what would be another good shrimp for this purpose? i think amanos might show a decent response to uv, so ill include them in the experiment as well. if one side colors up more than the other, im pretty sure that we can exclude the possibility that it is due to genetics.
that is, unless people are breeding different strains of amano shrimp...
from what i understand, most amanos are still pretty much all wild types. what i have noticed, however, is my amanos turned two different colors while in the same tank. when i had them under normal lights they were pretty much clear, but in the over driven tank with the reef lights on it, they have all turned dark green except for two, which turned a burnt orange.
it has me thinking... if UV does play a role in how the shrimp expresses its genes for color, it could be useful as a tool to help with selective breeding.
in other words, if you put two shrimp side by side, both young, and get them to produce pigment in their shells by exposing them to UV, then you may be able to take a wild type shrimp and selectively breed for the traits you want.
i have collected palaemonetes all over the east coast from key west to virginia and each wild population shows slightly different color patterns. the annoying thing is that they usually lost much of their color after several molts in my tank. the ones that didnt lose their color were the redish tinted shrimp from the sandhill game lands in north carolina.
the water there blocks UV light, and the water is dark, so im sure UV had the least to do with their colors. the most colorful ones came from a remote spring that fed into the tannin stained suwannee river. they had bright blue and red bands on their legs, and green tinted bands on their bodies. just 20 meters downstream in the suwannee however, and they were all pretty much colorless. that was my first indication that it might be light that plays a part in their color, since they were the exact same species of shrimp, but there was a wide variation in color depending on how clear the water was.
if i were to breed shrimp that produced the most response to UV, i have no idea what the outcome would be. all i know is that i would be selecting for something...
ill have to try it and see i guess. arabic takes up on average 10 hours of my day, and it will for the next 56 weeks. i need something to think about on my off time so that i dont go crazy. this is my favorite part of the hobby. i dont give a hoot about having the most beautiful shrimp. i dont regard one shrimp over the next. what i want is to do something nobody has done, answer questions that nobody has satisfactorily answered. just look at what i have been doing with algae. i would gladly trade the highest grade shrimp for the lowest grade shrimp if it meant i could learn how to do something new.