Fun and Interesting Facts for You
Facts about Fairy Shrimp tell you about a crustacean included in the order Anostraca and class Branchiopoda. The length of fairy shrimp is measured around 0.24 to 0.98 inch or 6 to 25 mm. In some rare cases, the body may reach the length of 6.7 inches or 170 mm. Most of them have 11 pairs of swimming legs, which look like phyllopodia. The number of body segment is 20. Let us check other unique facts about fairy shrimps below:
Have you ever seen fairy shrimp before? They can be found in various habitats in the world like in Antarctica, ice covered mountain lakes, pools in the deserts, hypersaline lakes and vernal pools.
Facts about Fairy Shrimp
Fairy shrimp gets their food by scraping algae or even from the organic particles of water.
Fairy shrimp is an important animal in our ecosystem for it is the primary diet for fish and bird. It has eight families and 300 species.
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Fairy Shrimp Pictures
Due to the importance of fairy shrimp as a food for fish, human being decides to culture and harvest it.
The body of fairy shrimp contains several segments. The shape is elongated. It has flexible and think exoskeleton. Branchinecta gigas is a unique species of fairy shrimp. If the species has reached the length of 2 inches or 50 mm, it will come in the sexual maturity phase. The body has three different parts of abdomen, thorax and head.
The thorax and head of fairy shrimp are different. The two pairs of antennae and two compounds eyes are located on the head. The female have cylindrical and long second pair of antennae. The males have enlarged second pair of antennae for they have the function to hold the females in the mating process.
To stay away from the predators, the fairy shrimp is mostly found in the resisted environment like in the lakes at High Mountain, salt lakes and vernal pools.
Fairy Shrimp
Branchinecta gaini is a shrimpfish, which can be found in Antarctic Peninsula.
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B. brushi inhabited the Chilean Andes at the altitude of 19,460 feet.
Fairy Shrimp Image
The deserts in world are often inhabited by Streptocephalus.
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