Palaemon varians

Palaemon varians
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Clade: Pancrustacea
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Pleocyemata
Infraorder: Caridea
Family: Palaemonidae
Genus: Palaemon
Species:
P. varians
Binomial name
Palaemon varians
Leach, 1814
Synonyms
  • Palaemon variabilis Bouchard-Chanteraux, 1829
  • Palaemonetes varians (Leach, 1814)

Palaemon varians, known as the Atlantic ditch shrimp and variable shrimp, is a caridean shrimp found from the Baltic Sea and the British Isles to the western Mediterranean Sea. It reaches up to 5 cm (2.0 in) in length and is never found in fully marine conditions, instead living in brackish water.

In the aquarium

Palaemon varians in a temperate freshwater aquarium

Sold by aquarium retailers as grass shrimp, they have a high tolerance of varying salinity and temperature levels ranging from 1 °C to 30 °C for prolonged periods of time. They will feed on any leftover fish food, algae or plant life and are generally peaceful by nature when mixed with similar sized aquarium life.

References

  1. 1 2 "Palaemon varians Leach, 1814". DecaNet. World Register of Marine Species. 2024. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  2. ↑ "Palaemon varians Leach, 1813". Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 Oliphant, Andrew; Thatje, Sven; Brown, Alastair; Morini, Marina; Ravaux, Juliette; Shillito, Bruce (2011). "Pressure tolerance of the shallow-water caridean shrimp Palaemonetes varians across its thermal tolerance window". Journal of Experimental Biology. 214 (7): 1109–1117. doi:10.1242/jeb.048058. PMID 21389195. S2CID 5321386.
  4. 1 2 "Palaemonetes varians". Zooplankton and Micronekton of the North Sea 2.0. Naturalis Biodiversity Center. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  5. ↑ "Atlantic ditch shrimp". Archived from the original on 4 June 2021.