WARNING! This is not a professional website! I am NOT an expert. Do NOT believe everything on this site.

Last Updated: 1/13/10

Shrimp Species

• Amano Shrimp
  
• Brine Shrimp
  
• Bumble Bee Shrimp
  
• Clam Shrimp
  
• Fairy Shrimp
  
• Ghost Shrimp
  
• Rainbow Shrimp
  
• Red Cherry Shrimp
  
• Red-Fronted Shrimp
  
• Scuds
  
• Seed Shrimp
  
• Tadpole Shrimp
  
• Tangerine Shrimp
  
• Wood Shrimp

For more/better information and photos, be sure to check out the shrimp links.

See the algae-eating animals comparison table to see a comparison of the various algae-eating shrimp.

There are many other freshwater shrimp species about which I know very little. If/when I learn more information about those, I will add them to this page. There are brief mentions of other species of shrimp under the link to Frank Greco's page. If you are interested in rare beautiful shrimp, check out his site.

If you came here first, be sure to see my main shrimp page for general information, links, etc. I am NOT a shrimp expert.

I know this page is long. I am working on subdividing my site but I have more than 300 pages to work on so it may take years for me to get to the shrimp!

I have been told by a "shrimp expert" that everything on this page is inaccurate. I do not wish to provide incorrect information so I asked him to be specific so that I could repair any errors on this page. He never responded and has continued to tell people that my site is inaccurate. Please, if you can help to improve the validity of this page with information, I would appreciate it. I certainly do not know everything. I got most of this information from other web sites and from my experiences. I did not just make it up but can never be sure that what someone else said years ago was or is true. As far as I know, the information on my site is accurate but I am sure there are errors that I would absolutely correct if I knew about them. Thanks.

Thanks to "Mr. Cichlid" who, on 1/2/10, gave me some suggestions for amendments to this page. I incorporated some in and used others as quotations.

Shrimp

Survive in aquariums: Yes
Survive in warm ponds: Not recommended
Survive in cold ponds: No
Plant eating capacity: Low
Algae eating capacity: Moderate to High

The Amano shrimp, named after the person who introduced it to aquarists, is called by the following additional names: Yamato Numa Ebi, Japanese Marsh Shrimp, Yamato, and Caridina japonica (the scientific name). Some people say Cardinia instead of Caridina. I was unable to find which was accurate. Note that around September 2006, scientists renamed the Amano shrimp to Caridina multidentata. Here is a link about it. The Amano shrimp looks somewhat like the rainbow shrimp I have kept. Apparently, it is rare to find one in the United States. This shrimp prefers brackish (which means some salt, between freshwater and seawater) waters and grows to about two inches. They should be kept below 80 degrees F since they are not a tropical species. Temperatures in the 60's and 70's are preferred.

They have not spawned often in captivity often because they require saline waters with lots of plankton. The larvae require brackish water to grow. A female can carry 1000 to 2000 eggs so the larvae are very small and need protozoans and algae to eat. Some breeding is reported in Germany. One idea is that Amano shrimp naturally live in streams and release their eggs there. Then the larvae float to the sea where they undergo nine changes before migrating back into the streams.
One aquarist had success breeding the shrimp by alternating cycles of lights on for a few weeks with a week of lights off. The dark period apparently allowed the baby shrimp to remain "invisible" to hungry adult shrimp and small fish. Java moss and Amazon swords were the predominate plants in the tank.

Amano shrimp are brown with a tan stripe down their back and brown lines on their sides according to one report but that describes my rainbow shrimp! Most photos of Amano shrimp show a shrimp that looks nothing like that. They are mostly clear with spots along their sides. They lack large claws and live longer than most freshwater shrimp. They are supposed to eat soft and red algas. Unlike other shrimp, one shrimp web site says that they eat directly with their mouth and do not use their hands while a few people who have kept them say that they do use their hands (they have seen it). Most of this information on Amano shrimp comes from the web page listed under links.

On 2/1/02, I added three shrimp sold as "Japonica" shrimp to my 20 gallon tank. One was dead the next morning. They are larger and lighter than my rainbow shrimp and have little dashes along their sides. They like to sit on leaves and use their little hands to bring algae to their mouths. I have seen it! I hope they can survive in my tank. A photo is above but it is not very good. By 5/10/02, I have not seen the Amano shrimp in many months. They are presumed dead. I did see a rainbow shrimp in that tank on 5/4/02 though which I had not seen in a long time so who knows.

