one, about 1 month ago.


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## kzr750r1 (Jun 8, 2004)

dhavoc said:


> got hundreds to spare, but the shipping would cost 10x more than the shrimp. here they are sold for 10/dollar and are usually half dead-like any feeder. i can ship my tank raised ones but the only way to get them alive to the mainland is via express mail. priority takes 5-7 days at least and with the heat i dont think they will survive. with cost of a foam box and breather bags plus 25 bucks for express mail i dont think its worth it honestly. but if you really want them i can ship em. also, the ones i would ship come from my 120g planted that has no driftwood, so they are going to be the usual golden, spotted or reddish color. i dont have the patience to chase and tearup my heavily planted low tech 10 that they reside in. especially since the color would only disapear anyway at the next molt.


All good points so I'll pass... Thanks for the reply to my query. We seem to have some stores out her that are carrying CRS more often these days so I'll go that route to get a population going again.


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## mr.sandman (Nov 7, 2006)

Just to bring back this topic. Today I went to Big Al's to have a look around and then I saw a tank full of these black shrimp and they are really black. So I bought some home and put it in my low light tank. Thats when I realize these are blue shrimp. So the higher the light the bolder the color will be So I think the black shrimp that everyone is talking about is just a blue shrimp.(but that is just my opinion)


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

some of mine mutated also after a few generations, now i have brown, green, blue cherry. pale colour that is, i don't really know how this happens, but i added more red cherries a few days ago.


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## psybock (Jan 12, 2007)

I know this post is older than rip van winkle now but I recently saw these alleged black shrimp at my LFS today. They were labled Blackberry Shrimp. They seem very much like Cherries. I bought 3 jet solids, one with a brown stripe down the middle and yet one more that was a great deal lighter. At any rate they had very dark carpaces but most of everything else (swimmerets, tail, bottom of the shell) were all a dark blue. They are very neat, however very pricey. They were $5 a piece. Hopefully I can breed them and turn around that investment... They seem to be a bit bigger than normal cherries however...

Kevin


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## southerndesert (Sep 9, 2007)

My family community 29 gallon has had a population of RCS in it for a year or more and there are now green, black, red and several other colors...Not sure if perhaps they were a mixed batch when I got them and breeding has brought out more wild type due to a mix to start. They were from AZ Aquatic Gardens originally and only a few survived out of my order that was shipped only 100 miles from Tucson to Phoenix area. This was the first shrimp experience for me and I now am very careful who I order from to make sure I get a healthy strain of shrimp as well as live arrival....


I have never had this color change happen in my RCS only tank though. They are also from another seller....

Bill


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## cjunky (Nov 26, 2007)

Can I stamp my feet now?

I want a ninja shrimp
I want a black cherry shrimp.

we dont get any cool stuff in the UK. I cant find ghost shrimp for love or money.

anyway good stuff post more pics when you have them!


Marc


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 5, 2006)

I have an orange shrimp that turned black. The other one remained orange.


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## kasslloyd (May 28, 2007)

if you can catch it setup a 10gal cycled tank and put it in there, identify it's sex and add 1 more of the other sex in there, hope you get babies, then put the adults in another tank (or babies) and interbreed the babies, separating out all the black ones and breed only the black ones, pulling out all the red, eventually, hopefully, you'd get a pure black breeding line. Then you could start selling pure blacks ;-)

Lol. That would be fun.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

This is really cool stuff- exactly the way we ended up with fancy bettas and guppies and discus... genetic variety and ppl selectively breeding for color!

WOOHOO Keep up the posts and pics people!


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## garuf (May 30, 2007)

cjunky said:


> Can I stamp my feet now?
> 
> I want a ninja shrimp
> I want a black cherry shrimp.
> ...


I can pets at home my friend, they have them in all the time.
The thing is they WILL eat smaller fish.
Gogosnails on ebay is a good place for shrimp. 
As is contacting shrimp keepers on forums, I got 22 cherries for £30 which isn't bad.
I think ryan from planet inverts ships to us in the uk I just can't justify the cost as I cant keep shrimps to save my life.


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## Dwarfpufferfish (May 29, 2004)

Carole,
That poor shrimp turned black because he is terrified of that Dwarf Puffer Fish. He is trying everything to hide from it!


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## Pikey Mick (Sep 12, 2015)

I have cherries that are showing really good black banding. They are all female and have all come from the original blood that I bought around three years ago. You will be very welcome to some should they produce black offspring and one is berried up at the moment. I'm going to be moving them to a larger tank in around eight weeks once it's up and running.


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## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

Very old thread, but curious, anyone figure out why the shrimp *turned* black?
I understand if offspring turned black (which is how selective breeding led to nowadays color variants).
But the OP sounds like a already adult shrimp that was really red, turned blackened the next day.


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## Djames28 (Aug 13, 2021)

During my test trawl opening day of the 2021 fall inland shrimp season ( 8-9-21) I caught several black shrimp and one black with dark orange almost red stripe down its back.. unfortunately it is of course dead but once I get to the bottom of the ice chest it's in I will take and post detailed pics so that maybe someone can help correctly identify it. They are becoming more common in and around the barataria bay area.


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Djames28 said:


> During my test trawl opening day of the 2021 fall inland shrimp season ( 8-9-21) I caught several black shrimp and one black with dark orange almost red stripe down its back.. unfortunately it is of course dead but once I get to the bottom of the ice chest it's in I will take and post detailed pics so that maybe someone can help correctly identify it. They are becoming more common in and around the barataria bay area.


This is a thread from 15 years ago about dwarf freshwater aquarium shrimp that originate in Asia. 

What you're catching, if they're truly small, are likely Palaemonetes paludosus or some similar Palaemonetes. There are also some Potimirim species and a few Macrobrachium species, but they're much larger than anything we keep in this hobby.


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