[moonshinetheslacker]

So, I bought some supposedly "fire red" shrimp from a seller here on TPT, and I'm not certain that they are fire reds. I don't want to give the person any negative feedback just yet, until I can make absolutely certain that these are not fire reds. I got the shrimp about a month ago, and some were admittedly pretty small. Two of the shrimp I received are now saddled, so I would assume that means they are now sexually mature? And they are less red than RCS that I have seen for sale in my LFS. How long does one wait until a fire red gets that SUPER bright red that I see pics of? 5 of the shrimp I got still don't even have a fleck of red on them. They are totally clear, almost like ghost shrimp. I brought my concerns up to the seller, and the person told me that because fire reds/super reds/whatever amazing atomic reds, are just regular old RCS, you have to cull them. But I thought the whole point of buying a fire red was that all the culling is already done for you.

Any thoughts/advice anyone? If you want some pics, I can get some on here in the next day or two, and if you care to see the message correlation that I had with the person, that's fine too. But the name will be switched to "seller"

Again, I don't want to bad mouth someone just because I don't know what I'm talking about. I want to be absolutely certain on this before I give anyone negative feedback.

 

[Senior Shrimpo]

Depends on what you paid for them and what they were listed as. If they were being sold as fire red culls then you got what you paid for. But if you spent $3+ on a fire red cherry shrimp, than yes, they should be solid red.

IMO, no red on them=a ripoff ANY way you see it, even when buying cherry shrimp. They've been selectively bred to not produce non red shrimp, even just the normal cherries.

So yeah it does sound like you got ripped. It'd help to post pictures of the shrimp you got.

 

[RandomMan]

My LFS sells Sakuras and Fire Reds as plain Cherries for $2. It just depends on what his distributor has available.

Regular cherries will have a speckled red pattern.
Sakuras will be a very dense speckled red pattern, possibly going solid on their backs.
Fire reds will be solid red (some may have a lighter colored stripe down their back).

Females will always have a lot more color than males. It's not unusual for male cherries to be almost clear.

Here's a good link:

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/foru...-Grading-system-of-Cherry-to-Fire-Red-Shrimps

 

[audioaficionado]

I'd now just PM the seller about your concerns. If that doesn't settle the issue, then contact a moderator.

 

[zdnet]

I brought my concerns up to the seller, and the person told me that because fire reds/super reds/whatever amazing atomic reds, are just regular old RCS, you have to cull them. But I thought the whole point of buying a fire red was that all the culling is already done for you.

My view too. Why else would I pay the extra for something labeled as a fire red?

Just my personal opinion.

 

[mordalphus]

Yep, sounds like a joke to me. If you're going to label your shrimp "fire red", you better make that when your shrimp breed, they breed FIRE RED, not something you'd have to cull later.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO THUMBS DOWN!

I have fire reds that breed FIRE REDS, not no wimpy clear half-a-man cherries. They're probably socially awkward too.

 

[PC1]

Even culls with fire reds or sakura should still be very nice so if they are low grade enough to notice they are not fire reds I say theres a big problem! Also if you were sold culls that is something that 100% should be disclosed. 1 or 2 lower quality in a batch of peewees could happen but if the majority are lame I would complain

 

[xxxSHyXAxxx]

Yep, sounds like a joke to me. If you're going to label your shrimp "fire red", you better make that when your shrimp breed, they breed FIRE RED, not something you'd have to cull later.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO THUMBS DOWN!

I have fire reds that breed FIRE REDS, not no wimpy clear half-a-man cherries. They're probably socially awkward too.

yeah! with acne

 

[moonshinetheslacker]

I'll try to get some pics up later, but here is the correspondence.

By the way, I paid 1.50 a piece for ten of them.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quote:
Originally Posted by moonshinetheslacker
All shrimps arrived safe and sound. Just thought I'd let you know.


Moonshine,
Perfect! Very good to know. Hope to get a POS (+) feedback from you in regards to this transaction then : )

Thanks again!


Here's the thing, *edit* Seller. *edit* I don't want to post anything positive, negative, or neutral, until I have decided as to wether or not the entire transaction is positive, negative, or neutral. Otherwise it would either be unfair to you, or unfair to future customers who want to buy from you. As of right now, I am looking at the shrimps you sent, and a couple of them barely have any color whatsoever. Whereas every other Fire Red that I've seen (at the same size the shrimps you have sent me are currently at) were pretty red. Like, as red as an adult RCS. But these guys... there are two who are kinda red, but most of them look like regular old red cherries.

