dwarf shrimp FishLove

[FishLove]

I have read contradictory articles on breeding dwarf shrimp and colors. Some say it’s okay to mix colors others say no you will only get brown ugly shrimp. That being said I have mixed colors up and have a mixture of reds, pumpkins, and blues with only a few clear and brown. The colored shrimp have good coloration not weak in color. I would like to know what other shrimp keepers get or do.

[Struggle]

We have very similar results as you, with some rili thrown in. It also appears that we get some really nice dark blue shrimp. 

[Aquarium Journal]

I mixed red rili and blue rili together, but to be transparent I had no clue what I was doing. Within a few months I had many wild variants. So I began to cull the wilds, but they reproduced so quickly that it was impossible to keep up. So I just quit and let them go without culling. That tank is now almost three years old and I would say that 70% are a wild type, 20% look like true rili and 10% have develop very interesting and unique patterns. I just recently started catching out tiny babies and putting them in separate tanks to see if I can maybe make something interesting.

[FishFrenzy]

In the long run you'll likely end up with a tank of mostly wild shrimp.In the short term you can get still some nice colored shrimp and interesting patterns.Theres absolutely nothing "wrong" with mixing shrimp colors.Wild type shrimp are still healthy happy useful shrimp.Just depends on if you will still enjoy looking at them or not.

[FishLove]

Appreciate the input everyone!

[Cait]

To add more complexity to this issue, certain types of dwarf shrimp (Caridina) mix without reverting to "wild types." For instance, mixing differently colored/patterned Caridina shrimp often produces elaborate patterns. It is by mixing that "shadow pandas" are created.