# Mixing shrimp



## Oli-oli-oli-oioioi (Mar 16, 2017)

Hello Iv kept amano and blue dream shrimp In my 50l planted but I have an empty 30l planted I'm planning on having just shrimp in. Id like a mixture I like the galaxy tiger, leopard tiger, blue jell and the snowball white purl shrimp. Could I get 4 or each? If they cross bread I guess there would be some pretty cool hybrids (if the cross) is this a big no as it will throw wild types? Is there a nice mix that would throw out lots of blues with a a mix of patterns? I plan on separating some of the most pretty shrimp into another 50l I have some harlequin tetras in but that's only if they'll cross


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## s2man (Nov 8, 2016)

Welcome to APC, Oli.


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## John Barrett (Feb 14, 2017)

Welcome as well Oli. As I have read (not from experience) and understand the tigers will cross but you may not see any nicer variations for a few generation's. Making them breed true will take even longer. Some people spend years doing this. That is how we have some of the variations we have now. As for blue pearl and snowball they are both Neocaridina cf. zhangjiajiensis so if bred they would most likely just throw wild types.

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## John Barrett (Feb 14, 2017)

Looking more into this you would be able to add blue jelly, blue rili and red rili blue. Even if you didn't add red rili blue you might get one every once in a while. This appears to be where blue rili and blue jelly are derived from. Sounds like you would get mostly blue jelly offspring but if you are crossing tigers in the tank as well it would at least give you more to choose from and to look at. The thing about Neocaridina genetics is that they are line bred for different colors so when we try to mix two that have been bred for selective traits we end up mostly going back to wild types. Unless we use the same species of shrimp with colors that were used along the way to achieving the end result, i.e. red rili blue to blue rili to blue jelly. Still though, culling sounds like a must in any shrimp tank to keep preferred genetics in line.


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## John Barrett (Feb 14, 2017)

This is not perfect but will at least give you an idea on genetics and why some people get "throw back" shrimps. Like getting a chocolate from a bloody mary colony or a red rili from a blue jelly colony. Not my photo, I am not sure where it originally came from tbh.


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## ObiQuiet (Oct 9, 2009)

That's great, I've been curious about this for a while! Not sure how to read it though -- are the derived variations based on pairs of the same parent type?


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## John Barrett (Feb 14, 2017)

I believe so, following the arrows back to the first before the morph and then to the morph mostly. I am surely no expert on this so maybe someone else will chime in as well. Just been doing a lot of research as I have my own expriments in store for these little fellas. :rubs hands together like a mad scientist: Mwahahaha...ha...ahem...sorry. There is a LOT of selective breeding involved. Way more so than you might expect if you had high grade shrimp that you did not cull so they went mid/low grade and you were trying to get them back to high grade again. Really because lines aren't stable we end up back to square one/wild type. That's not to say there still aren't some hidden genetics in there we don't see. This is why people and breeders say not to mix shrimp. It has taken quite some work and time to get them where they are when they are stable like red cherry shrimp. But hey, if nobody experimented and mixed or bred a color morph back to its own parents (which were not the color morph only carrying the gene) and then selectively bred those, we wouldn't have nearly the selection we have today! But even that sometimes doesnt work. Whatever you do...enjoy it! Also please post what you find so the rest of us has an idea what to do or not to do.


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## John Barrett (Feb 14, 2017)

Here's another one I found.


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## John Barrett (Feb 14, 2017)

Lol and another! I love this stuff.


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## swmnwdsfishes (Mar 30, 2017)

Heres one for Caridina









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