Gammarus pulex The common freshwater shrimp lives on the
bottom of a ditch and hunts for food. But others
have an eye on it : Birds and the stickelback
and salamanders.
They all eat this peaceful animal. The common fresh
water shrimp feeds itself with bloodworm,
algae that grow on waterplants , and dead animals
Most of the time they walk on the bottom, sometimes
they swim with an clumsy way of propelling.
gammarus pulex in the aquarium
These animals are easely eaters and clean up
youre aquarium. But they are very sensitiv
for low acidity: If the Ph goes lower then 5.5
they will dissapear. So only healthy fresh water
aquaria keep them happy. You can feed them with
million things but fishfood will do the job.
They themselves are fond of worms and bloodworms.
Gammarus walking the bottom in front of a webcam.
The cover of a book shows the gammarus.
Gammarus pulex is popular with freshwater biologist
and nature writers like Jac P Thijsse and Brehm.
illustrations of A.E. Brehm
Alfred Brehm (1829-1884) is of the writer
"Tierleben " or Brehms "Life of animals".
The illustrations from this book can be found here:
The anatomy of Gammarus Pulex.
