# Yellow Shrimps turn Green?



## moranger (Mar 26, 2011)

They will turn green if you feed them food that contains Astaxanthin. My turned a real dark blue/green and even the eggs of berried shrimp turned green. I don't know about any veggies that will turn them green though. My shrimp stayed green for a good 6 weeks after I fed them.


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## Cardinal Tetra (Feb 26, 2006)

moranger said:


> They will turn green if you feed them food that contains Astaxanthin. My turned a real dark blue/green and even the eggs of berried shrimp turned green. I don't know about any veggies that will turn them green though. My shrimp stayed green for a good 6 weeks after I fed them.


Agreed. Food with astaxanthin will turn them green/blue. I've had that happen to me when I fed them cyclop-eeze.

If they were yellow when you got them then it's most likely reversible --they weren't born like that so you just to figure out what's causing it. Is the lettuce you're using red/purple? Try feeding them something else like regular fish food and see what happens.


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

Yah, lots of shrimp foods have astaxanthin as well. Like fluval shrimp food, anything with shrimp meal.


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## MsNemoShrimp (Apr 25, 2011)

What a bummer. If fish and shrimp foods have it due to "shrimp meal", then what choice do I have other than feeding than flakes?


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

A varied diet. Not all shrimp foods have it. In fact, in that sampler pack, the only foods that have it are the hinomaru bento and the fluval shrimp food.


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## sampster5000 (Oct 30, 2010)

They heard about "going green" and thought it would be a good idea, is all.


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## james0816 (Jun 26, 2008)

Well for me, I don't feed any "specialty" food or shrimp specific food. Just regular old veggie flakes and sticks from Ken's. They also get the occassional zuccinni.

If it were food related, the bigger question would be, in my case, why is it only one shrimp out of the near 20 that are in there that has changed color? That's a bigger mystery if you ask me.


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## Buff Daddy (Oct 19, 2010)

I posted the same thing about 2 weeks ago. I still have 3 out of ~20 yellows that are a green hue with almost day-glo, greenish-yellow accents. Pretty, but odd,

And I'm using three of Ken's products...


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## gordonrichards (Jun 20, 2009)

They actually look sorta cool all green like that though.


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## moranger (Mar 26, 2011)

The green effect will remain for weeks on a shrimp and even then sometimes when i'm adding/pulling plants I'll start to see some shrimp with a tint of green so I believe the Astaxanthin will remain in the substrate for some time. As for only five of the shrimp turning green, those were the greedy ones that ran off with the food and ate it behind the filter intake.:icon_bigg


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## asukawashere (Mar 19, 2010)

Stress can also make yellow shrimp turn green - stressed shrimp tend to turn blueish, so on a shrimp that starts yellow, the added blue makes for green shrimp. Similarly, stressed cherries can turn purple...

I once unknowingly OD'ed panacur in a yellow shrimp colony. Imagine my surprise when I woke up the next day to a pile of dead planaria and bright green shrimp! A few days and a couple large water changes later, everyone was back to normal.


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## MsNemoShrimp (Apr 25, 2011)

They are turning back slightly to yellow now that I just feed them wafers. The chance is very very slow. Still very green : (


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## joon (Jul 17, 2004)

u know ur yellow shrimps look more green than my Green babaulti 
im so jealous 
im gonna feed my shrimps spinach with lettuce tomorrow


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## MsNemoShrimp (Apr 25, 2011)

joon said:


> u know ur yellow shrimps look more green than my Green babaulti
> im so jealous
> im gonna feed my shrimps spinach with lettuce tomorrow


Not my picture but yeah, even at its fading point now, my green yellow shrimps is still 2x greener than that picture


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## Jadenlea (Sep 15, 2011)

I liked the green!


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## Brittz620 (Mar 6, 2011)

sampster5000 said:


> They heard about "going green" and thought it would be a good idea, is all.


Good one :hihi:

Does this make anyone else think of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? You know the part "Violet you're turning violet." then she blue up like a plum. I sure did, made me think that the other shrimp that remained yellow said "Fred, your turning green!!!!"


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## MsNemoShrimp (Apr 25, 2011)

brittz620 said:


> good one :hihi:
> 
> Does this make anyone else think of willy wonka and the chocolate factory? You know the part "violet you're turning violet." then she blue up like a plum. I sure did, made me think that the other shrimp that remained yellow said "fred, your turning green!!!!"


lol.


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