#appaliachia

[pleistocene-pride]

Palaemonetes paludosus better known as ghost shrimp, glass shrimp, and eastern grass shrimp, is a species of freshwater shrimp native to the southeastern United States. Here they can be found throughout freshwater ponds, lakes, and streams east of the Appalachian Mountains from Florida all the way up into New Jersey. They have also been introduced throughout California, Mexico, Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma. They are a primarily nocturnal and some what social species which lives in large groups spending there time amongst beds of various aquatic vegetation where they feed upon algae, plankton, the aquatic plants themselves, detritus, and smaller invertebrates chiefly aquatic insects and there larvae. Ghost shrimp are themselves preyed upon by various fish, crayfish, water birds, turtles, and amphibians. Reaching around 1-2 inches (25 – 50mm) in length, ghost shrimp sport a notably transparent carapace and internal tissues allowing one to see its internal organs through its integument. This clearness provides a high degree of camouflage especially in cloudy or muddy water, and is the reason for there common names. The breeding season of these shrimp varies by location and water temperature, during said time the females ovaries take on a greenish color. After mating the female will lay 8 to 35 eggs, and like many crustaceans the mother will carry her developing eggs on their abdomen until they hatch some 2 months later. Ghost shrimp larval development is short, consisting of three stages, and under ideal conditions a ghost shrimp may live upwards of a year.