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I am setting up a 20 gallon shrimp tank in a few months. (I can provide more details if needed). I've had some cherry shrimp in the past, but that's the extent of my shrimp experience. I've been doing plenty of reading, but being a beginner, some of it makes no sense to me.

I want to keep blue neocaridina shrimp, but there are so many kinds and it's quite honestly confusing. I really like the blue velvet dreams, but I've heard they don't breed true very often?

My question is, which blue neo

a. is your favorite

b. breeds true most often 

c. is the easiest to keep?

All input is much appreciated. I really want to do this right. 

If possible, please include which varieties the shrimp are descended from, a brief description or photo, and an overview of what colors they tend to throw.

Thanks!

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Most neos breed true unless hybridized, all neos require fairly similar water parameters, you should post your parameters. I think the most important thing is water parameter stability and temperature.

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Which shrimp you get is probably dependant on your budget and preference. I like blue carbon rilis since its two tone and and it really catches the eye compared to a solid colored shrimp.

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I currently have blue dream velvets (or whatever people call them) descended from chocolates. While I think some lines can breed true, mine throws rusts and blacks quite a bit. I don't mind because I can pretend that I have multiple kinds of shrimp. The really blue ones are fantastic but there's quite a bit of variability in my line (YMMV depending on where you get them) so they range from sky blue to rust red.

I've also kept carbon blue rilis and they look great. Because of the extra patterning, they also will breed with some variability. Some will blow your mind, some won't have the black head/tail as much. I'm sure there are very well culled lines out there that breed more "true" but finding them will be tough.

How easy they are to keep will depend on your water and the source they come from. My rilis died off slowly over the course of 6 months with no obvious cause while my blue dream velvets are doing fine. The first were imported, the latter were bred in the US in conditions similar to my tank.

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3 hours ago, dazalea said:

My blue dreams breed at about 95% true so far... 

 

I just checked out some of your stock and those are some amazing looking blues.

 @DreaminginBlue Now you know where to get your blue dreams :P  

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As with most animals, culling out undesirable traits is a must.   If you don't those recessive genes pop up now and again and you lose those traits you like.   For blues I personally like Blue Dreams like the color Dazalea has worked on.

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3 hours ago, aotf said:

 

I just checked out some of your stock and those are some amazing looking blues.

 @DreaminginBlue Now you know where to get your blue dreams :P  

Aw, thanks so much. I will have them ready in August... Not sure if your tank will be up and running by then, but if you need anything from me, let me know!

 

Edited by dazalea
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Just to clarify blue dreams do NOT come from chocolates. That would be blue diamond. Blue dreams are from carbon line thus the reason blue dream has black sometimes and can throw out blue carbon, etc.


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1 hour ago, ohmiko said:

Just to clarify blue dreams do NOT come from chocolates. That would be blue diamond. Blue dreams are from carbon line thus the reason blue dream has black sometimes and can throw out blue carbon, etc.
 

 

Without meaning to contradict you, vendors will call their neo blues whatever they want even if it doesn't really make sense. My blue diamonds were advertised as "blue dream velvets" despite a clear chocolate lineage. So calling them blue diamonds would indeed be more appropriate.

To the OP: To my knowledge, there are 4 blue neos from different lineages. When purchasing, make sure you know which lineage you are buying from because the name often carries less weight than you think (not saying all vendors do this and when they do, it's not intentional).

 

Blue pearl: Neocaridina palmata. My sense is that these are often appropriately labeled.

Cherry shrimp > Red rili > Blue jelly: Light, sky blue coloration. Occasionally remnants of red around the eyes. These are often labeled as blue rili, full blue rili, and blue velvets.

Chocolate > Blue diamond: Darker blue. Can be labeled as blue dream velvets, blue velvets, blue dream, and topaz (blue wizards? idk).

Blue carbon rili > Blue dream (?): Also darker blue, possible remaining rili patterning. Can be labeled as blue rili, blue velvets, blue dream, probably others too.

