# Blue dreams changing to brown



## Willcooper (May 31, 2015)

I noticed my neocaridina davidi blue dream (not rilli) changing brown. The shrimp that this is happening to was almost completely black with a little bright blue. Now almost all the black has changed to brown. I know that shrimp can change color for do to their diet. I had some amanos that had some pretty crazy color changes but I haven't heard of black going brown. Could this be due to almost molting? I have only had them maybe two weeks and this is the only one its happening to.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

common occurrence in carbon rili.


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## Willcooper (May 31, 2015)

StrungOut said:


> common occurrence in carbon rili.


But these are not Carbon rilli. They are blue dream/topaz. I see you obviously have experience but it looks like they come from a different originating shrimp but this must just be common. Any reason you have seen for this? Dietary or about to molt or some other change?


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Nice chart!
Is that legit?
I've noticed the goldish/copperish/brownish over the saddles just randomly but i think it comes with age. the youngins don't seem to get it.


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## Willcooper (May 31, 2015)

StrungOut said:


> Nice chart!
> Is that legit?
> I've noticed the goldish/copperish/brownish over the saddles just randomly but i think it comes with age. the youngins don't seem to get it.


Yeah the chart is amazing. Here's the url

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-...AAAAAAANg/2b0ow1v_Ycc/w958-h603-no/tabela.jpg

I found it when I was looking for the differences between the names of blue dream and blue velvet. It's cool to see the variations. I have some blue Rili and some full blue Rili so it was nice to be able to distinguish. Can't guarantee its perfect but based on everything I have read and seen its seems right


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## Panw (Jan 20, 2016)

Willcooper said:


> I noticed my neocaridina davidi blue dream (not rilli) changing brown. The shrimp that this is happening to was almost completely black with a little bright blue. Now almost all the black has changed to brown. I know that shrimp can change color for do to their diet. I had some amanos that had some pretty crazy color changes but I haven't heard of black going brown. Could this be due to almost molting? I have only had them maybe two weeks and this is the only one its happening to.




I have 2 babies blue dream, one of them is blue and another one is chocolate brown. I am wondering if the brown one will turn blue or stay brown


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

That chart has been talked about quite a bit on shrimp dedicated forums. It's got quite a few mistakes.
Blue Dreams come from Blue Carbon Rili's.
Blue Velvets come from Red Rili's.
Blue Diamond come from Chocolate (Diamonds).
The broken pigmented shell patterns shows that your's are of the Blue Carbon Rili lineage.

What temperature do you keep them at?
Are they acting normal (active, eating, etc)?
Any others turning brown/copper?


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## Willcooper (May 31, 2015)

WaterLife said:


> That chart has been talked about quite a bit on shrimp dedicated forums. It's got quite a few mistakes.
> Blue Dreams come from Blue Carbon Rili's.
> Blue Velvets come from Red Rili's.
> Blue Diamond come from Chocolate (Diamonds).
> ...


Interesting. 78f and it and all the rest are scavenging like usual. Seem normal


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Panw said:


> I have 2 babies blue dream, one of them is blue and another one is chocolate brown. I am wondering if the brown one will turn blue or stay brown
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Will most def. Stay brown or variation of that.


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## mrfiock (Nov 15, 2015)

WaterLife nailed it, the chart has inaccuracies. But also you should be cautious that it isn't a bacterial infection. When they change color quickly it is usually either sudden param changes or infection. If the tissue of the shrimp is white you may want to isolate it and see how it does. I've kept blue carbon rilis for a while and only ever had healthy shrimp get solid goldish stripes form down the back line. The only other color change was a redish brown hue around the head and back (due to an infection) that took out a couple of my shrimp. Here is what they looked like a day or two before they died.








I'll admit it's sometimes hard to tell the difference in photos, but it's much easier to diagnose by their behavior. If they're not eating/swimming around or moving strangely/infrequently. Really you can only wait. If the shrimp doesn't make it, you'll want to get some Maracyn 2/tetracycline to stop the infection and some Melafix to try to stop the spread. Then some probiotic like dr tims Eco-balanced.


