Ghost Shrimp

🌍 Overview

Ghost shrimp are small, nearly transparent freshwater shrimp from the genus Palaemon (long listed under the older genus name Palaemonetes), sold under names like ghost shrimp and glass shrimp and often mixed across several similar-looking species in the same shipment. Unlike the cherry shrimp and Amano shrimp they're commonly sold beside, ghost shrimp belong to an entirely different, unrelated shrimp family (Palaemonidae rather than Atyidae) that took its own separate evolutionary path from salt water into fresh water. Prized mainly for being cheap, hardy, and tolerant of imperfect water, they're sold in bulk as feeder stock for larger fish as often as they're kept as pets in their own right, though a translucent, active little scavenger is a genuinely appealing tank resident for keepers who look past the feeder-aisle reputation.

📋 Quick Facts

📜 History

Lewis Reeve Gibbes described the species most often sold under the name in 1850. It spent most of the following century in Palaemonetes, a genus that no longer exists: molecular work by Ashelby and colleagues in 2012 showed Palaemonetes was nested inside Palaemon, and De Grave and Ashelby formally sank it the year after, making the correct name Palaemon paludosus. Almost none of the trade has caught up. The animals are still pulled out of southeastern waterways, mostly in Florida, instead of being produced in hatcheries, which is unusual for a creature moved in these numbers.

🧠 Test Yourself

🤩 Fun Facts