Notice the overlap? Buying blues is a nightmare.

 

ohmiko: Not disagreeing with you! Just trying to provide a little context for OP. Feel free to correct me where I messed up.

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A lot of people wouldn't label their blue diamonds and blue dreams bc diamonds are harder to find and most lines are very unstable. So yes if you see signs of chocolate in the offsprings then it's no blue dream. Blue dream labeling is a mess because different areas in the world call them differently. Taiwan often label blue dream as blue velvet. Blue jelly is another way for blue velvet(the light blue but darker than pearl) topaz blue from what I see is more slightly lighter more ultramarine blue dream bred for that hue. It's just a mess


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41 minutes ago, ohmiko said:

most lines are very unstable

 

Sounds like my tank, alright! I'm building up my population size before I start culling for a specific color, I haven't decided yet if I want to preserve blues or the black rusty ones. Both are really cool, maybe it's time for another tank...

 

43 minutes ago, ohmiko said:

 It's just a mess
 

 

I think I saw some full blue rili (from Cherries) advertised as blue pearl on aquabid recently, just to add to it all.

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I think I saw some full blue rili (from Cherries) advertised as blue pearl on aquabid recently, just to add to it all.

The black ones are possibly black diamond :-) tho I don't know much about black diamond


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There's a chart online that shows Blue Dream coming from the Chocolate line. But I see a lot of listings for Blue Dream Velvet.

 

'Dream' seems to have become an indicator of the shade of blue rather than of the lineage. 

 

Velvet to me indicates lineage from Rili.

 

Diamond/Saphire seems like a lineage term. 

 

Would really like to know where 'Fantasy' is.

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1 minute ago, FishRFriendz said:

There's a chart online that shows Blue Dream coming from the Chocolate line. But I see a lot of listings for Blue Dream Velvet.

 

'Dream' seems to have become an indicator of the shade of blue rather than of the lineage. 

 

Velvet to me indicates lineage from Rili.

 

Diamond/Saphire seems like a lineage term. 

 

Would really like to know where 'Fantasy' is.


The neo lineage diagram I like to refer to also lists Blue Dreams as Chocolate lineage, but I've just decided not to put too much faith in any individual document. Sure, the first person to breed a given shrimp might give it a name but that doesn't make it the name everyone else calls it or prevent people from using the new name on different shrimp.

I agree about Blue Velvets coming from rilis although as soon as you throw a Dream in there (Blue Dream Velvet), it's almost certainly referring to chocolate or carbon rili lineages. Rili lineages never get as dark blue as those first two (at least as far as I know. I would love to see a red blue rili with dream blue intensity).

I'm also curious about Blue Wizards. Mostly because it's such a funny name. 

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That neo chart is heavily flawed with errors mostly in the blue region. A member on here is trying to work on an updated correct chart


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13 hours ago, ohmiko said:

That neo chart is heavily flawed with errors mostly in the blue region. A member on here is trying to work on an updated correct chart

 

That would be so great, it's otherwise a really great way to convey the lineage information. Every other chart I've seen falls pretty short.

Rah-bop, where are you and your caridina chart skills....

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On 7/12/2017 at 4:22 PM, aotf said:



Notice the overlap? Buying blues is a nightmare.

 

ohmiko: Not disagreeing with you! Just trying to provide a little context for OP. Feel free to correct me where I messed up.

I don't think buying blues is a nightmare if you are buying from someone who knows what their shrimp are producing for multiple generations. I personally can say my blue dreams breed 90%+ true (varies slightly but its always over 90% the other percentage is culls, which most neocaridina shrimp lines require some amount of culling to maintain the line). This is my observation after multiple generations so I know that mine are NOT Blue velvets, NOT blue dream RILI and NOT chocolates.... This can get ruined if you do not cull/remove shrimp without the proper blue dream color. With imported shrimp there may be some improper labeling.

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There are lots of different blues out there and buying from a trusted source is very important!

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