# Coloration of Amano shrimp: mine turned red?



## chad320

You got pics? Id say you got the wrong shrimp or you have a red light on your tank


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## Hoppy

I think they turn red when they die. You should be able to check that out easy enough.


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## timwag2001

get your cocktail sauce ready


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## Jadelin

Amano shrimps casts can have a pinkish tinge, but Amano shrimps are definitely predominately clear with no red in their coloring.

What you describes sounds like classic Red Cherry Shrimp behavior, as they get pale when under stress and will color up again when they are more comfortable.

A picture would make an ID easier.

I personally think red cherry shrimp are great, and they also eat algae. They do stay smaller, so fish eating them is more of a problem than with the Amanos. Cherries would also most likely breed for you, whereas the Amanos would not.


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## Francis Xavier

Also, Amano's tend to go a solid whitish color when on their death beds. I've never seen an Amano turn full red, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't necessarily happen when they're about to die.


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## heydude819

I know exactly what you mean! I have a few amanos that I kept for over a year. During the past 2 months, one of them turned noticeably red, and another became blue/green. I'm not sure what causes this, but it's pretty awesome.

To all those who are skeptical, I'm pretty sure that my shrimps are amano shrimps.


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## OiZO

heydude819 said:


> I know exactly what you mean! I have a few amanos that I kept for over a year. During the past 2 months, one of them turned noticeably red, and another became blue/green. I'm not sure what causes this, but it's pretty awesome.
> 
> To all those who are skeptical, I'm pretty sure that my shrimps are amano shrimps.


pictures are worth a 1000 words in this instance.


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## Jadelin

OiZO said:


> pictures are worth a 1000 words in this instance.


Totally agree! 

Some of my Amanos do have a slight blue-green color. It's mostly only noticeable in comparison to the more clear ones.


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## heydude819

Well these aren't the best pictures, but it's better than nothing.

















































The colors are more sharp in person of course


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## jczernia

Francis Xavier said:


> Also, Amano's tend to go a solid whitish color when on their death beds. I've never seen an Amano turn full red, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't necessarily happen when they're about to die.


 
I have one Amano that is solid white for 9+ months 
First time I saw him like that I thought he was cooked so I pulled him out and put him in other tank as soon as he hit the water he was fine.
Now he is back in the original tank and time to time he turns solid white.
I think it might be from stress or fear that he dose that.


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## itzchow

nice! lets bbq em


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## StygianSteel

Never seen a redish one. I do have some that have taken on that slightly blue/green look. Another is whiteish but he's always been like that and seems to be doing fine. They can all look a little different IMO. All in the same tank/same conditions, but some slight variations can be seen.


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## growitnow

Mine purchased from Drsfostersmith. Do not well resemble the pics you posted above.

Slowly acclimated, etc. In bucket some had reddish hue, some were translucent. Now acclimated most all of them are definitely on the red side. I will post some pics. I have never had either Amanos or Red Cherry Shrimp. At first I thought it was cool but then wondered if wrong shrimp shipped.


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## heydude819

Initially I thought the shrimp was red because I set the temperature too high (upper 80s to get rid of some ich). However, it was the only one affected. My second hunch was that it ate a cherry shrimp and somehow absorbed the red genes, but that only happens in comic books.


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## chad320

If your shrimp turns white on the inside youve put it into temps too high. They can live for a long time like that but will never go back.


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## Jadelin

heydude-The yellow and blue ones look like amanos. It's hard to say without a good picture of the red one in the background, but to me that one looks like a red cherry; do you see the way it's tail has a bit of a hump that sticks up instead of a rounded curve like the Amano? Cherries do have a slightly different body shape from Amanos. 

growitnow-you could Google red cherry shrimp and Amano shrimp and see which one looks more like the shrimp you have. But posting pics here is always helpful!


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## chad320

After giving this some thought, what are you feeding them? Ive had ghost shrimp turn wierd colors according to what I fed them. Algae covered leaves fron the pond turned them slightly green for instance whereas hikari carnivore bites turned them slightly reddish.


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## growitnow

Hi - here are two pics I took today. Not color enhanced, this is their color.

The temp is 82 degrees. 

I'm guessing these are definitely not Amanos? Red Cherry Shrimp?


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## DwarfGrass

Def a cherry shrimp.


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## jmhart

RCS, yep


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## heydude819

those are definitely cherries.

For my picture, it is an amano in the front and a cherry in the back


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## Jadelin

heydude819 said:


> those are definitely cherries.
> 
> For my picture, it is an amano in the front and a cherry in the back


I'm confused; I thought you said you had one turn red and one turn blue/green. Did you mean one turned yellow and one turned blue/green?


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## heydude819

as mentioned in my earlier post, the picture doesn't show the true colors; its actually a lot more red in person. So no, I do not mean one turned yellow. The picture was taken by a cheap camera, so it looks yellow.



Jadelin said:


> I'm confused; I thought you said you had one turn red and one turn blue/green. Did you mean one turned yellow and one turned blue/green?


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## Scottso

An amano is a HUGE shrimp (relatively speaking). Compared to an RCS the females are easily 2 to 3 times the size. Amano also have a very prominent stripe down their back from their head to their tail. They are mostly transparent except for the aforementioned stripe and for a very clear series of dots or stripes (depending on sex, females lines males dots) on both sides.

If your shrimp have a distinctive color and they aren't dying then they are not amano shrimp.


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## Mr. Fisher

Amano shrimp:

cardinia japonica
cardinia multidentata

false amanos:

neocardinia denticulata
macro shrimp

FWIW, I bought 13 "amanos" from liveaquaria.com and they sent out 13 red cherry shrimp. Obviously a mistake on their part so they refunded all my money and I kept the rcs.

contaminants are a part of package when it comes to shrimp purchasing.

Not all fish stores/sources can tell the difference between an amano and other cardinia species. Nor do they have control over what they get from distributors, imo.


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## lauraleellbp

My Amanos will somewhat change colors from time to time. IDK if it's related to molting, spawning, food, environment, or all of the above, but sometimes they have a red sheen, other times a green or blue sheen... and I've noticed it most in the females, especially the large ones (3"+)

If an Amano shrimp goes VERY pink or VERY blue, IME it's usually not long before they die, however.


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## Jorge Vitorio

Hi guys, i am new here and got interest in this conversation about shrimps, as i bought some live plants for my tank and in one of them was a shrimp, however ir was translucent clear but also has changed colour to red and has a white stripe alongside on his back, so never had shrimps before and i am curious about it. A couple of days after i found the shrimp in my tank, noticed that he had changed his shell that's when he became red but it still changing colours. Sometimes is dark red, other times he has a lighter colour but never went translucent since. I attach a picture here of him, which may help on your oipinions. Thanks very much in advance, Jorge


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