Shrimp color advantage in community tanks

[Lennie]

Hey,

I am considering to introduce either black roses or green jelly neocaridinas to my betta tank. I don't know the temperament of my betta as I've got him online. 

The tank is quite planted, gonna add shrimp tubes, has floating plants as well. Gonna add a cattappa leaf too. 

 

So, the question is, do you guys believe some shrimp colors like wilds, greens, blacks have more advantage to do well due to their camouflage skills in a planted tank, compared to more flashy colors like reds, yellows, blues ?

I've kept my orange sakuras in a community tank with tetras, gourami and rams without any preying on the adults. But no clue about bettas color reactions as flashy fish tankmates are also not adviced.

• I've ordered 10 black roses and 10 green jellies. Any ideas if any of the two can do better in the betta tank?

10 will go to 10g endler/snail tub, and another 10 will go to the 10g betta tank. If stuff goes wrong, I have another two tanks running anyway, I can move them other tanks as a back up plan.

Thanks for the help,

 

 

 

Edited April 24, 2023 by Lennie

[Guppysnail]

I noticed my clear snowballs and mottled brown snowballs got picked off less when introduced to a less than ideal (predators involved) community setting. 
I think your greens would stand a better chance of evading your betta should it turn out he will predate them. 
My snowballs were also my fastest reproducing so that may have given them a leg up. 
My blue velvets stood no chance. They reproduced slower and were always targeted , orange did okay but nothing noteable, reds just produced so fast I never missed those that were picked off. (Known by partial bodies/tails found). 
 

[Lennie]

On 4/24/2023 at 10:55 PM, Guppysnail said:

I noticed my clear snowballs and mottled brown snowballs got picked off less when introduced to a less than ideal (predators involved) community setting. 
I think your greens would stand a better chance of evading your betta should it turn out he will predate them. 
My snowballs were also my fastest reproducing so that may have given them a leg up. 
My blue velvets stood no chance. They reproduced slower and were always targeted , orange did okay but nothing noteable, reds just produced so fast I never missed those that were picked off. (Known by partial bodies/tails found). 
 

Great info!

I would assume blue velvets to stand a better chance compared to reds and oranges. Interesting.

We sadly have no snowballs here somehow.

considering black roses shoot lots of blues, I better go with greens in the betta tank with the scenario

[TOtrees]

I sort of found that bettas are most "dialed in" to be aggressive towards whatever color they are themselves. Blue bettas target blue fish. Red ones go after reds. This is definitely not an "only" or an "always" statement, but "often" or "more". 

I like @Lennie's consideration of reproductive rates. My blue neos are also much (waaaayyyy) slower reproducing than my reds (bloody mary's), all other things being equal. 

But I'm personally skeptical that a predator will have more or less difficulty seeing different color shrimp more or less, in an aquarium environment. It might be that different colors taste different or are more or less nutritious, and that might result in preference developing for one color over another. And it might also be that in a murky or cloudy tank, certain colors might be less visible over distances. But at the more up-close distances, in relatively clear water, where hunting interactions occur in an aquarium, I'm skeptical that any one color will be less visible to a fish that is on the hunt. Not certain, but skeptical. 

[Lennie]

On 4/24/2023 at 11:22 PM, TOtrees said:

I sort of found that bettas are most "dialed in" to be aggressive towards whatever color they are themselves. Blue bettas target blue fish. Red ones go after reds. This is definitely not an "only" or an "always" statement, but "often" or "more". 

I like @Lennie's consideration of reproductive rates. My blue neos are also much (waaaayyyy) slower reproducing than my reds (bloody mary's), all other things being equal. 

But I'm personally skeptical that a predator will have more or less difficulty seeing different color shrimp more or less, in an aquarium environment. It might be that different colors taste different or are more or less nutritious, and that might result in preference developing for one color over another. And it might also be that in a murky or cloudy tank, certain colors might be less visible over distances. But at the more up-close distances, in relatively clear water, where hunting interactions occur in an aquarium, I'm skeptical that any one color will be less visible to a fish that is on the hunt. Not certain, but skeptical. 

My betta is a nemo, he legit has every color on him 😄 

[NOLANANO]

Yellow shrimp on black sand get picked off with ease. I have had brown and blue shrimp do just fine over black sand.

[nabokovfan87]

All neos will color up more intensely based on having a darker substrate.  It encourages the parts of their body that produce the coloration to produce a more vibrant color. This also applies to the background itself on the walls of the tank.  There are research studies on this as well that have been performed. 

That being said, black shrimp on the black/brown soil will do fine.  Green (usually is more of a muted color) will tend to hide out in the plants and be camouflaged pretty well.  Either one would do fine with the setup given the right place to hide.