Neo and Pinto won’t crossbreed, right?

[T0adman]

I know they don’t really like the same water parameters, but I also know that the neos are pretty tolerant. So, if you kept them in the same tank, would they interbreed or would they remain separate?

 

Longer version: I am starting with a small tank of blue neos on my nightstand. I started with neos because they are easier than pintos and because my wife loves the blue shrimp. Personally, I love the look of the red pintos. So, eventually, once I’m comfortable with my shrimp care skills, I plan to move the blue colony to another larger tank, reduce the hardness of the original tank and get some red pintos. If they won’t interbreed and ruin the genetics of the pintos, I’d love to leave some of the blue neos in the tank while I slowly reduce the hardness down to pinto levels so there are some of both of our favorite shrimp in the tank. Since I’ll have another strong colony of blue neos with perfect water parameters, the pintos would be the priority; I wouldn’t want to do anything that jeopardizes their health or genetics. Is this a terrible plan, or something I could get away with?

Thanks!

[uuaaayyy]

From what I know, pintos have to have low pH water setup, with remineralized with GH+ RO water and low pH substrate like ADA Amazonia. Reducing hardness of tap water is not enough.

[JSak]

I agree with @uuaaayyy about going with remineralized RO water over tap water for caridina shrimp, especially pintos and Taiwan bees, so that you can control the water parameters can keep them consistent. I didn’t see you mention using tap water though so maybe I missed it. 

 

In terms of your plan, I think it’s a good idea! Neos seem to be very hardy and adaptable, especially if you’ve been raising them up for a while, so if you can slowly acclimate them they should have a better chance to thrive. Neos and caridina don’t interbreed as far as I know so you don’t have to worry about that. You also have the right idea about keeping the parameters closer to what the pintos want since they’re more sensitive to parameters and more expensive. 

 

Another suggestion is you could split your blue dream colony in half and keep one half in their old tank and add the other half into the tank for the pintos. This way if anything happens to the ones in the pinto tank you still have a “reserve colony”. One thing to consider though is that if you’re planning to use a buffering substrate (Amazonia, Fluval Stratum, Brightwell Aquasoil, etc.) if you have any KH in the water it’ll deplete the soil’s buffering capacity, essentially shortening it’s duration of effect. I saw you’re thinking of starting with neo parameters and working down to caridina parameters which is why I brought this up. I believe that buffering substrate is very important to a caridina tank and they can be expensive so that’s something you might want to consider as well.

 

All that being said, it’s your hobby so you should do what gets you excited about the hobby. I have OERBT’s that came from a breeder who kept them in caridina parameters, but I wanted to put them in my neo tank to make the most use of my tank space. I drip acclimated them for about 8 hours since their parameters Were pretty different than the tank I was putting them in and they’re still doing well for me. So I’d think if you slowly acclimate them over several weeks/months they should have a good chance.