Palaemon varians

Palaemon varians
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Pleocyemata
Infraorder: Caridea
Family: Palaemonidae
Genus: Palaemon
Species:
P. varians
Binomial name
Palaemon varians
Leach, 1814
Synonyms[1]
  • Palaemon variabilis Bouchard-Chanteraux, 1829
  • Palaemonetes varians (Leach, 1814)

Palaemon varians, known as the Atlantic ditch shrimp[2] and variable shrimp,[3] is a caridean shrimp[1][3] found from the Baltic Sea and the British Isles to the western Mediterranean Sea.[4] It reaches up to 5 cm (2.0 in) in length and is never found in fully marine conditions, instead living in brackish water.[4]

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[5] and temperature levels ranging from 1 °C to 30 °C for prolonged periods of time.[3] 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. ^ a b "Palaemon varians Leach, 1814". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species. 2024. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  2. ^ "Palaemon varians Leach, 1813". Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  3. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b "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.


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