| Australian glass shrimp | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Crustacea |
| Class: | Malacostraca |
| Order: | Decapoda |
| Suborder: | Pleocyemata |
| Infraorder: | Caridea |
| Family: | Atyidae |
| Genus: | Paratya |
| Species: | P. australiensis |
| Binomial name | |
| Paratya australiensis Kemp, 1917 | |
Paratya australiensis, the Australian glass shrimp or freshwater shrimp is a small decapod crustacean widely distributed in freshwater systems in south eastern Australia.
Australian glass shrimp have transparent bodies with some mottling, similar in shape to other shrimps. As decapods, the shrimp have five pairs of legs, also there are thick tufts of hairlike setae at the end of the fingers. Length commonly 3 cm (1.2 in), maximum 4 cm (1.6 in). [2]
Widely distributed in freshwater systems of south eastern Australia from central Queensland to south eastern South Australia including most of New South Wales and all of the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Tasmania but excluding the Bass Strait islands. [1]
Mainly occurs in slowly flowing or still waters such as lakes and ponds, rivers, creeks and lowland streams including the lower salinity areas of estuaries. Usually found amongst aquatic vegetation around the margins. [3] [2]
Members of the Genus Paratya generally live for about two years. The eggs are carried under the female's tail during August and September and hatch in late spring to early summer. Upon hatching, the young are free swimming. With the summer flows usually being at their lowest, the planktonic young avoid being swept out to sea. Most of these shrimp live along the edges of streams where there is little or no flow and eat mainly algae and small particles of organic material they scrape from the substrate using the setae on their fingers. [2]
Listed as least concern. [1]
Glass shrimp are commonly used as bait by freshwater anglers, being taken with dip nets or common box net bait traps. [4] Shrimp are also used as live food for aquarium fish of sufficient size and are themselves kept as aquarium specimens either by themselves or with smaller fish. [5]
Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans belonging to the clade Astacidea, which also contains lobsters. In some locations, they are also known as crawfish, craydids, craybobs, crawdaddies, crawdads, freshwater lobsters, mountain lobsters, rock lobsters, mudbugs, baybugs or yabbies. Taxonomically, they are members of the superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea. They breathe through feather-like gills. Some species are found in brooks and streams, where fresh water is running, while others thrive in swamps, ditches, and paddy fields. Most crayfish cannot tolerate polluted water, although some species, such as Procambarus clarkii, are hardier. Crayfish feed on animals and plants, either living or decomposing, and detritus.
The eastern freshwater cod, also known as the eastern cod or Clarence River cod, is a large predatory freshwater fish of the genus Maccullochella and the family Percichthyidae, that occur in the coastal Clarence River system of north-eastern New South Wales. Eastern freshwater cod are closely related to the Murray cod of the Murray-Darling River system, and are considered an icon of the Clarence River system.
The Australian lungfish, also known as the Queensland lungfish, Burnett salmon and barramunda, is the only surviving member of the family Neoceratodontidae. It is one of only six extant lungfish species in the world. Endemic to Australia, the Neoceratodontidae are an ancient family belonging to the class Sarcopterygii, or lobe-finned fishes.
The river blackfish is a freshwater fish endemic to the temperate waters of south-eastern Australia. It is found from southern Queensland through to central Victoria, including in the Murray-Darling river system. It is also found in some eastern and southern flowing coastal rivers. Found primarily in upland and "midland" habitats, though early records of fish fauna suggest it was originally far more extensively distributed and was found in some lowland habitats as well. Originally, river blackfish co-inhabited many of its lowland and "midland" habitats with species such as Murray cod and golden perch, and its upland habitats with species such as trout cod and Macquarie perch. It is a popular angling fish in some parts of its range.
The common yabby is an Australian freshwater crustacean in the Parastacidae family. It is listed as a vulnerable species of crayfish by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), though wild yabby populations remain strong, and have expanded into new habitats created by reservoirs and farm dams.
Paratya curvirostris is a species of freshwater shrimp in the family Atyidae. It is endemic to New Zealand, where it is distributed from North Island to Stewart Island, and including the Chatham Islands. It is the only true decapod shrimp to inhabit freshwater in New Zealand.
The Australian smelt is a small, pelagic silvery freshwater fish found in large numbers in waters of the south eastern Australian mainland.
