Clear Red Cherry Shrimp

[meadeam]

I'm not going to complain because it has taken me this long to figure it out, but some time back I ordered a 10 pack of RCS from AquaHuna.  The shrimp were very young and didn't look like much.   These days I only ever see a few of them at a time, but some have grown into bright red cherry shrimp, and some (I have no idea how many, but at least a couple) turned out to be ghost shrimp.  They are about half the size o the RCS, with translucent bodies.   Does that happen often with shrimp?  This is my first batch.  They all appeared to be the same when I released them into the tank, I could never have discerned a difference.

Edited December 3, 2021 by meadeam

[Griznatch]

See if you can post pictures. Ghost shrimp and cherry shrimp look different. Color is not really an indication of whether it's a ghost shrimp or not, since Neocaridinas can be almost transparent in the wild form.  Most common ghost shrimp a red band on the antenna and sometimes on the front claw/arm. They also usually have a  distinct hump to their back that to me seems more pronounced than a typical Neo.

Here's what one of mine looked like when I had them in my 75

Sorry about ho grainy the image is but you can see the red bands on the claw arms and barely make out them partway up the antenna.

 

Edited December 3, 2021 by Griznatch
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[meadeam]

On 12/3/2021 at 11:44 AM, Griznatch said:

See if you can post pictures. Ghost shrimp and cherry shrimp look different. Color is not really an indication of whether it's a ghost shrimp or not, since Neocaridinas can be almost transparent in the wild form Most common ghost shrimp a red band on the antenna. They also usually have a  distinct hump to their back that to me seems more pronounced than a typical Neo.

will do.  The difference between the 2 types is stark and unmistakable.  I may be wrong about the smaller, translucent ones being ghost shrimp, that was just a guess.  But they are definitely different in size, shape, and transparency.

[lefty o]

On 12/3/2021 at 10:10 AM, meadeam said:

I'm not going to complain because it has taken me this long to figure it out, but some time back I ordered a 10 pack of RCS from AquaHuna.  The shrimp were very young and didn't look like much.   These days I only ever see a few of them at a time, but some have grown into bright red cherry shrimp, and some (I have no idea how many, but at least a couple) turned out to be ghost shrimp.  They are about half the size o the RCS, with translucent bodies.   Does that happen often with shrimp?  This is my first batch.  They all appeared to be the same when I released them into the tank, I could never have discerned a difference.

mistakes can certainly happen, but i dont use aquahuna any more for several reasons.

[Guppysnail]

I have some clear neocaridina. I think they were labeled snowball when I bought them. They do stay a bit smaller than my reds but are the same size as my orange. 

[meadeam]

Grabbed some poor quality photos, but it gets the job done.  When these came in they were all about half the size of the one on the left, and I could not tell a difference between any of them.  They were all basically brown.  As they grew and colored up, I started to see the red emerging.  The Reds must be close to, or fully grown now.  They are twice the size (scale in the photos is not accurate) as the translucent bodied ones.  It's hard to say how many I have of each out of the original 10; I only ever see 3-4 of either of them at a time.  Yeah, so definitely not ghost shrimp, but not red either.

Edited December 3, 2021 by meadeam

[JettsPapa]

I believe those are just poor color male neos.  Females are typically larger than males, with better color.

Edited December 3, 2021 by JettsPapa

[meadeam]

On 12/3/2021 at 12:44 PM, JettsPapa said:

I believe those are just poor color male neos.  Females are typically larger than males, with better color.

I've now read a bunch of things that lead me to agree.  Apparently they are not always red, and sometimes turn red after a few molts.  oh well, no big deal. 

[Chad]

Interesting, thanks for the share. I have a few similar looking shrimp but I was guessing it was due to having cherry and pumpkins together and the offspring were less than ideal. Look at that, I learned something today.