Bumblebee Shrimp parasite

Dutch_Mill · Jan 27, 2023

Just for sharing.

After noticing a growing bump on one of my new Bumblebee Shrimps I decided to catch it to inspect whats up. After a minor surgery I managed to pull this critter out;

Dipped it in water to disperse the babies so I could take some photo's of that below my microscope.

An parasitic Isopod with hundreds of little babies. The shrimp appears to be in good health and will hopefully pull through.

DaJMasta · Jan 27, 2023

Pulled a similar isopod off a white spot shrimp a while ago and it was carrying eggs too. What tool did you use? I managed to get mine with a needle threader - a very fine piece of wire I could get under the shell to pull it off the gills, but it took me a minute or two to actually do.

vetteguy53081 · Jan 27, 2023

Dutch_Mill said:
Just for sharing.

After noticing a growing bump on one of my new Bumblebee Shrimps I decided to catch it to inspect whats up. After a minor surgery I managed to pull this critter out;

Dipped it in water to disperse the babies so I could take some photo's of that below my microscope.

An parasitic Isopod with hundreds of little babies. The shrimp appears to be in good health and will hopefully pull through.

These are Ostracods which are referred to as grass shrimp and feed off of algae and other matter and may be trying to feed off the skeleton of the shrimp but are also food for may wrasse. Not considered as Bad

Dutch_Mill · Jan 27, 2023

DaJMasta said:
Pulled a similar isopod off a white spot shrimp a while ago and it was carrying eggs too. What tool did you use? I managed to get mine with a needle threader - a very fine piece of wire I could get under the shell to pull it off the gills, but it took me a minute or two to actually do.

Used a rubber pincet to pin the shrimp down and a small needle to clean out below the scale. The shrimp was about 1/2" long so it was a bit tricky.

vetteguy53081 said:
These are Ostracods which are referred to as grass shrimp and feed off of algae and other matter and may be trying to feed off the skeleton of the shrimp but are also food for may wrasse. Not considered as Bad

Are you saying it is not a parasite? But just oppertunistic trying to feed on my shrimp? If I put my photo's next to photo's of Ostracods and Bopyridae, they really do look more similar to the latter.

Either way, it was below the scales of my shrimp. Anything trying to feed off my pets is considered bad in my book.

DestinyInk · Jan 27, 2023

Orthione griffenis, destroying farmed shrimp populations around the world.

vetteguy53081 · Jan 27, 2023

Dutch_Mill said:
Used a rubber pincet to pin the shrimp down and a small needle to clean out below the scale. The shrimp was about 1/2" long so it was a bit tricky.

Are you saying it is not a parasite? But just oppertunistic trying to feed on my shrimp? If I put my photo's next to photo's of Ostracods and Bopyridae, they really do look more similar to the latter.

Either way, it was below the scales of my shrimp. Anything trying to feed off my pets is considered bad in my book.

If bad in your book, eradication will be the goal. What will eat them best believe it or not are black or silver mollies. They are cheap, easy to find and also eat algae- Just be sure to acclimate them to saltwater from FW slowly.

DaJMasta · Jan 27, 2023

These are definitely parasitic isopods, they live under the exoskeleton along the gills, and their flat sort of pleated look is because of the normal segmentation seen in similar species being sort of flattened by living under the exoskeleton.

Outside of the shrimp, they manifest as a bump in the shell that's the right color, like this one:

And the parasite after extraction (in my case pulling it out pushed the eggs/young around):

And those are definitely its young (larval/egg stage that does not yet resemble the adult) and not a second kind of organism hosting on a parasite.

Dutch_Mill · Jan 28, 2023

DaJMasta said:
Outside of the shrimp, they manifest as a bump in the shell that's the right color, like this one:

How long did it take for the shell to return to normal on your shrimp? And is there a chance one of the larvae stayed behind and ends up becoming an adult?

DaJMasta · Jan 28, 2023

The shell should just be replaced at the next molt. In my case, I had him for about 3 weeks before he jumped, so I won't know for sure, but the other white spot shrimp I got at the same time and several other kinds of shrimp in the tank have never had the same parasite, as far as I can tell, so it at least seems like either I got all of the young out, or they at least weren't otherwise able to find another host.