There are a number of good web sites on Amano shrimp under the links section.

Here is yet another great Amano photo from Kingsley on 2/4/05: Amano Shrimp

On 1/2/08, Ben sent this photo of an Amano shrimp.
Amano shrimp
He also sent this photo of a "Cardinia sp. 'dark green' female," perhaps Caridina babualti var. Green.
Shrimp

Guess what? Brine shrimp do not live in freshwater aquariums or ponds. I am mentioning them here because they are propagated to feed fish, especially fry. Because they live in brackish water, they cannot survive in fresh water for more than a few hours. One strain of brine shrimp is sold as "Sea Monkeys" to children. They live an average of 50 days if kept properly.
To learn more about brine shrimp, visit this link: Brine Shrimp Direct. Another brine shrimp link is NEBS.

Survive in aquariums: Yes
Survive in warm ponds: Not recommended
Survive in cold ponds: No
Plant eating capacity: Low to Moderate
Algae eating capacity: Moderate

Bumble bee shrimp only grow to an inch long and eat algae. Bumble bee shrimp belong to the family Atyidae. The standard bumble bee shrimp is Caridina breviata. A mutation of the similar bee shrimp, Caridina cantonensis, is the crystal red shrimp. They have light black stripes down their backs like bumble bees. They prefer temperatures in the low 70's F and slightly acidic water.

Bumble bee shrimp will eat fish food, soft moss, vegetable matter, and soft algas. One keeper reports that they prefer fish food and do not eat much algae. They are active and peaceable. Bumble bee shrimp are supposed to be easy to breed on a diet of fish food. Unfortunately, they only live to about 15 months of age. Neocaridina species are similar to bumble bee shrimp in many ways. My local fish store had some bumble bee shrimp for sale for about $2 but they were very small, about the size of adult brine shrimp. At that size, even small fish might eat them, or they could get sucked into the filter intake. Bumble bee shrimp breed in freshwater and are moderately prolific. For more information on bumble bee shrimp including the crystal red, see the links section.

Survive in aquariums: Yes
Survive in warm ponds: Yes
Survive in cold ponds: Yes

Clam shrimp (Conchostraca) are interesting little shrimp that look like 0.5 inch clams. They prefer warm, shallow waters. One species is Cyzicus mexicanus.

Survive in aquariums: Yes
Survive in warm ponds: Yes
Survive in cold ponds: Depends on species

Fairy shrimp, or Anostraca, show up occasionally in ponds or can be bought. They swim with their many appendages waving above them, as if they are doing the back float. There are about 25 species, including the very well known brine shrimp (see above) which prefers brackish water. Most species can produce either live young or leave eggs, which upon drying completely, hatch when again wet. These species are often used to feed fish. Maximum lengths are less than an inch. A few species include Branchinecta paludosa and Eubranchipus vernalis. There are in fact some arctic species like Artemiopsis stefanssoni.

Survive in aquariums: Yes
Survive in warm ponds: Yes
Survive in cold ponds: Yes or No (depends on how cold)
Plant eating capacity: Low
Algae eating capacity: Low to Moderate

Ghost shrimp may also be called glass or grass shrimp. Ghost shrimp belong to the genus Palaeomonetes. Both Palaemonetes kadakensis and P. paludosus are found in freshwater. There are also brackish water species. Ghost shrimp are often sold as "feeders" for all sorts of aquatic life. I have found that they live in ponds at least as low as the 50's degrees F. They probably will not survive the winter (I added more after winter so cannot tell these apart from shrimp from last year); plus, their life spans are not that long (1 to 1.5 years). Most kinds of ghost shrimp grow 1 to 2 inches long with females being much larger than males. My males are just under 1" with the females approaching 1.5". Ghost shrimp do fine at a neutral pH. I have also yet to find out if they breed in temperate ponds. Females carry developing eggs under their swimmerets or legs until they are ready to be released. In aquaria, the tiny newborns usually get eaten. Yet, there are a few success stories but the aquarists do not know what made the difference in the babies' survival. See the next few paragraphs for recounting of a few successes. Adding java moss and other plants that create hiding spots help increase the likelihood that some babies could survive being eaten. Ghost shrimp are clear except for any food in their digestive tract and any dark balls (babies) under mature females. They also have a orangish yellow dot at each side of their tail. They prefer leftover fish food and small pieces of plant and animal material to eat but will also catch and eat fry.

