why is my amano orange?

[Veneer]

mistahoo, those are definitely not Amanos, which would explain why they're able to breed in freshwater.

Originally Posted by Intelik808

I don't mean to hack this post but so if it is Neocaridina denticulata that means they would interbreed with rili shrimp?

Yes, interbreeding is likely. I wouldn't keep them together.

At any rate, bluestems, you have something that's neither of these three things. Just keep an eye on your water parameters and continue to monitor how everyone's doing.

[mistahoo]

Originally Posted by Veneer

mistahoo, those are definitely not Amanos, which would explain why they're able to breed in freshwater.


Yes, interbreeding is likely. I wouldn't keep them together.

At any rate, bluestems, you have something that's neither of these three things. Just keep an eye on your water parameters and continue to monitor how everyone's doing.

*sigh* again... They were not breeding in my tank. I don't know if the guy's pond was slightly brackish or not, but they were reproducing in his ponds and I'm pretty sure I know what Amanos look like. After settling, they turned back into their typical color and their markings showed better.

Sent from my spaceship using Tapatalk 2.

[jkan0228]

Maybe a wild neo?

[Veneer]

Originally Posted by mistahoo

*sigh* again... They were not breeding in my tank. I don't know if the guy's pond was slightly brackish or not, but they were reproducing in his ponds and I'm pretty sure I know what Amanos look like. After settling, they turned back into their typical color and their markings showed better.

Those ponds would have to be pretty salty, at least halfway to oceanic salinity, for Amanos to successfully complete their life cycle in them (probably 17 ppt upwards, which adults can tolerate but is on the low end for good zoeal survival). That sounds unlikely unless he made an effort to intentionally maintain them that way.

It's kind of a moot point because that's hardly my only reason for saying they're not Amanos. Let's focus on the clearest shot, which luckily is of an ovigerous female:

Originally Posted by mistahoo

(1) The rostrum is far too long to be that of an Amano, which would only make it a little bit past the orbital margin. This is an immediate giveaway and a reliable diagnostic character (given how invariable this is within this species). The limb diameter is more slender than is normal in Amanos.

(2) If I'm seeing this photo correctly, the size of the eggs is far larger and their number far fewer than that of actual Amanos (and their coloration is also atypical). This would indicate that these shrimp have at least partial abbreviation of larval development (which needn't make it mysterious that they didn't successfully breed in your tanks -- they could well be like the Caridina sp. called "Malaya shrimp", where have a short planktonic period before the young settle down and become postlarvae. These planktonic stages don't require saline water, but are much more vulnerable to filter intakes and fish than would be young that immediately hatch out as benthic "miniature adults" ... pond survival would probably be better. And even fully-formed postlarvae aren't guaranteed to make it to adulthood in an aquarium setting.)

(3) I'm sure the patterning of your shrimp became more Amano-like (I'm guessing paler, with the dark dots a little more pronounced?) after a while, but what I see in the photos is frankly outside the range of natural variation for Amanos, under any conditions I can think of -- especially the cephalothorax, with its comparatively wide, continuous horizontal bands and absence of dark, discrete spots. Pigmentation of the the eyes is also much lighter than is typical of Amanos.

For comparison:



Now, this doesn't mean that the guy you got these from didn't purchase these as Amanos (and, as I've suggested above, they could well be breeding in his ponds even if they are freshwater). Mislabeling happens, and non-target species get into collectors' buckets or exporters' tanks. If you really couldn't distinguish these from what you bought as Amanos from another source, then possibly those were mis-ID'd too (but more than a few small atyids look "close enough" to similarly-sized Amanos at first glance).

[Soothing Shrimp]

Just looked up Malayan Shrimp. They are very new to the hobby and still very rare. You maybe correct on the ID.

[bluestems]

They may be. I know for sure two of the original three are not Amanos. I have added some that I recently picked up from the Greater Seattle Aquatics Society, and even though these amanos are adults, it's now easier to see the differences between them when side by side.

The one baby amano now hangs out with the new troop of Amanos. All the shrimp seem to be doing well. I just cleaned the tank and counted both bee shrimp, the two Maylan? shrimp and the new amanos. I guess as long as everyone is getting along and thriving, I'm assuming there's no issues with keeping them together...?