# Blue Shrimp crossbreed experiment



## Sploosh

Decided to make a log for this.
I have started the blue shrimp crossbreeding experiment;
(blueberry - neocaridina heteropoda or caridina babaulti - not sure)
(blue pearl - neocaridina zhangjiajiensis).
I will try female blueberry to male blue pearl first, if nothing happens, will try female blue pearl to male blueberry.
I have placed 2 saddled blueberry shrimps, and one male blue pearl (has some yellow colouration) into my 10G guppy tank. 
Aside from seeing if they even will crossbreed, it is also a temperature experiment - tank is at 80-82F, which is far above recommended temps. The male blue pearl has been in there for 2 weeks now, doing well. I also put a blueberry fry in over a month ago - it too is doing well - unsure yet whether it's a male or female.

My blueberry shrimp are all going back to wild colouration - the 15G has yellow, green, red, brown, and blue coloured shrimps.

At this moment - the shrimps in the experiment are technically not blue..., have to do some selective culling in the 15G soon... (as in rehoming )


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## Tecstasy

Would be glad to re-home any that might need it. I have so many acryllic tanks now its redic


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## Sploosh

Tecstasy said:


> Would be glad to re-home any that might need it. I have so many acryllic tanks now its redic


Thanks, the first few culls are already spoken for though. 
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Update;
1 Female is now berried, roughly 15 eggs. It is her first clutch, so hopefully she holds them for the full term.
Wonder what I'm gonna end up with in 2 months...


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## Sploosh

The 2nd female is now berried, more eggs than the 1st female. 
The eggs do seem to be darker than both blue pearls and blueberries... (Blue pearls are lightish brown, Blueberries are either green or brown, these eggs are very dark brown, almost black) will have to see what happens as they mature...


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## Sploosh

One female finally started grazing on the front glass, got a decent pic of the eggs (will post later). 
Turns out the eggs are the same colour as both blue pearl and some blueberry eggs. Not darker as I had first thought (light/shadow playing tricks on me) or they have lightened up in the past day.


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## Sploosh

Update:
First female has turned a nice blueish with red spot undertones, has light green coloured eggs.
Second female is a nice rusty red, has light brown coloured eggs.
Both have a solid white stripe down their backs.
Will post pics once edited.


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## Sploosh

Photos;
1st female







2nd female


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## Sploosh

Update;
First female has dropped roughly half her eggs, second female still has all (it seems)


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## Sploosh

Update;
Correction (8:56pm)

First female has dropped all of her eggs.
Second female has dropped all but one egg (Photo from yesterday)


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## Sploosh

Update:
Both females molted last night, however, the yellow blue pearl male passed last night. Could've been a bad molt due to temp (went up to 84F yest) or other reasons, in any case, died before impregnating the females.
I have one Blue Pearl male left, I will pick out my most blue female to crossbreed with him, in a different tank that's at 76F.
Will update when that happens, Might as well keep it as one thread


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## Sploosh

I just spotted one of the females, berried with about 12 eggs  Looks like she has dropped some already, will have to keep an eye on her. Maybe I'll employ my new artificial hatching technique to the dropped eggs.... If I can get to them before the guppies...


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## Sploosh

That female dropped all the eggs, the guppies were too quick with cleaning them up  I have a third female that was seperated from the trio in a breeder net, turns out shrimp can breed through the netting  that female I spotted yesterday berried with about 15 eggs. The only male that she has ever been exposed to was the yellow blue pearl male, on the other side of the net. I now think the dropped eggs are due to the high temp (80-84F) in this tank, so I transferred out the female from the net, and the more solid coloured (at this moment) of the two other females, to the 5G guppy tank, which has the only remaining blue pearl male. That tank is at 76F +/- 1F, same pH as the 10G (7.5). The female from the net had only three eggs when I netted her out, during acclimation she dropped two, hopefully she holds onto the last one...
Will post pics later...


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## Sploosh

Got some photos 
Last I saw, the female still had one egg  I am sure she will hold on to it now that she is in proper parameters. I am now positive that 80F is too hot for a successful hatching (I thought it was before, just wasn't sure..). 
This time they are with a blue colour blue pearl male in a smaller tank with more current.

Females Acclimating

































......


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## Sploosh

......
In Tank














Blue Pearl Male


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## Sploosh

The female was holding onto the one egg, I didn't see it friday though. I am hoping it hatched, though it is probably unlikely.
The female guppy in the tank decided to give birth thursday night/friday morning, so, of course, the parameters swung a little (could tell from the smell, didn't test), and the filter pre-foam plugged up with the sudden burst if 30-50 fry appearing in the tank. 
Time to up wc's for the next 4 weeks, until I can move the fry out.

Blue Pearl Male (and Fry )


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## Sploosh

Update;

After a couple weeks, and a couple molts, the Male Blue Pearl showed no interest in either Blueberry Female. One female passed almost 2 weeks ago, due to an explosion of guppy fry in the tank (I suspect).

Recently, I came across a PFR Cherry, with very nice colouration. I was surprised to see it where I did, and it was the only one in the store tanks. When I got home, I found out it is a female.
Since adding to the tank (5G), the male Blue Pearl has been hanging out around the PFR Female, she has just molted this morning....

Edit;
Added Photos


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## Sploosh

Update;
No Berry yet, I don't think she will will this male. 
I will wait another 2 weeks, or 1 week after the next molt, if she still isn't berried, I will put a blueberry male from the 15G in.


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## jeff.l

Very interesting experiment. I have done some genetic work with caridina but never with neocaridina.


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