"Mr. Cichlid" says, "You might want to add that the ghost shrimp sold in Europe are Palaemonetes varians, the European glass shrimp. There is also an Amazonian species that is sometimes but rarely imported to the US and Europe known as Palaemonetes ivonicus.

Female ghost shrimp with eggs are easy to identify. They carry small dark balls under their swimmerets. When she moves around, she often mixes them up by moving her swimmerets. This keeps them well provided with oxygen.

Other Aquarists' Ghost Shrimp Breeding Stories:

I have moved this portion of the shrimp page to this section.

My "ghost shrimp:"

I "bred" a baby ghost shrimp myself by total accident. It is a mystery. I added four ghost shrimp on 4/1/00 to my 40 gallon tank. One was removed dead on 4/13/00, and none have been seen since then. Surprise! I found a baby (half an inch versus the 1+ inch adults I added) ghost shrimp in the tank on 6/24/00! Before the adults were eaten or died and were eaten, a female must have released babies. Normally, it is almost impossible to get baby ghost shrimp to survive. My tank is pretty bare with lots of danios and a huge pleco and yet this baby made it!? A photo of Shrimpy is at the top of this page.

Two more ghost shrimp were added on 3/16/01 to join my now big baby Shrimpy. The two new ghost shrimp are completely clear with one carrying eggs. My older Shrimpy has a larger and more intense band red in the middle of his front legs and on his antennae. I do not know if that means he is a different species or simply that he is male and the two new shrimp are female (one is for sure as she has eggs). On 6/2/01, I noticed a shrimp only half an inch long in the 40 gallon tank! So, the shrimp had another successful offspring. I guess he/she is Shrimpy Junior! A dead large ghost shrimp was removed on 6/30/01. It was white so it must have died during molting (it was not an empty shell which are commonly found). So, by 7/3/01, there are only three possible ghost shrimp left including the baby which is almost full grown. On 12/10/01, another white, dead ghost shrimp was removed from the tank. On 2/1/02, I added two large and three small new ghost shrimp to my 40 gallon tank. One of the largest ones turned opaque on 3/9/02 and died on 3/11/02 when she was an opaque orange/pink color. I now have six ghost shrimp. On 3/30/02, I was able to see that four of my shrimp are large females with eggs and one must be a male (I could not find the sixth shrimp just then). Although they make lots of eggs, the babies never survive. I guess I said that too soon! On 4/20/02, I saw one baby now large enough to not be eaten. How in the world did he survive with no plant cover left in the tank and all those hungry fish? Oh, well, the baby shrimp is cute and happy.

I was surprised on 5/18/02 to see at least four baby ghost shrimp! Then, when I searched the water from the tank cleaning in the bathtub for danio fry, I also found the smallest ghost shrimp I have ever seen. It was the size of the newborn danio fry! I put the baby in with the fry. I am not sure why the shrimp are breeding so well now in a nearly bare tank with other fish! Perhaps the addition of Kent Marine Iodide weekly is making a difference in breeding/raising success as babies need to molt more than adults and iodine is needed for that. On 5/25/02, I saw many babies including one that got sucked up but was big enough to go back and another really small one that I put in the five gallon tank. It was the size of the newborn danios. On 8/10/02, I removed one shrimp from the five gallon and put him in the 40 gallon tank. Maybe he ate the other one! I removed a dead ghost shrimp from the 40 gallon tank on 1/4/03. There are at least a dozen more! The babies are now grownup, and I cannot tell who is who! I found two wee ones on 3/1/03 and since I had a net breeder set up for baby danios, I put them in there. They are SO hard to see since they are clear. They may be 10 times larger than the newborn danios but they are completely clear (I catch the moving eyes with my eyes and sucked them up with a pipette with the tip cut off). I removed a big, dead ghost shrimp on 5/23/03 from the 40 gallon tank. I removed a part of a dead shrimp on 7/19/03 and a whole one on 7/21/03. Both had turned white and died during molting despite the addition of iodine to the tank. A non-white, dead intact ghost shrimp was found and removed on 10/4/03. Another on 11/22/03 was removed.

