# Mixing shrimp breeds?



## VRaverna (Jan 11, 2018)

Reks said:


> This is probably a stupid question, but is it ok to have more than 1 species of shrimp in a tank? I currently have Cherry Red Shrimp in my tank and have been looking at getting some Bloody Mary Shrimp for the tank. Different species will interbreed won't they? So would having 2 species in a tank really only matter if I'm wanting to sell shrimp in the long run or would these 2 particular species be incompatible ie. Requiring different water parameters or something?


Those are not two different species. Just two variants of the same species.


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## madcrafted (Dec 23, 2017)

Edit* VRaverna beat me to the punch. lol

Some species will interbreed, yes. However, the shrimp you are asking about aren't different species, they are both Neocaridina Davidi. The only difference in them is they were selectively bred for color. You could get a mix of coloration depending on what traits they carry from past few generations. They will most likely be red for the most part.


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## Reks (Apr 17, 2018)

Madcrafted, Vraverna: thanks for the clarification! I'm still learning a lot about shrimp obviously. So they're the same species, the bloody mary being selectively bred for color if the red color ended up being less in red (to what cherry red shrimp are usually colored) would they end being classified as cherry red shrimp? (Does that question even make sense?) Thanks for the help!


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## VRaverna (Jan 11, 2018)

Reks said:


> Madcrafted, Vraverna: thanks for the clarification! I'm still learning a lot about shrimp obviously. So they're the same species, the bloody mary being selectively bred for color if the red color ended up being less in red (to what cherry red shrimp are usually colored) would they end being classified as cherry red shrimp? (Does that question even make sense?) Thanks for the help!


While bloody mary and red cherry shrimps are both red, they're from two different lines.

My understanding is that breeder selective breed wild neocaridina davidi to get red cherry shrimp and from red cherry shrimps they are continue to selective breed to other variant like red rili shrimp or redder shrimps like red sakura shrimp which is just a higher grade red cherry.

Bloody Mary is not from selective breeding red cherry shrimp but from a separate selective breeding from wild neocaridina davidi.

The genes that make rcs red might not the same as what make bloody mary red. So crossing them will probably have variety of result and maybe result with higher percentage of wild color.

Bump: Old chart that show the relation between the various variant of neocaridina. There are two separate species but most are neocaridina davidi. I don't know if the chart is accurate or not but a good place to start to understand neocaridina shrimps that we can buy.


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## kashif314 (Oct 11, 2017)

Both bloody mary and cherry are red so you ll get some very dark red like bloody mary or normal dark like cherry but if you mix any other color like blue velvet or neon yellow then you will get some colourless shrimps as well so keep that in mind. Cherry shrimps or blue velvet or yellow or orange are all neocaridinas and they will definitely breed with each other. Crystal reds or blacks or Taiwan bees are caridinas and they won't interbreed with neocaridinas.


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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

RCS = Red Cherry Shrimp
CRS = Crystal Red Shrimp

Bloody Mary x Any Grade Red Cherry = Red Shrimp

Other crosses of Neocaridina could result in wild type offspring - but breeding two different lines of red shrimp just results in more red shrimp. One has a red shell, the other has red flesh. Bloody mary are best seen and expressed by themselves to truly appreciate and many pictures do not do them justice.


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## Reks (Apr 17, 2018)

Thanks for the info everyone! I think I have a much better understanding now! 😃


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## insaneglitchx (Feb 20, 2015)

VRaverna said:


> While bloody mary and red cherry shrimps are both red, they're from two different lines.
> 
> My understanding is that breeder selective breed wild neocaridina davidi to get red cherry shrimp and from red cherry shrimps they are continue to selective breed to other variant like red rili shrimp or redder shrimps like red sakura shrimp which is just a higher grade red cherry.
> 
> ...




What do you think would happen if a cherry/bloody mary were kept with a red rili? Or black rose with black rili? Blue velvet with red/blue rili?


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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

insaneglitchx said:


> What do you think would happen if a cherry/bloody mary were kept with a red rili? Or black rose with black rili? Blue velvet with red/blue rili?


Cherry/BM x RR = more red shrimp, give or take... possibly with rili patterns

Black rose x Black rili = probably black shrimp/rili mix?

Blue velvet x RR = either wild type or red/blue rili (depending on where the blue velvet originated from)

Blue velvet x Blue Rili = either wild type or more blue/black shrimp (again, depending on where blue velvet originated from)


There's the blue velvet that may be also called blue jelly from the red line - or there's the blue velvet from the blue line


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## Ghen (Mar 29, 2018)

Zoidburg said:


> Cherry/BM x RR = more red shrimp, give or take... possibly with rili patterns
> 
> Black rose x Black rili = probably black shrimp/rili mix?
> 
> ...


sorry for hijacking the thread , but what if Blue rili/jelly (from RCS line) mix with normal RCS ?, will it spawn wild variety ?, since my RCS and rilis are randomly spawning blue jelly, should i cull them ?