I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt, in that I'm waiting until they mature a bit more to decide wether they are of the Fire Red line, or regular RCS line. If they don't color up a LOT, I'll just try to trade them at the LFS as RCS, for a little in-store credit. Or I'll give them away. I REALLY want FIRE REDS. So as I said before, I'm willing to wait a bit longer to ensure that they either definitely are, or are not, fire reds, before I leave any positive, negative, or neutral PTrader feedback. I'm sure you understand.



*edit*Moonshine*edit*
Well here is my response to your concern. As I have listed, they come from three different bloodlines and breeders. Jimmy, Scipios and from a local breeder. The one thing you must know when buying Fire Reds or Super Red as most call it, is that not every shrimp will be red. Even Jimmy's, a well known breeder of these as you can see in our SnS, when he sends his "pee-wee" shrimps out, a lot of people wonder, wait a minute, are these for real? They look no better than my regular cherries. Not until they have grown to adults or breed a few times when the color will actually solidify. I had experienced this myself. And as RED as his adults look, 2/10 of what he sends out look like regular cherries and they will remain that way. What you get is "the gene".

For the most part, to get a tank FULL of just pepper red shrimps, the general rule of thumb is cull. If anyone are to tell you "Buy my shrimps, I will assure you 100% will turn out to be fire reds without culling" then yes you should be weary of such statement. All in all, you are not the only person that bought the fire-reds from me so don't worry...

All of those whom bought from my listing are more than happy with what they got and they too have bought from known breeders like Jimmy. They know what they got are quality Fire Reds & Super Reds : )

 

[GDP]

All I can tell you is that the fire reds I recieved were fire reds. Only maybe 2-4 males were kinda poorly colored. But thats just because males arnt as red as femlaes. But even those werent almost clear.

 

[ohbaby714]

From my experience; the tank that i got, some males are more red than other, but females they are definitly really red.
Even with that said, it took 4-5 month since i got pewee size from jimmy to see the solid red female. The result maybe varies due to water quality (interm of molting). I had doubt early when i got them, even when it first berries i can still see through her and more orange than red.
But in the end females are never clear and end up with pretty solid red, male have some clear part but that is expected.

 

[The Dude]

I bought some regular RCS from Epicfish a long time ago. 20 I believe. Now many months later I have hundreds and only now are some of the 20 and even some of the second generation showing color. In fact according to the descriptions above they are actually Fire reds.
Some things I've noticed
1. Put them in a tank with very few others and they turn brilliantly red very quickly. I put some juvies that got sucked up doing a water change into my 46g that is C02 injected and has an Angel, Plakat, and some Platys and when I saw them several weeks later the red went from non existent to incredibly intense.
2. I've also noted that depending on the size of the colony only the oldest and largest will display the brilliant color. Perhaps it's a way to establish a hierarchy.
I took 15 out of here and put them in my 10g with nothing but Platy fry and some Amano's and three turned as red as a stop light in a week.
I'm just sharing my experience. Personally I'd take the seller's word. He can't control when they "fire up" only time and the environment and juvies are all he can ship since adults don't make the transition well.

 

[Ben.]

Is it a shrimp only tank? All of my fire reds got very red after a month or so. Just wait it out like you were planning and provide the params of your tank.

 

[moonshinetheslacker]

I'll get the params when I get home. All I can test for are nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, and acidity. It's a 3 gallon ikea vase with mineralized topsoil, some lucky bamboo, and some other reed type plant all growing out the top. There are also some stem plants that I got from the seller mentioned above in a RAOK. One of the reasons I don't want to leave bad feedback until I know for sure.

It is an invert only tank. There are daphnia shrimp (probably from the RAOK) and some type of worm that gets about 3/4 of an inch long, and about as thick as a human hair. I don't know how those got there, but they are pretty neat, and go nuts when I do the nightly water change (about 2 quarts a night) I really like the worms, I wish I knew what they were. But they are breeding like crazy. A week ago I saw 10, now there are probably 50-60.