By 1/10/04, it seems I only have about half a dozen ghost shrimp left. I removed one I accidently killed on 1/3/04 when I removed the fake plants for bleaching to clean them of blue-green algae and did not know she was along for the death ride. I found another large dead ghost shrimp and removed it on 1/31/04. Two more dead ghost shrimp were found and removed on 3/6/04 and 3/13/04. I found another ghost shrimp dried up next to my tank on 6/4/04 that jumped out of a small opening in the lid. A ghost shrimp turned white and died on 7/23/04. Another white one was removed on 8/27/04. I took out a big one on 7/19/05. The power went out on 8/14/05, the water turned milky despite battery-operated aeration, and a large female ghost shrimp was found dead. On 8/19/05, another big ghost shrimp was found dead, perhaps a delayed response to the power outage. When I cleaned the tank on 8/27/05, I found at least one ghost shrimp. It was hard to tell from what was left. I think that was the last of the ghost shrimp. I may be shrimpless.

On 1/8/08, when I got a few plants at the fish store, I found a young ghost shrimp and scuds in with the plants. I put them in my 5 gallon tank (which only has one dying paradise fish who is too weak to try to eat them).

Photos of my ghost shrimp in my 40 gallon tank:
Shrimpy on 9/15/00.
Shrimp on 4/22/01.

Here is another photo of a ghost shrimp belonging to Amy: Ghost Shrimp.

This is a photo of a baby ghost shrimp sent to me by Joe on 7/1/05 that used to be on his site to which I had a link. He wrote, "...The picture shows the baby after it has settled into more or less the same form as the adult. I never was able to get a picture of the first stage, when the baby shrimp is hovering head-down in the open water and has a rather different shape. The babies hatched from eggs carried in by an already 'pregnant' female. I've gotten baby shrimp this way numerous times, but I've never had shrimp actually mate and breed in a tank. The shrimp ate fish food flakes mostly, and also liked frozen glassworms. The only other animals in the globe were various small snails and assorted plankton and microlife (which probably fed the babies). Every now and again I added a drop or two of an iodine supplement, which I often hear is helpful to shrimp. Whether or not it had any effect I can't say, but the shrimp did well. The little inset image is of the large plastic globe that the shrimp were living in. It's been empty in storage for a couple of years now, and I don't remember how many gallons it holds. The plants in the globe thrived but were eventually displaced by the Java Moss, which grew into an enormous free-floating blob that filled the entire space. I used a small air-powered sponge filter. The light was a desk lamp fixture with a compact-fluorescent tube; a large square plastic Fresnel lens (similar to what an overhead projector uses) served as a lid and increased the intensity of the light. That's about all the information that I have on the picture. I don't remember when I took it."

John sent me five photos of his ghost shrimp on 3/7/06:
One shrimp, two shrimp, one shrimp, one shrimp, and one female shrimp who is carrying eggs.

Russell sent these three photos of ghost shrimp on 9/16/06:
Ghost shrimp
Pregnant female ghost shrimp - you can even see the eyes of the babies under the female shrimp!
Ghost shrimp

Survive in aquariums: Yes
Survive in warm ponds: Yes
Survive in cold ponds: No
Plant eating capacity: Low
Algae eating capacity: Moderate

Rainbow shrimp are similar to ghost shrimp except that they live a lot longer. They are about an inch long but can grow to three inches (they later changed that to two inches). Mine never grew larger than an inch but the store claims that they grow to three inches. Whereas ghost shrimp typically do not live more than a few months in an aquarium, rainbow shrimp may live for years. They do not touch the live plants. They prefer to eat leftover fish food followed by algae. Rainbow shrimp are supposed to eat brush algae. They are great little shrimp. Similar in appearance to ghost shrimp, they have a darker gut and sell for about $2 each instead of $1 per 10 that ghost shrimp cost.

