how do you make your rcs red?

i believe they develop the red coloration once they reach sexual maturity.

Their coloration depends largely on their stress level. If they are stressed (like after or during shipping) they will be clear. If your water parameters are not too their liking they will be stressed as well. Have you tested the water lately or are you keeping up with the water changes? If that is all OK then as said earlier, age plays a factor and to a lesser degree, genetics. Older shrimp have better color. A mature female has the best color. Males, even mature ones, never get a great color. Foods play a small role. I've noticed better coloration on all my shrimp after feeding them frozen bloodworms once a week.

i change 50% of the water weekly, dont really feed them too much they seem to eat the algea in the tank and from time to time hijack a betta bite that my betta hasnt found.

I belive that regular water changes and varied diet greatly contribute to the redness of the cherries.
my 2 cents
cindy

what do you feed them?

I vary it greatly: flake, algae wafer, shrimp pellets and small chunks from vacation feeders - all of it in small amounts.

I know there is disagreement on this out there, but I also remove the clearer shrimp that are big enough to have colored up but haven't yet.

When I got mine from, they were not as bright red. In fact, they looked like bsmith782's photos, even after several months. After switching to Prime, instead of Stress Coat, plus also feeding more bloodworms, the majority seemed to get bright red after a week or so. I'm not sure if it was due to switching to the Prime or maybe the red pigment in the bloodworms that did it. Since then, I never changed my routine.

Pellets, veggies, salmon roe (heh, from my SW tanks), bloodworms.

Don't overpack your tanks. I had ~200 in a 5.5 gallon and they weren't all that red. Moved them over to a 10 gallon...same shrimp. DARK RED.

crazie.eddie said:

When I got mine from, they were not as bright red. In fact, they looked like bsmith782's photos, even after several months. After switching to Prime, instead of Stress Coat, plus also feeding more bloodworms, the majority seemed to get bright red after a week or so. I'm not sure if it was due to switching to the Prime or maybe the red pigment in the bloodworms that did it. Since then, I never changed my routine.

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i use prime too, alway have infact if there are a few brands of the same thing i always choose the seachem product.

i have shrimp pellets and color bits at my house. do youthink i should bring some in drop in a few an see what happens?

I have a 10 gallon tank in which they are fed exclusively on living algae because of the position of the tank in partial sunlight. These take longer to to turn red than those in my 40 gallon tank, which are fed on JBL Novo Prawn as well as anything they can take from the plant matter. The growth rate is also faster in the larger tank, but that may be attributed to the size as well as the supplemented diet. I must say, I'm quite happy with the results from the Novo Prawn. They don't dissolve as much as the Hikari Algae Wafers that they used to get. As a result the tank stays cleaner.
Best wishes.
Jep.

Jep said:

I have a 10 gallon tank in which they are fed exclusively on living algae because of the position of the tank in partial sunlight. These take longer to to turn red than those in my 40 gallon tank, which are fed on JBL Novo Prawn as well as anything they can take from the plant matter. The growth rate is also faster in the larger tank, but that may be attributed to the size as well as the supplemented diet. I must say, I'm quite happy with the results from the Novo Prawn. They don't dissolve as much as the Hikari Algae Wafers that they used to get. As a result the tank stays cleaner.
Best wishes.
Jep.

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can you get this from a fish store or do you have to order it online?

bsmith782 said:

can you get this from a fish store or do you have to order it online?

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I bought mine in my LFS here in England. It's a German product though. I don't see it being available in the United States on the InterWeb, but I only searched Briefly for you. I wonder if it might be best to contact JBL to see if there are any Stockists in America?
Best wishes.
Jep.

Redness is determined by age and darkness of the tank (plants, substrate, decorations). They will get darker if you use a dark substrate, like black gravel. Also, feeding them astaxanthins? helps. I feed mine Tetracolor fish food sometimes.

I have seen female adults which are hardly red at all, and I have seen 1/4 inch babies which are fairly red. Males are not normally red, though they might have one or two red stripes going head to tail.

its funny you mention astaxanthins, i was watching dirty job's the other day and they had a segment about harvesting it!

i plopped 1 of wardlys shrimp pellets in and after it broke up all my shrimp were on it like crazy! strangely enough there colors are looking better too!

i really thought that since these guys eat algea in the wild that would be the best for them, well i was wrong once before!