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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

You can cull whatever shrimp you don't like from the population, Ghen. The Blue bodied red rili x RCS should be whatever mix of the two comes out - so not likely to get many, if any, wild types.


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## Ghen (Mar 29, 2018)

Zoidburg said:


> You can cull whatever shrimp you don't like from the population, Ghen. The Blue bodied red rili x RCS should be whatever mix of the two comes out - so not likely to get many, if any, wild types.


so i take it the wild variety only appear when its from different branch ?, for example RCS x Bloody Mary ?


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## insaneglitchx (Feb 20, 2015)

Zoidburg said:


> insaneglitchx said:
> 
> 
> > What do you think would happen if a cherry/bloody mary were kept with a red rili? Or black rose with black rili? Blue velvet with red/blue rili?
> ...


Thanks. I was following the chart above, and assumed that patterns and colors would tend to run more true if the shrimp lines are more closely related.


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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

Ghen said:


> so i take it the wild variety only appear when its from different branch ?, for example RCS x Bloody Mary ?


Well, no... RCS x BM = red shrimp

Wild type is often (not always) from mixing RCS x Yellow, or RCS x Black Diamond, etc. So yes, mixing from different "branches" can result in wild type, but again, it depends on what you are mixing.





insaneglitchx said:


> Thanks. I was following the chart above, and assumed that patterns and colors would tend to run more true if the shrimp lines are more closely related.


I can't say I've come across people who have done all those crosses, but those are my own guesses, if I don't already know myself. I know for a fact that Red shrimp x Red shrimp = more red shrimp - regardless of type of red used. I can't say I've seen anyone do BM x RR, but I'm sure it's more red shrimp based on other crosses.

The "arrows" going down to the next color indicate *either* selective breeding *or* a morph - such as yellow shrimp throwing green shrimp, or blue dreams selectively bred from blue diamonds.


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## insaneglitchx (Feb 20, 2015)

Based on the chart, it looks like blue dream and bloody mary are closely related. Same with blue velvet and black rose. What do you think crosses of those would produce?


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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

Blue Dream x Bloody Mary = wild type / blue & red shrimp (both colors)

Blue velvet (blue) x black rose - black, black and blue shrimp?


Bloody mary x chocolate could result in blue, bloody mary, chocolate, black rose colored shrimp...



It's not really as simple as people attempt to portray it as - i.e. mix two different colors of Neos, you get wild type; it's more complicated than that. Yes, wild types do occur, but not 100% guarantee, based on their genetics.


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## insaneglitchx (Feb 20, 2015)

Zoidburg said:


> Blue Dream x Bloody Mary = wild type / blue & red shrimp (both colors)
> 
> Blue velvet (blue) x black rose - black, black and blue shrimp?
> 
> ...


Hmm... i think I'll mix two 'closely' related strains and see what happens. Does the rili pattern pop up as a mutation in these separate lineages? Or did each of the rilis come about through cross breeding a rili to a different strain?


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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

insaneglitchx said:


> Hmm... i think I'll mix two 'closely' related strains and see what happens. Does the rili pattern pop up as a mutation in these separate lineages? Or did each of the rilis come about through cross breeding a rili to a different strain?


That I don't know, but it could be a combination of the mutation randomly showing up, then people breeding for the mutation. That is, shrimp showed *some* patches of clear areas, then people bred them to be the rili pattern that they are today.


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## insaneglitchx (Feb 20, 2015)

Zoidburg said:


> insaneglitchx said:
> 
> 
> > Hmm... i think I'll mix two 'closely' related strains and see what happens. Does the rili pattern pop up as a mutation in these separate lineages? Or did each of the rilis come about through cross breeding a rili to a different strain?
> ...



Still considering all options. If I chose not to wear out my fluval shrimp stratum, and remineralize ro water with gh+, think crystals and tigers would do well? Does all of the substrate then have to be removed and exchanged every 1 to 2 years? Is that thr standard in the planted tank/shrimp community? 

I read fantasy blue tigers can outcompete other shrimp, so maybe not those. But crystals with tangerine tigers? Would you get black/red shrimp striped with yellow?


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## ILikeRice (Jul 9, 2017)

insaneglitchx said:


> Still considering all options. If I chose not to wear out my fluval shrimp stratum, and remineralize ro water with gh+, think crystals and tigers would do well? Does all of the substrate then have to be removed and exchanged every 1 to 2 years? Is that thr standard in the planted tank/shrimp community?
> 
> I read fantasy blue tigers can outcompete other shrimp, so maybe not those. But crystals with tangerine tigers? Would you get black/red shrimp striped with yellow?


neos mix with neos and cards mix with cards...if you want a skittle tank you can put anything together or get a separate tank for each color. You could even go with an all red tank ex:wine red/ruby red/red zebras..


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## Subconfish (May 10, 2018)

Watcher your water param. Stick to reds and maybe throw in tigers. They won't cross so you won't have problems


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