Cherry Shrimp Losing Color!

Dd1880

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Aug 6, 2019
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I have had these rcs for over a week now. Seems like they are happy and are foraging. They did hide from my fish in the beginning because my female cherry barb went after them but they have all calmed down now and I haven’t seen them chase them lately. I had two super red ones and the rest were less red! But now I noticed my big red female lost that intense red and has a tan line from nose to tale! And the tale is tan! What is this! There’s one left that I noticed that is red without that line! My ammonia and nitrates are always zero. I dose Nilocg thrive twice a week. Hope they can get that red back. Any ideas on how to fix this cause I miss how red my big red one was. I did have my chihiros rgb set at 57% when I got them and have recently lowered cause of algae. I do not use co2. I lowered it to 40%. Thanks for any help!

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toads74

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Cherry shrimp do change color somewhat due to environmental conditions or stress. It’s hard to tell from the pictures, looks like something could be going on with the one in the last picture, the other two look good to me. Keep an eye out for a milky appearance or what looks like the outer shell being eroded away, as these indicate a problem. Gourami will also munch on shrimp, so that may be the issue as well.

A lighter colored stripe along the back from the head to the tail is normal for neocaridina shrimp, and may appear as they mature.
 
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Dd1880

Member
Aug 6, 2019
41
4
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44
Chicago il
Cherry shrimp do change color somewhat due to environmental conditions or stress. It’s hard to tell from the pictures, looks like something could be going on with the one in the last picture, the other two look good to me. Keep an eye out for a milky appearance or what looks like the outer shell being eroded away, as these indicate a problem. Gourami will also munch on shrimp, so that may be the issue as well.

A lighter colored stripe along the back from the head to the tail is normal for neocaridina shrimp, and may appear as they mature.
Thanks for the info. The gourami doesn’t really chase after them but if they go to swim to the floating plants he pecks at them. But never seen any hunting down behavior. My female cherry barb would go after them when I first put them in but now I think she leaves them alone. I was looking at hyphen today and she was right next to one of the bigger ones and just ignored it! They all move around and are foraging. I haven seem to have lost any yet and I saw a big molt in the gravel. Hoping they will breed and some babies survive! I’m hoping to get some Christmas moss soon and put it on that driftwood on the right side of the tank!
 

Dd1880

Member
Aug 6, 2019
41
4
8
44
Chicago il
Cherry shrimp do change color somewhat due to environmental conditions or stress. It’s hard to tell from the pictures, looks like something could be going on with the one in the last picture, the other two look good to me. Keep an eye out for a milky appearance or what looks like the outer shell being eroded away, as these indicate a problem. Gourami will also munch on shrimp, so that may be the issue as well.

A lighter colored stripe along the back from the head to the tail is normal for neocaridina shrimp, and may appear as they mature.
I dose Nilocg thrive twice a week so don’t know if that’s causing the discoloring in the shrimp. I only dosed the recommended 3 pumps twice a week and a 50% water change weekly! Thanks for any help!
 

toads74

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Jun 3, 2013
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I don’t think dosing would cause any issues, unless you went really far overboard. Molting is a good sign, and sometimes it’s triggered by new environmental conditions.

Whether a fish will eat a shrimp is up to the individual. I had a couple gouramis, one completely ignored the shrimp, the others would tear into them in an instant. One of them was more than a little territorial! :eek: Make sure you have tons of hiding places for them where the other fish can’t get to them, Moss is great for this. :)
 
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Dd1880

Member
Aug 6, 2019
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Chicago il
I don’t think dosing would cause any issues, unless you went really far overboard. Molting is a good sign, and sometimes it’s triggered by new environmental conditions.

Whether a fish will eat a shrimp is up to the individual. I had a couple gouramis, one completely ignored the shrimp, the others would tear into them in an instant. One of them was more than a little territorial! :eek: Make sure you have tons of hiding places for them where the other fish can’t get to them, Moss is great for this. :)
That’s good to know. I only dose two pumps twice a week every 3rd day now since I got the shrimp! I think I have a lot of hiding spaces! I have a big mass of java fern and driftwood that they hide under! I do want to attach some Christmas moss to my piece of driftwood on the right! And add some more stem plants to the back! Was also thinking of adding s. Repens to the from on tank by my big piece of driftwood! Don’t know if it’ll take in my inert gravel! Yeah my gourami is usual a bully to my female cherry barb and my bn pleco always chases off the dwarf gourami haha! They leave the cardinal tetras alone for some reason ‍♂️ Thanks again for the help!

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