# What makes shrimps color better?



## darkoon (Jun 7, 2010)

What makes shrimps color better?
I have a 10g shrimp only tank, and also have a 72g planted tank with a bunch of fish.
I noticed that RCS color much better in the 72g than in the 10g. I feed shrimps all types of food in the 10g, but don't really feed them in the 72g, they eat whatever they find, and the shrimps in the 72G color much better than the ones in the 10g. I picked a few pale ones and put them into the 72G, after a few weeks, they turned really red, redder than any one in the 10g. so it's definitely not because of the food. is light playing a big roll here? 72G has GE 9325k Light, and 10g has CFL 5000k.


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## matt12 (Nov 21, 2010)

it might be food related. in the large tank theres problebly enough micro fauna and algae to eat and will intensify there colors. try feeding the ones in the 10 a quality shrimp food like New Life Spectrum Crustation Formula. could also be water quality


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## aquarliam (Dec 26, 2010)

10,000k or close light makes them look brighter as well.


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## TarantulaGuy (Apr 15, 2009)

I notice my females almost always turn a more brilliant shade of red when they're berried up. Makes them easy to pick out.


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## tex627 (Nov 2, 2008)

healthy, high veggies based diets, lower temp, higher pH and bulbs.

what affects coloring the most is their genes. Get them from a good breeder. other factors I mentioned above does improve coloring but can only do so much...


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## Yaouch (Jan 21, 2011)

I use Sukara's Mineral powder from Japan, you can purchase them on ebay.... I been using these for a month and I notice that my CRS got bright and bolder whites. it turns my water cloudy the 1st time I used it but after a few days it got clear. Hope this helps....


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

Do the tanks have the same substrate? What about the fish in the tanks? Shrimp tend to darken their colors against dark substrate to blend in, for one. Also, if they feel threatened by a large number of potentially predatory fish, their colors will wash out to camouflage them (or possibly due to fear? hard to say) - the more fish you have in the tank, especially fish larger than shrimp (baby/nano fish don't intimidate them much), the greater need the shrimp feel to be hidden.


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