What temp should I keep these guys at? Right now it's about 76 - 80 degrees.

 

[jkan0228]

Could you PM me the sellers name? Since I'm planning on getting some Fire Reds in the SnS for my Shrimp tank.

 

[moonshinetheslacker]

I don't want to smear anyone's name who doesn't deserve it, and I'm still not sure whether I was jipped or not. I'm going to wait a while longer. Nonetheless, I checked for the past four pages of the swap n shop forum, and the seller isn't selling any shrimps for the last four pages. I didn't bother going any further than that. But as of 1:20 east coast time, the seller isn't selling any shrimps for at least the first four pages of swap'n'shopness.

 

[GeToChKn]

I don't want to smear anyone's name who doesn't deserve it, and I'm still not sure whether I was jipped or not. I'm going to wait a while longer. Nonetheless, I checked for the past four pages of the swap n shop forum, and the seller isn't selling any shrimps for the last four pages. I didn't bother going any further than that. But as of 1:20 east coast time, the seller isn't selling any shrimps for at least the first four pages of swap'n'shopness.

Maybe they don't have any shrimp to sell right now and thats why they are not listing them. How long since you got them? Even getting cherry shrimp from my LFS, they usually turn clear on the ride home from the stress and take a few days to redden back up, and some never do, and some do as they will with age, breeding, and sex. Keeping them in a 3gal vase with no filtration might amount to not ideal water conditions for them to brighten up and since you haven't seemed to test your water parameters, that could part of it. You do also know that lucky bamboo isn't bamboo at all and should really be submerged or it will rot eventually and foul your water. Many top breeders keep the highest grade painted fire reds in the similar conditions to crystal shrimp to help keep the color the brightest and the shrimp in best shape. Also, I assume they are small and juvi's right now and may not brighten up for a while.

 

[audioaficionado]

Sakura Fire Reds

Taiwanese Fire Reds

Painted Fire Red

They should all be red unless the interbreeding wasn't culled for dull shrimps that could result as the genes intermix. A+ bloodlines means that is what is in these shrimp. I don't know enough about how RCS genetics work to know if that is a guarantee.

The prices were dirt cheap even for regular RCS so you didn't really didn't get ripped off even if you ended up with some dull ones mixed in with fires. No way should this be a negative rating.

 

[RandomMan]

The prices were dirt cheap even for regular RCS so you didn't really didn't get ripped off even if you ended up with some dull ones mixed in with fires. No way should this be a negative rating.

Dirt cheap or not, the seller (if true) was still advertising one thing and shipping something different. That's misrepresentation and worthy of negative feedback in my book.

Clearly MSS wouldn't have purchased the "fire reds" if they had known they weren't fire reds. If it happened to me I'd be pissed, I don't have a bunch of tanks. And if I was planning on using a tank for fire reds, I'd be upset that I didn't get what I paid for and now have to either give up on my fire red tank, buy a new tank for non-fire reds, or go through the hassle of selling my non-fire reds and homing them until I could do it. The fact that it was "a good price" for what I got doesn't change the fact I didn't want what I got and wouldn't have purchased had I known.

 

[moonshinetheslacker]

Getochkn, I have had them for about a month now. And who said anything about an unfiltered vase? I built a filter into the vase.

And no, I don't have the water parameters memorized, as they do tend to change. The Ph is at 7.6, temp is at 76F, Nitrite 0, Ammonia 0, Nitrate at about 10 ppm.

I do know that lucky bamboo isn't actually bamboo, but most people don't know what I'm talking about when I say that I have three stalks of dracaena in my vase. EVERYONE knows what lucky bamboo is. And what you meant to say is that lucky bamboo should NOT be submerged, otherwise it will rot.

However, that is not the case.

As long as the leaves grow outside of the water, the lucky bamboo will live for years being up to 1 1/2, to 2 feet deep in water. It's basically a swamp plant. It's meant for the bottom half to be submerged, and the top half to be emerged. It can also be totally submerged for over a year, and still survive.

However, I'm getting off topic. Here are the pics of the cherries. I mean "fire reds"

This little guy managed to get into my filter somehow... How far can these guys live outside of water? He may have crawled up, and over the PVC.

This little lady is by far the reddest of the bunch.

This is what 70% of the shrimp look like.

Here's another one of the clear ones.