Developing Blue Tigers

[STL]

Out of my 20 tigers 3-4 are blue. Is it possible to selectively breed for this color? If so would I just separate the blues from the others and thats all or is it more complicated than that? Here is a picture but my photography skills do not do the shrimp justice...

http://tankyouverymuch.com/images/bluetiger.jpg

[Walter]

How long have you kept them? I noticed tiger shrimps do change their colour sometimes. Not sure due to what factors though, but mine range from orange to blue.

So I guess selective breeding won't make much of a difference, because I think your shrimps are merely changing colour. (which is natural) Unless some special cases of really intensed blue then it may be worth a try. :)

[Robert]

Hi,
it is possible to stabilize the blue coloration. The blue coloration is an autosomal recessive trait. So both genders can show it. To breed a stable blue line is no problem, a bit of selective breeding is enough. But the blue varies a lot and sometimes it is hard to differentiate a blue tiger shrimp from a normal brownish grey tiger shrimp. Normally it would be just a slightly bluish coloration, not more. I keep such a line for several years now and developed it with the help of a single blue male.

I guess the most blue coloration you could get would look similar to this:

http://www.shrimpnow.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/normal_C_tiger3.jpg

These really dark blue tiger shrimps are different from the normal blue tigers. The really dark blue ones are a side-product of the black tigers, they are to bright colored black ones so to say. So genetic make up is different.

Best regards

Robert

[Walter]

Hey, I think I posted a post but it didn't show. lol

I was asking whether orange based tigers or red striped can also be conserved through selective breeding? :) As you can see, I suck at genetics. :p

[retardo]

General law of genetics is that if you selectively breed for the desired traits, you can eventually maintain those traits. CRS are a good example.... The red that you see in CRS were recessive alleles (weak genes) in Bees. Through selective breeding of any Bee offspring that exhibited red coloration, the red (and white) is now a dominant trait that can be repeated without too much hard work. However, to continuously maintain the trait(s), you must continuously select the best of breed. To add to that, it is a good idea to add fresh sources of DNA to keep the genepool mixed and lessen the effects of inbreeding within a population (e.g., congenital deformities). Hope that makes sense.