Hemigrammus erythrozonus, commonly known as the glowlight tetra, is a small tropical fish from the Essequibo River, Guyana, South America. It is silver in colour and a bright iridescent orange to red stripe extends from the snout to the base of its tail, the front of the dorsal fin being the same color as the stripe. Other fins are silver to transparent. The glowlight tetra is a peaceful, shoaling fish. It is larger than the neon tetra, and its peaceful disposition makes it an ideal, and popular, community tank fish. It should be kept with similar sized, non-aggressive species. Hemigrammus gracilis is a senior synonym. The red-line rasbora of Malaysia and Indonesia has markings and coloring very similar to H. erythrozonus, but is a member of family Cyprinidae, not a close relative.
Paratya is a genus of freshwater shrimp of the family Atyidae, found in various islands in the Pacific Ocean. The split between the North Pacific clade (Japan) and the South Pacific clade has been estimated to have occurred 19 to 12.5 million years ago.
Syncaris pacifica is an endangered species of freshwater shrimp in the family Atyidae that occurs only in a limited range within the northern San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA. Specifically, this species occurs only in 17 stream segments within Sonoma, Napa and Marin Counties. This species is often translucent to transparent, with both sexes capable of considerable coloration altering, as a sophisticated form of camouflage. This decapod is commonly known as California freshwater shrimp, and is the only extant decapod shrimp in California that occurs in non-saline waters.
The violet goby is a species of goby native to marine, fresh and brackish waters near the Atlantic coast of North and South America from South Carolina in the United States of America, to northern Brazil. It prefers bays, estuaries and river mouths with muddy substrates. It is often marketed as the dragon goby or dragon fish.
Porgy is the common name in the US for any fish which belongs to the family Sparidae. They are also called bream. Porgies live in shallow temperate marine waters and are bottom-dwelling carnivores. Most species possess grinding, molar-like teeth. They are often good eating fish, particularly the gilt-head bream and the dentex.
Gymnothorax polyuranodon, commonly known as the freshwater moray, is a species of moray eel that is native to the Indo-Pacific region, including Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the northern coastline of Australia, and various islands in the western Pacific. Other common names include the many-toothed moray, spotted freshwater moray, blackspotted moray, freshwater leopard moray, and freshwater tiger moray.
Shrimp are crustaceans with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are referred to as "shrimp".
Ambassis macleayi, commonly known as Macleay's glassfish, Macleay's glass perchlet, Macleay's perchlet, reticulated glassfish, reticulated perchlet, or network perchlet, is a species of freshwater fish in the family Ambassidae. It is native to northern Australia and the trans-Fly River region of New Guinea. It is a fish with a vertically flat, narrow body and a standard length generally between 35 and 45 mm, with large specimens reaching 77 mm (3.0 in) long. It generally eats water fleas and other small invertebrates. This fish is considered to be a least-concern species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), although it could suffer from habitat degradation due to feral pigs and invasive water plants such as the water hyacinth. The fish is suitable for aquarium use in tanks containing other non-aggressive species.
Feeder shrimp, ghost shrimp, glass shrimp, grass shrimp, river shrimp or feeder prawns are generic names applied to inexpensive small, typically with a length of 1 to 3 cm, semi-transparent crustaceans commonly sold and fed as live prey to larger more aggressive fishes kept in aquariums.
Galaxias lanceolatus, the tapered galaxias, is a galaxiid of the genus Galaxias, a member of the Mountain Galaxias species complex group of freshwater fish, found in Australia.
Caridina typus, also known as the "Typical Caridina" or the "Australian Amano Shrimp", is a species of amphidromous atyid shrimp. It was first described by H. Milne-Edwards in 1837. It has a broad distribution in tropical freshwater habitats in the Indo-West Pacific region, with its western range extending to eastern Africa and its eastern range extending to Polynesia. It is commonly found in rivers and streams in coastal areas or on islands. C. typus is known to play a role in sediment distribution and shredding leaf litter, manipulating the environment using their pereiopods and setaceous chelae. The species is also an important component of the food web, both as scavengers and as prey items, and is considered a keystone species for the stream ecosystems it inhabits. According to Choy and Marshall, the species can be characterized by a "short, dorsally unarmed rostrum, the presence of epipods on the first four pairs of pereiopods, and the presence of an appendix interna on the endopod of the first pleopod of both sexes." It can be kept in captivity by aquarists as pets.
