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]
| Palaemon varians | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Malacostraca |
| Order: | Decapoda |
| Suborder: | Pleocyemata |
| Infraorder: | Caridea |
| Family: | Palaemonidae |
| Genus: | Palaemon |
| Species: | P. varians
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| Binomial name | |
| Palaemon varians Leach, 1814
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| Synonyms[1] | |
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In the aquarium
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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
edit- ^ a b "Palaemon varians Leach, 1814". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species. 2024. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
- ^ "Palaemon varians Leach, 1813". Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b "Palaemonetes varians". Zooplankton and Micronekton of the North Sea 2.0. Naturalis Biodiversity Center. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
- ^ "Atlantic ditch shrimp". Archived from the original on 4 June 2021.
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