I am currently trying to uncover their scientific name. The store does not know. Although some aquarists believe the rainbow shrimp to be the wood shrimp, I know this is not true, at least for the shrimp that I have. My local aquarium store, where I worked for a few months, also carries wood shrimp. Wood shrimp are big with "fans" on their fronts. Rainbow shrimp are almost identical to ghost shrimp but for their increased longevity and ability to darken in color. They do have a tan stripe down their back like wood shrimp. They also can change color and are often dark like wood shrimp. However, they are much smaller and do not have fans. Rainbow shrimp may be a relative of wood shrimp. Mine can be clear, brown, or dark red depending on the background. The tan back stripe is evident when they are in the brown or red phase but almost vanishes when in the clear phase. They go clear usually when among plants. When on the large driftwood in their tank, they are completely camouflaged to match the wood. If you do not know what you are looking for, you do not see them!

A German aquarist suggested that my rainbow shrimp may be Caridina/Neocaridina sp. "zeylanica". After seeing the photo of this species at this German site, I think that this may indeed be the species that I have. So, they would be a relative of Amano shrimp but definitely not the same thing. I hope someone can eventually clear this up! Another person says that the so-called rainbow shrimp is "clearly" a Caridina species.

I have never seen any of my rainbow shrimp carrying eggs (unlike the ghost shrimp) nor have I ever found baby rainbow shrimp. So, it is most likely that they do require brackish water to breed or at least conditions that my tanks do not have.

"Mr. Cichlid" says, "Now, rainbow shrimp aren't one species. In fact, rainbow shrimp is a collective name for a large group of Asian Atyid shrimp, many of which differ in appearance. These primarily include the Malayan dwarf shrimp, Caridina babaulti var. Malaya, the striped dwarf shrimp, and two other species with no scientific name currently, known in the shrimp hobby as the Indian dwarf shrimp and the Indian whitebanded shrimp. This site has articles on the Indian dwarf, Indian whitebanded, and the Malayan: http://www.petshrimp.com/shrimpspecies.php . Your rainbow shrimp appears to be an Indian whitebanded. The clear one is most likely an Indian dwarf. Kingsley's one (below) is darker so it probably is a Malaya. All species breed in freshwater but are not prolific breeders."

My rainbow shrimp and confusion:

I had three of them in my 20 gallon tank since 3/98. On 1/15/99 and 1/16/99, we had a 42 hour power outage due to an ice storm. The normally 72 degree F tank dropped to about 54 degrees F for most of that time. One shrimp died but the other two survived. Another shrimp died around 5/22/99, presumably of natural causes. The last two vanished sometime in June of 1999. They must have decomposed out of site. So rainbow shrimp can live at least 15 months. On 7/31/99, I bought three more so I will keep posting here on their progress. One died on 1/19/00. The other two were alive and still about an inch long as of 11/29/00. They became a reddish brown with a tan stripe down their backs. They eat using pincers. By early 2001, only one rainbow shrimp was still alive, and he or she was 20 months old!

On 3/16/01, I got two more "rainbow shrimp." These however look different. Instead of being reddish brown with the tan stripe, they are clear with a dark digestive tract. The tank next to them was labeled as japonica meaning Amano shrimp but those looked the same as my "rainbow shrimp" except for more dots on their sides. Neither of these shrimp look like the photos I have seen of either Amano shrimp or japonica. So, my store and most shrimp "experts" have got this all super confused. To make it more confusing, the two best sites in the links section that have photos show a photo of the wood shrimp that looks like my rainbow shrimp. Note, there are no fans in the photo of the "wood shrimp." The real wood shrimp has fans and is much larger and does not look like my rainbow shrimp or the photo on the site. My head is spinning! To make things even more bizarre, after a few months in my 20 gallon tank, the new rainbow shrimp changed appearance to look like my one older rainbow shrimp so I guess they are the same species! One of their photos is above.

On 6/1/01, I got four more rainbow shrimp for my newly re-done 50 gallon tank. The three remaining rainbow shrimp in the 20 gallon joined them on 6/16/01 so I now have seven (if they are all still alive) rainbow shrimp in my 50 gallon tank! The 20 gallon tank is being redone from scratch and had four rainbow shrimp added. On 11/3/01, I removed the first rainbow shrimp to die in the 50 gallon tank. Unlike shed exoskeletons, the shrimp was orange and when squished, guts came out instead of just collapsing an empty shell. So, a shrimp died.

