# Inbreeding problems with shrimp colonies



## LVKSPlantlady (Oct 4, 2009)

Planning on starting a Cherry red shrimp breeding colony this spring. I will be using a 10 gal, moving to a 20L if needed. Over the spring and summer I'm going to add 50-60 shrimp to start. I'm going to buy, obtain from several different sources. My thinking is this will cut down on inbreeding and make the shrimp have better genetics. Once my cherries are going good I'm going set up tank for another variety. 

How long do you think I can keep my CRS colony going before the obviously inbreeding becomes a problem? Would it fruitless to buy from lots of different sources anyways? Because if most CRS in the USA now came from Taiwan, would be safe to say all the CRS in the USA are closely related? 
I'm also wondering where these originated? On the island of Taiwan?
What about the other varieties?

Thanks


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## EKLiu (Apr 4, 2010)

I would not worry about inbreeding at all. I have seen a room full of tanks with huge colonies of shrimp in them, all descended from a dozen shrimp. And one of the nicest CRS colonies I have seen was started from 3 shrimp. Inbreeding fears are much overblown IMHO.


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

back when I used to breed Endler's guppies,
we would always broaden the genetics after
6 generations, and I did see first hand some
deformed females born of too much inbreeding.

I'm just not sure how a rule applies to invertebrates,
but I plan on following the same path as my guppies,
by totally divesting my shrimp stock once per year.

let's be honest - most shrimp we hobbyist get are
already an inbreed of an inbreed, so I believe it
behooves us to limit their inbreeding somewhere.


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## bosmahe1 (May 14, 2005)

Couldn't you just introduce a few specimens from a different line into your existing colony every so many months? Natural selection would probably take care of the rest.


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## Franco (Jun 25, 2010)

Our invertebrates probably don't have a very lengthy genome and since all of our shrimp are super inbred to begin with (how do you think they make a clear and brown shrimp bright red), it probably doesn't matter. Natural selection and random mutation within the tank is probably what makes some colonies lose their bright colors after a while. When you have animals breeding that fast, the recessive traits we want will sometimes get beat out by a mutation or gene recombination that manifests itself as a dominant genotype giving you a duller (more wild) phenotype.


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## bosmahe1 (May 14, 2005)

Franco said:


> Our invertebrates probably don't have a very lengthy genome and since all of our shrimp are super inbred to begin with (how do you think they make a clear and brown shrimp bright red), it probably doesn't matter. Natural selection and random mutation within the tank is probably what makes some colonies lose their bright colors after a while. When you have animals breeding that fast, the recessive traits we want will sometimes get beat out by a mutation or gene recombination that manifests itself as a dominant genotype giving you a duller (more wild) phenotype.


Ahh, makes sense. I let my RCS reproduce as they will. If they wind up regressing to the natural form, I wouldn't mind. They would probably be better at avoiding being eaten by the Cardinal Tetras they are housed with. I started with 6 and they reproduced to at least a hundred or so until, the Tetras found out the babies are tasty. I still see 10 or 20 at a time so, I let them be.


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