Caught me at a good time here is a quick 5 min response time haha
They don't exist in the hobby anymore really, they would be harder to get then some of the fanciest types of shrimp. Only low grade red or cross bred will give you close to what you are looking for. All cherry shrimp here are captive bred and no one breeds for brown.
Like your style tho, wild-type fish are the best! I prefer the fancy shrimps tho
About a year ago i had a colony that produced some really dark brown and almost black cherries but got rid of them with the larger tank when I moved.
If you are patient and start with some really low grade cherries from a variety of gene pools you could breed your way there in a year or two (by ignoring them). That what happened in my community tank. All my cherry culls were tossed in there and they bred like rabbitseventually forming a community of odd/uniquely coloured cherries that I really didn't appreciate as much as I should have at the time.
He's actually on vacation right now so I can't confirm... but I did message him. It's unlisted on their website so I'm not sure if he still has them =/.Are you sure Pat doesn't have any?I always see them when Im there.
Thanks for sharing your experience! I'll probably end up buying a little bit of every colour (trying to get a lighter brown) if Pat doesn't have any or no one else has any...I have some really low grade Cherries. They've devolved from reds, pumpkins, and dark blues. Every now and then a dark brown shows up. My guess is that it has red and blue genes.