USGS Utah Water Science Center: Great Salt Lake

USGS Utah Water Science Center: Great Salt Lake: " Adult shrimp feed primarily on phytoplankton (algae) suspended in the water but can also "graze" on benthic algae such as blue-greens or diatoms growing on the bottom of Great Salt Lake in shallow areas. They also may reprocess fecal pellets excreted earlier in the year when large numbers of phytoplankton present in their diet were incompletely processed. A recent study showed that the shrimp can graze on diatoms that colonize shrimp exoskeleton parts released from their many molts. As the food supply becomes exhausted, salinity increases, dissolved oxygen decreases, or a combination of these conditions occurs, the female shrimp switch from producing live young to producing cysts through oviparous reproduction"



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USGS Utah Water Science Center: Great Salt Lake

USGS Utah Water Science Center: Great Salt Lake: "The nauplii molt about 15 times before reaching adult size of about 10 millimeters in length."



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USGS Utah Water Science Center: Great Salt Lake

USGS Utah Water Science Center: Great Salt Lake: "decreasing dissolved oxygen, fertilized female shrimp may produce eggs that hatch soon after emerging from the ovisac to produce nauplius larvae, which is known as ovoviparous reproduction. If conditions are perfect, the female can live as long as 3 months and produce as many as 300 live nauplii or cysts every 4 days. However, the cold spring-time temperatures and variable food supply in Great Salt Lake usually limit the population to two or three generations per year."



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USGS Utah Water Science Center: Great Salt Lake

USGS Utah Water Science Center: Great Salt Lake: "Depending on the water temperature, the larvae remain in this stage for about 12 hours, subsisting on yolk reserves before molting to the second nauplius stage, which feeds on small algal cells and detritus using hair-like structures on the antennae known as setae.

Although the cysts are very small (about 200 micrometers in diameter; 50 could fit on the head of a pin) at times they become so numerous that they form large red-brown streaks on the surface of the lake. Under optimum conditions of food supply and lack of stress from increasing salinity or decreasing dissolved oxygen, fertilized female shrimp may produce eggs that hatch soon after emerging from the ovisac to produce nauplius larvae, which is known as ovoviparous reproduction."



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