[johnny313]

I keep getting yellow babies in my RCS tank. I DID have yellows in there about a month ago but I's seeing tiny yellow shrimp. I wait till they get bigger and then I dump them into my yellow tank and they grow up to be yellows... they dont change colors.

 

[gordonrichards]

Yellows mated with the rcs obviously which is why you are seeing baby yellows.

You'll end up getting more yellows from the babies even if they aren't yellow.
Small percentage chance of producing more yellows. lol

-Gordon

 

[johnny313]

i thought if you crossbreed, you get nasty brown ones???

 

[mordalphus]

That's dependent on whether or not the color strains were bred from wild stock, or bred from cherries.

If they were bred from cherries, and you cross with a cherry, you'll get mostly cherries with some yellows.

 

[johnny313]

That's dependent on whether or not the color strains were bred from wild stock, or bred from cherries.

If they were bred from cherries, and you cross with a cherry, you'll get mostly cherries with some yellows.

so would it be "safe" in a matter of speaking to keep them together?

 

[OverStocked]

so would it be "safe" in a matter of speaking to keep them together?

No, because they'll never breed "true" again and you will likely start to get muddy colored ones. They won't stay crisp and you won't get the "best" of either.

You'd never want to sell shrimp from a mixed tank, for one. They will just end up spreading messy genetic lines.

 

[johnny313]

so... how bad would it be if I kept the yellows produced by reds / yellows and placed them in the tank with my yellow colony? i mean, they are super yellows!

 

[diwu13]

Bad. You would be mixing red with the super yellow genes.

 

[diwu13]

Either sell them labeled as mixed or use them as food. The crosses will mess up your red cherries as well if you leave them there.

 

[OverStocked]

so... how bad would it be if I kept the yellows produced by reds / yellows and placed them in the tank with my yellow colony? i mean, they are super yellows!

BAD. YOu'd just screw up the genetics of a whole tank.

 

[jasonpatterson]

If their coloration is very good, what I would try is setting up a separate tank for them. If they breed true, then you've got some worthwhile shrimp on your hands. I understand the people who are suggesting that these shrimp are problematic, genetically speaking, but this is also one way new lines get started. For goodness sake, if they are good looking, they're not trash, whatever the source.

A couple of things you might try, if you're the experimenting type:
- Allow the yellow offspring to breed with one another, hopefully producing super duper yellow babies.
- Pull some of your best yellow shrimp from your yellow tank and let them breed with these shrimp in a separate tank, also hopefully producing super duper yellow babies.

Additionally, if the first cross produces shrimp with good coloration, but the second does not, then that implies, at least to me, that the yellow color of these shrimp does not necessarily come from RCS lines being contaminated with yellow genes. If I were a betting man, I'd put a good bit of money on contamination being the case, honestly, but you never know. Heck, wouldn't it be great if someone happened upon a yellow shrimp as thoroughly colored as PFRs?