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## Willcooper (May 31, 2015)

mrfiock said:


> WaterLife nailed it, the chart has inaccuracies. But also you should be cautious that it isn't a bacterial infection. When they change color quickly it is usually either sudden param changes or infection. If the tissue of the shrimp is white you may want to isolate it and see how it does. I've kept blue carbon rilis for a while and only ever had healthy shrimp get solid goldish stripes form down the back line. The only other color change was a redish brown hue around the head and back (due to an infection) that took out a couple of my shrimp. Here is what they looked like a day or two before they died.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Definitely hope it's not that! I'll keep an eye on it. Seems to be happy healthy other than a little color change

Quick add: one of the new arrivals is berried! Pretty happy about that. Hard to tell because of the cell phone pic ( all my pics are :/ )


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## randym (Sep 20, 2015)

C-Sky Blues must come from red rilis. Mine just had a bunch of babies, and one of them is a red rili.

None of the parents are red or rili. They are a solid, very dark blue. All the other new shrimp look exactly like the parents. But one baby is a tiny little red rili. The red-headed (and tailed) stepchild of the tank.


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## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

@randym interesting. I have talked with others about C-Sky/Sea Sky Blue Neos. Do you happen to have pictures of the parents?

From pics of C-Sky blues, they have pigmented shells so it's likely they are selective bred from Blue Dreams (Blue Carbon Rili lineage).
Blue Velvet young start off looking like Red Rili's, but the red goes away as they age, but they do not have pigmented shells like Blue Carbon Rili's.

There's always a rare chance a odd one out shrimp pattern will pop out (rili's and even other colors), that's how mutations are then selectively bred out.
Post pics if you can.

Talking with other C-Sky Blue owners, their offsping weren't red rili's or blue velvets, they had pigmented shells and looked like Blue Dreams.
There are dark blue velvets out there, which don't have pigmented shells, but C-Sky blues (as least the originally released C-Sky Blues weren't. It's a "common name" label slapped on, so it's always iffy) are those (though some stock images of the best of the bunch display a deep blue neo with no pigmented shell, but offspring and other siblings show pigmented shells).


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## randym (Sep 20, 2015)

Huh. I was going to put the red one in the cull tank, but maybe I'll leave it and see if it turns blue.

I will try to get some photos this weekend. They are very small and tend to dash around when I approach the tank, so I'll have to sneak up on them if I want more than a blue blur. 

Do bloody marys have pigmented shells? They look very different from painted fire reds. Sort of a jewel like translucence, compared to the flat, painted look of the painted fire reds.


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## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

True Bloody Marys should have clear shells with red flesh. With decent lighting from behind or above, you should be able to see their internal organs.
Painted Fire Reds will have opaque pigmented shells and you should not be able to see their internal organs (unless they are lower grade Fire Reds/Sakura).
Bloody Marys can throw out Chocolate Diamond offspring (since they come from that line). Not everyone believes it to be true, but supposedly Bloody Marys have short rostrum.

Since that "red rili" came from the same parents, it's genes line up and shouldn't throw wild shrimp, so you can keep it with the rest. But it may be a different/new mutation, so if any of the same strain reproduce with that "red rili", it may give off different looking shrimp (new gene strain). Which may be cool, but may be undesired if you want to strictly stay with the current strain look.


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## randym (Sep 20, 2015)

Thanks, that makes sense. 

I have both painted fire reds and bloody marys (in different tanks). The painted fire reds, I can't see the saddles. The females just suddenly have eggs under their tails.

With the bloody marys, I can see the saddles.


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## Willcooper (May 31, 2015)

I have some blue Rili's and blue jelly's that had babies a few weeks ago and some of their babies are more red Rili, some are brownish and some are more red and heck a bunch are blue and others jelly. Crazy how many types you can get from one breed (pic below is just to show what I mean by blue Rili and blue jelly

I really am going to have to get a decent camera because this phone is freakn terrible.


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## Pattern8 (Dec 9, 2015)

My blue dreams have done the same exact thing- turn brown with an almost copper colored strip down ventral. I highly suspect it's temperature dependent. I can't recall whether it was going up a few degrees or lowering a few degrees that cause the change. But you could attempt that and see what they do for you.


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## Willcooper (May 31, 2015)

While I always keep the house temperature at 78° it will be 116° tomorrow in Phoenix so that may have some affect that I don't notice. Maybe because it's not cooling down at night at all anymore

Update: the brown turned back to black. Funny stuff


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