Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

I bought a few "Glass Shrimp" from the LFS today that were shipped to them from Florida. I noted that a few shrimp in the LFS tank had "white ribbons" inside as discussed in this post. I thought this might be a horsehair worm...anyway turns out the kid who bagged my shrimp gave me one of those infected shrimp...

So I euthanized the poor creature (didn't want an Aliens situation in my tank) and mounted it on the microscope to see what this thing is all about. I wanted to share these pics I took with my digital camera:

Parasitic worm (appears coiled inside body cavity; shrimp is facing right; worm actually moved while viewing):


Shrimp's eyestalk (nature's tiniest discoball?)


Body chromatophores (what give shrimp their color):


Second chelae - red spot detailed:


Close-up of a tail spot, showing component chromatophores (my favorite):


...and such is the mystery & beauty of the good ol' American Grass Shrimp

Woh, nice closeups !

Beautiful!

Very nice! I like the chromatophore images.

wow
very nice

Glad you enjoyed the pics. I'll see what other poor specimens I can put under the scope...

Here's a top view of a palaemonetes ghost/glass shrimp with an internal parasite. I was wondering if there was a way to stimulate the worm to come out...or maybe raise the temperature to kill it? These infected shrimp seem more lethargic than healthy ones.

I was wondering if there was a way to stimulate the worm to come out...or maybe raise the temperature to kill it?

You might want to test it to find out. The experience I had was the worm stayed inside the shrimp until it was large (fully grown) before it came out. This was in temperatures of mid to upper 80's last summer. Please let us know your results.

Thanks.