I bought four shrimp for my twenty gallon tank on 7/8/01 that were labeled as rainbow shrimp but looked nothing like my rainbow shrimp that I have in my other tank. These four were clear with brown spots along the side. There were three tanks at the store. One was marked rainbow shrimp, one was marked Amano shrimp, and one was marked Japonica shrimp. From what I have read, Amano and Japonica are the same shrimp. The prices were about $3, $9, and $7 respectively. The shrimp that look like my old shrimp were in one of the other tanks not marked as rainbow shrimp. The other two tanks had identical looking shrimp. I think the people at the store messed up the labels. No one there knows anything about the shrimp's true identities (scientific names)! I thought the ones I got may be Amano shrimp. They use their hands to eat like the ghost and rainbow shrimp do. Later, these new shrimp changed colors at various times and then appeared to look like my other rainbow shrimp but I am still not sure! On 2/1/02, I bought two real Japonica shrimp for comparison. Shortly after, most of my shrimp vanished (died in private).

Photos of some of my rainbow shrimp:
Rainbow shrimp in my 20 gallon tank on 4/22/01.
Rainbow shrimp in my 20 gallon tank on 6/3/01.
Rainbow shrimp in my 20 gallon tank on 6/3/01.
Clear rainbow shrimp in my 20 gallon tank on 11/28/01. This rainbow shrimp I thought might be an Amano shrimp because it looks somewhat like one when in the clear phase. The tan back stripe nearly vanishes and a few spots can be seen on the side (not obvious in the photo)

Here is a great photo that Kingsley sent to me on 4/28/04 of a shrimp we tried to identify. We are still not sure but it looks like a rainbow shrimp.

Red-cherry shrimp in my 20 gallon tank on 12/28/02. This is another photo exactly a year earlier! They were different shrimp.

Survive in aquariums: Yes
Survive in warm ponds: No
Survive in cold ponds: No
Plant eating capacity: Low
Algae eating capacity: Moderate to High

I bought two red cherry shrimp for my 20 gallon tank on 12/27/02. The store said they grow to 3 inches but mine are both under half an inch long. "Mr. Cichlid" says that red cherry shrimp are Neocaridina heteropoda. They are known for being prolific breeders. "Mr. Cichlid" says, "There are four other colour variants of this species in the hobby. The first is the wild form. Secondly, there are yellow cherry shrimp which appear in the hobby from time to time. Finally, there are black cherry shrimp and blue cherry shrimp that are only available from specialist breeders in Germany and Taiwan at the moment."

They seemed to vanish so I bought two more tiny ones on 12/7/03. They too were long out of sight on 3/25/05 when I bought two more and two "assorted algae-eating shrimp" of unknown species. The next day, one red cherry shrimp was doing what they do, and one was dead. I think the store clerk beat them up too much; it took him a long time to get them.

Here are two nice photos of red cherry shrimp that L.C. sent me on 10/2/05 and 10/3/05.
A large, very red cherry shrimp with a smaller one, quite a color variation by age.
About seven cherry shrimp of various sizes and colors

Dan wrote an article about red cherry shrimp and sent it to me on 7/30/07. You can read the article here.

On 1/2/08, Ben sent this photo of a few cherry shrimp and a ton of their tiny little babies!
Cherry shrimp

Here is another photo of one of my red-fronted shrimp on 3/1/03. I took the photo because the shrimp had turned milky for some reason. Maybe it was going to molt.

Survive in aquariums: Yes
Survive in warm ponds: No
Survive in cold ponds: No
Plant eating capacity: Low
Algae eating capacity: Moderate to High

I bought three "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Shrimp" from my local fish store on 12/27/02 for my 20 gallon tank. They are clear with a long pointy red "thing" sticking out of their heads. I believe they are red-fronted shrimp. Most sources cite their scientific name as Palaemon scarletti but it in fact is probably Caridina gracilirostris. Shrimp names are always been updated. They will grow to about an inch long. One was found dead on 2/23/03 of unknown causes. As of 12/9/03, I think only one is left. A year later, I still see him on occasion. He vanished after that. Red-fronted or red-nose shrimp are brackish shrimp. While they can live in freshwater as mine did for a few years, they require brackish water in order to breed.

Survive in aquariums: Yes
Survive in warm ponds: Yes
Survive in cold ponds: Yes
Plant eating capacity: Low
Algae eating capacity: Low

Scuds (Amphipoda) are not true shrimp. These crustaceans grow to half an inch and look a little like fleas. They swim on their sides and eat plant and animal debris. Gammarus and Hyalella are two kinds. Scuds avoid light, and fish like to eat them. A bad side is that they are often intermediate hosts for tapeworms and other parasites of larger animals like fish and frogs. They like lightly brackish water. I added some to my big pond but since the pond is so large, I have never seen them since the release.

Drawings of a scud can be seen at this water bug site (this site may no longer exist, if you know what has happened to it, please e-mail me. You can always go to the internet archives and enter in the site. Here is a direct link but, for some reason, the photos are gone!). Here is another photo at troutnut.com.

Ben sent a bunch of scud photos to me on 8/10/07.
Scud
Scud
Scud
Scud
A bunch of scuds
Scud

In the summer of 2007, I had a lot of scuds in my 20 gallon tub pond. I wonder how they go there (no new animals or plants were added to the pond in years).

On 1/8/08, when I got a few plants at the fish store, I found a young ghost shrimp and scuds in with the plants. I put them in my 5 gallon tank (which only has one dying paradise fish who is too weak to try to eat them).

Survive in aquariums: Yes
Survive in warm ponds: Yes
Survive in cold ponds: Yes
Plant eating capacity: Low
Algae eating capacity: Moderate

Seed shrimp or Ostracoda only grow to 0.1 inch in size. They look like clams and often have pretty colors. Some 150 species scavenge the algae and mud in North American ponds. Some species lack males; females lay unfertilized eggs which hatch and grow. A few species include Cyprinotus incongruens, Eucypris virens, and Cypridopsis vidua.

On 9/29/07, I examined some water from my 20 gallon tub pond under the microscope. It had a lot of what seemed to be really large daphnia that were not daphnia. Under the microscope (after they had sat for a day in a cup and calmed down), I could see they were enclosed in a shell and had little hairy appendages around the edges. They were seed shrimp. They were pretty neat. This pond had no added animals at the time.

Survive in aquariums: Yes, for a few months
Survive in warm ponds: Yes, for a few months
Survive in cold ponds: Depends on species (no for most commonly sold species)
Plant eating capacity: Zero (carnivores)
Algae eating capacity: Zero (carnivores)

The tadpole shrimp or triops is a unique predator. One species is Triops longicaudatus. Like salt water brine shrimp, these freshwater shrimp only breed in temporary waters. The eggs must dry up completely and then re-wet to hatch. They look like extinct trilobites except they are only about an inch long at full size. They will eat anything they can catch, no matter the size. They especially like to eat each other. It is a wonder that they ever breed! You can buy them at some pet stores and through some catalogs. They sure look funny in a pond, zipping around very fast. Mine was the king of the pond for a month in 1997. I called him "the beast from hell" because he ate the dozen or so tadpole and fairy shrimp that hatched with him in a container, he looked nasty, and swam in the pond in such a way to generate fear. The last tadpole shrimp he ate was 90% of his size, and I saw it in his mouth! They only live two months or so. A few arctic species of tadpole shrimp exist such as Lepiduros arcticus.

Here is a page on triops: My Triops

On 1/27/09, William said (grammar corrected), "Awesome website! I stumbled upon it when I Googled 'crustacean aquarium.' All around good info. I just found one error. On your section for triops, you say that they have zero plant-eating capacity; triops are actually not picky eaters! The little guys will eat just about anything; I feed mine peeled carrots, and they thrive! In their naupilar stage I feed them powdered algae, little guys love the stuff."

A tangerine shrimp in my 20 gallon tank on 9/26/07.

On 9/18/07, I bought two "tangerine shrimp" and added them to my 20 gallon tank. They did not say what species they are. I did a search on the internet and only came up with recipes for marine shrimp with tangerines (hence tangerine shrimp). My guess would be that they are a more orange variation on the cherry red shrimp as they are similar in size and appearance. One person told me in early June 2009 that he thinks the tangerine shrimp are "Mandarin orange shrimp" or Caridina propinqua which the next person below also suggested.

"Mr. Cichlid" says, "They are bright orange when stressed. They tend to fade to a brown with an orangish tinge when happy, as Harry's has done. Like Amanos, they are fully freshwater shrimp as adults but their larvae develop in the sea."

Harry was kind enough on 10/1/07 to let me know that my tangerine shrimp are Caridina cf propinqua. They are related to Caridina propinqua, the mangrove hairy- handed prawn from Singapore. He sent these links:
Photo of tangerine shrimp
Mangrove hairy-handed prawn

I have seen at least one of my tangerine shrimp a number of times since putting them in the tank. I saw one on 10/6/07.

On 12/29/07, I saw both tangerine shrimp at the same time for the first time since I put them into the tank. They look well. I took a photo of the two of them:
Two tangerine shrimp

On 1/8/08, I added two more tangerine shrimp so I now have four tangerine shrimp. There are no other shrimp in that tank.

This photo from 1/13/08 shows I think two of the tangerine shrimp at the bottom (as well as a panda cory and a female longfin albino bristlenose pleco). I can see one shrimp for sure but am not sure if that was another right above him/her or just some red rocks.:
20 gallon tank photo showing tangerine shrimp

I took this photo on 10/11/08 which is one of my better shots of a shrimp:
Tangerine shrimp

These photos are from 3/26/09. I have two tangerine shrimp left.
Two tangerine shrimp
Two tangerine shrimp - a baby panda cory is partially blocking the one on the left

As of 1/13/10, there is still at least one tangerine shrimp in there so they have lived quite a while.

Survive in aquariums: Yes
Survive in warm ponds: Not recommended
Survive in cold ponds: No
Plant eating capacity: Low
Algae eating capacity: Low for surface algae, high for suspended algae

The wood shrimp is a great shrimp. Wood shrimp are Atyopsis species such as Atyopsis moluccensis and may also be called Singapore shrimp, bamboo shrimp, flower shrimp, or rock shrimp. They are unique in that they grow up to three inches, live longer, and are filter feeders. They have two pairs of feathery appendages to collect suspended algae and microorganisms. Wood shrimp need temperatures in the mid-70's F to mid 80's F and cannot tolerate cold. Our local aquarium store has them in a 200 gallon completely planted tank at 80 degrees F. This is an ideal home for them. They will not do well in small tanks without a lot of suspended foods. Wood shrimp are so named because they blend in with driftwood. They have a dark stripe down their wood-colored body. They can change colors within the brown, yellow-brown, and orange-brown area of colors to match their surroundings. Wood shrimp are freshwater as adults but larvae need saltwater in which to develop.

One aquarist has 6 wood shrimp in a 150 gallon tank and provided the following information. Some of the tank statistics include 83 degrees F; web/dry filtration, UV sterilization; live and fake plants, rocks, driftwood; pH 6.9, GH 4, KH 1; 7 discus, 6 angels, 10 cories, 1 dwarf pleco; 33% weekly water change, 5% mid-week water change; feeds flake, spirulina disks, and live foods. One of the shrimp is larger and a deep and bright orange. This one stands on top of the other shrimp and travels all over the tank, and is therefore, most likely a male. At least three of the duller shrimp carry eggs that are bright red-orange under their bodies. The females fan the eggs which fade in color as they mature. The shrimp are elusive but females with eggs seem to more vigorously and boldly eat off things growing on the driftwood.

Another aquarist has a photo of one of their wood shrimp at this site.

Nancy sent this photo of a shrimp to me on 8/19/06. She was told it was a wood shrimp but neither one of us is that sure about that. It looks a bit like the rainbow shrimp I used to have but larger. What do you think? "Mr. Cichlid" says it is definitely a wood shrimp.
Nancy's shrimp

Pet Link Banner Exchange:

Wind & Weather sells neat things for your garden!

There have been 18,234,648 visitors (file views since 2006) to Fishpondinfo from October 1, 2003 through August 21, 2010.